The Best Drink Ever Joins Forces with L.A. Spirits Awards
We are thrilled to announce a dynamic collaboration between The Best Drink Ever and the prestigious L.A. Spirits Awards!
At The Best Drink Ever, our mission has always been to bring you the finest and most remarkable spirits and cocktails, elevating your drinking experience to new heights. We pride ourselves on curating a selection that embodies quality, innovation, and unforgettable flavors. Now, we are taking our commitment to excellence one step further by teaming up with the esteemed L.A. Spirits Awards.
L.A. Spirits Awards, renowned for its unbiased and forward-thinking approach, is at the forefront of recognizing outstanding spirits in an ever-evolving industry. With their passion for celebrating the artistry and diversity of craft spirits, they have become a trusted authority and source of inspiration for both industry professionals and spirits enthusiasts alike.
Today, we had the opportunity to sit down with the founding members, Nicolette Teo and Joel Blum, to learn more about L.A. Spirits Awards.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind starting L.A. Spirits Awards? What motivated you to create this platform for spirit enthusiasts?
Joel Blum: Nicolette and I met at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC) where I helped launch it in 2000 and Nicolette served as Managing Director for years. We both played significant roles in its growth. Nicolette was responsible for the competition's integrity, impartiality, efficiency, and accuracy through operational systems, while I emphasized the value of medals for brand building and sales.
When SFWSC changed ownership in 2018, key individuals left to start their own competitions, including Fred Minnick with Ascot Awards and Tony Abou-Ganim with the TAG awards. Nicolette and I recognized this as the perfect time to launch the LA Spirits Awards.
How do you ensure fairness and impartiality in the judging process? Can you walk us through the evaluation criteria and how judges are selected?
Joel Blum: Impartiality is a core principle for us, rooted in our belief that effective judging and management cannot be performed by the same individuals. While many competitions claim to conduct blind tastings, we acknowledge that as managers, our interactions with entrants make it challenging to maintain true impartiality. However, when the entries are presented to our judges, we ensure that none of our subjective opinions or preconceptions from the pre-judging process influence them.
Our judges receive no information that could bias their evaluations, and although they may recognize certain products based on experience (which is unavoidable), we take measures to minimize any external factors that could sway their judgment.
Nicolette Teo: After years of selecting judges for competitions, it feels like an instinctual process for me, but it's far from it. We have specific criteria in place.
Our potential judges must have daily involvement with spirits and keep up with industry trends and standards through regular tastings. It's crucial that their expertise extends beyond a single spirit category, encompassing a broad range of spirits. We also consider their role in the industry (bartender, consultant, writer/journalist) and whether they are trend-setters and influencers in their respective fields.
Diversity is a key factor, not only in terms of gender, race, and sexual orientation but also in experience, age, backgrounds, and the type of work they contribute to the industry. While diversity may seem like a personal value, it is also a vital business decision.
A diverse and inclusive judging team leads to more meaningful award decisions, reflecting the overall diversity of the spirits industry. It enhances the team's understanding of spirits excellence and consumer preferences, resulting in awards that resonate with a broad audience, making our medals relevant to producers and consumers who rely on them.
Lastly, potential judges must possess the experience and exceptional skill to taste 60+ spirits in a day. Maintaining a fresh palate and clear mind throughout the process is no small feat, but it is essential for a great judge.
L.A. Spirits Awards’ 2022 judging team. For information on the entire, expanded team for 2023, visit the L.A. Spirits Awards website.
What sets L.A. Spirits Awards apart from other spirits competitions? How do you differentiate yourselves in terms of judging methodology or the overall experience for participants?
Joel Blum: For me, the most important differentiator is our judges. They’re simply exceptional. They’re not only impressive in their knowledge of spirits, but they’re all serious influencers in the spirits industry, and they’re all so much more than simply spirits experts. Many play serious advocacy roles in the industry; they’re educators; they’re tuned into more youthful and forward-thinking elements of developments in the world of spirits.
While any spirits judge should have an in-depth knowledge of traditional and venerated types of spirits, and our judges all do, they also must be open and appreciative of trends that aren’t always fully appreciated by old-school spirits professionals.
Our judges celebrate evolution in the industry, whether it’s the explosive growth in popularity of RTD cocktails (which have really improved since their inception), or the growing move towards mindful drinking and non-alcoholic products, or that some truly fabulous whiskey is coming from unusual places outside of Scotland and Kentucky. And they consider spirits from the perspective of their personal experiences and by how they might fit into the contemporary world of spirits consumption.
