Forget swanky cocktails - an Oxford barman has just beaten the world's best mixers with a drink which uses real ale, is heated with a red hot poker and is served in a tea cup!

Tim Fitz-Gibbon was back in work as general manager of Raoul's bar in Oxford yesterday, after shaking the boundaries of cocktail making at the unofficial 42 Below World Cocktail Cup in Queenstown, New Zealand.

The 26-year-old archaeology graduate from Bicester was part of a three-man UK team who beat cocktail makers from as far afield as Thailand, Australia, United States and Dubai, to be crowned cocktail kings of the world. Going last in the main competition, Mr Fitz-Gibbon and team mates Jose Da Rocha and Kevin Armstrong had three minutes to prepare ingredients and then seven minutes to shake up their concoction.

Dressed as monks, the team broke with convention to create a cocktail based on a 16th century old English recipe, which was once popular with men of the cloth.

The drink, which was named Friar Briar's Sack Posset, included the New Zealand dark ale called Spate's, egg yolks, nutmeg, cream, honey, cinnamon, Benedictine liqueur, Manuka honey vodka and Tahiti rum.

Once mixed, the cocktail was given a blast of heat with a poker which had been warmed over a stove and then, to give it an English twist, it was served up in a teacup on a saucer.

Mr Fitz-Gibbon said they came up with idea to make a hot cocktail because it was so cold and windy in the snow-capped mountainous town on New Zealand's south island.

He said: "By the end of the evening, the judges were clearly cold in their big coats, and I think the drink was like having a really nice cup of tea."

Although the final cocktail-making event carried most points in the competition, teams also participated in sports activities - such as shaking cocktails while doing bungee jumps.