We gather bright and early in the ice bar (after a warm breakfast and a much-needed Finnish sauna to thaw our snow-bearded bodies). The palpable excitement in the open, nippy room suggests an Olympic event. Red-suited fans prepare to cheer on their favorites, their new friends, and their colleagues. Festive and laden with every manner of cocktail tool and ingredient, the bar swarms with color and texture. Besides bottles of Finlandia, there are also bottles of Campari, Midori, blue curaçao, and amaretto, which glisten like multicolored jewels. Tall lights set up for the event cast a blue glow throughout the bar, evoking a sultry - albeit frosty - nightclub ambience. And behind all the martini glasses, bowls of lime, and passion-fruit puree, stand the contenders.

"Ready, steady, shake!" says Markku Raittinen, and the bartenders begin. An impossibly tiny bartender, a veritable sprite from Ukraine, grins fiendishly as she measures ingredients; a strapping, former professional basketball player from Belgrade struggles with matches to light orange peels for his garnishes; and a handsome Turk rubs his hands together between shaking canisters. Thrill joins the chill in the air as the seven minutes speed by. Some bartenders work studiously, their manner sober and profound. Others play to the audience, raising bottles like the holy sacrament before pouring thin streams into tall glasses.

As a judge, I must retire to the "panic room," a heated room adjacent to the bar, and prepare to receive the drinks. It's hard to leave the frosty dither of the competition. Already briefed, I know that drinks will be judged by taste, aroma, aesthetics, and star quality, an all-encompassing category that includes the power of the drink's name. My team of four, led by Soul Shaker Michael B, gets serious. Though I have been hoping to spit, Michael threatens me with my life. "Nobody on my team spits out a cocktail. You must swallow it in order to experience its entire palette." I see. My hopes of remaining moderately unscathed and uninebriated are immediately dashed.