And as we grow and our medals are understood to have been awarded by this more modern, in-tune group of spirits professionals, they should resonate more with today’s consumers who might share their values. This makes our awards more valuable as a marketing tool for our winners.
How has the competition evolved since its inception? Have there been any significant changes or improvements that you would like to highlight?
Joel Blum: Well, the main evolution is that having launched just as the world shut down due to Covid, our first two competitions were conducted remotely. But beginning in 2022 we were able to gather our judges in one place, making for more spirited discussions between them, and allowing them to better advocate for their favorites entries. The judging process is a collaborative one, and it benefits from everyone being together in person. Other adjustments are always taking place, some seemingly minor but significant in their own ways.
Nicolette Teo: We’ve also responded to certain industry trends by expanding categories or adding new ones that we see taking hold in the marketplace. “Mindful drinking” and the explosion in new non-alcoholic brands have become such an important part of our drinking culture, that we didn’t simply add a few NA categories but actually created an entire judging panel specifically for evaluating NA entries, with judges who are at the forefront of the NA movement.
Cannabis beverages, too, as legalization spreads, are becoming a trend that simply cannot be ignored. And the number of products is so unfamiliar and daunting, that both retailers and consumers are hungry for the purchasing guidance that medals can offer. But cannabis beverages are an entirely different animal than spirits, so we created a separate, adjunct competition (High Spirits Awards) to judge them, with judges who are specialists in the field of cannabis and hemp-derived products.
And this year, in response to repeated requests by entrants, we’ve introduced a new judges feedback program we call Insights. While for most competitions, it’s impractical to provide judges’ tasting notes to all their entrants, we’ve developed Insights so that—for a reasonable extra fee—we will spend extra time recording our judges’ tasting notes, observations, and suggestions about an entry.
It allows, for a fraction of the cost of hiring an independent spirits consultant, for producers to receive a more comprehensive understanding of our judges’ medal decisions, to get suggestions that might help them in their marketing efforts, and even help them adjust their production methods to improve products or understand more about their target markets.
Could you share some insights into the evaluation process? How do the judges evaluate and rate the spirits? Are there any specific factors they focus on?
Nicolette Teo: L.A. Spirits Awards was designed to provide a completely level playing field for all entrants, and to protect against bias during all phases of the competition. Products are tasted completely blind, with judges given the minimum information necessary to make their evaluations, but with none that might invoke favoritism or inadvertent bias.
Judges are not told brand or price information that might color their opinions.
Judges are permitted the time they need to assess their assigned entries with care.
Judges are limited in their tasting quotas to guard against palate fatigue.
During the principal round of competition judging, entries are evaluated by panels of three to four judges, and it is here that they have their first opportunity to earn Bronze, Silver, or Gold medals. Entries deemed worthy of a Gold medal by all judges on a panel are awarded a Platinum medal.
It’s important to note that for this initial round of judging the word “competition” isn’t really accurate. During the first medal round, products are judged solely on their own merits by contemporary standards that govern their spirits categories, not against other entries. It’s only when the top medal winners from this first round advance to our final Best in Show round and re-tasted and voted on by our entire judging team, that products actually compete against each other for Best in Show honors.
What kind of impact does winning an L.A. Spirits Award medal have on the brands and spirits that participate? How does it help in terms of recognition and market presence?
Joel Blum: We think it’s critical to understand that competitions and their awards are marketing tools first and foremost, as opposed to simply acknowledging to a distiller that he or she did a fine job. And we are constantly trying to find effective ways to assist our winners with programs to help them maximize the marketing power of their medals.
Although in the end it is up to our winners to promote their medals in the most effective way for their particular circumstances. We promote our winners to our audience, and we supply promotional tools for our winners to use and connect them to resources to help them promote their medals, but winning a medal is only the first step. While we’ll help, turning that medal into a powerful sales tool is ultimately the responsibility of the winner.
Are there any specific trends or patterns you have noticed in the spirits industry through the submissions you receive? How do these trends influence the judging process or shape the competition?
Joel Blum: The obvious ones are the amazing numbers of ready-to-drink cocktails, which have so improved in quality in recent years and, as mentioned above, a growing number of high-quality non-alcoholic products. We’ve seen a large jump in North American Single Malt Whiskeys, and a great growth in mezcal entries (which is both exciting and perhaps a bit worrisome for a fragile industry that may or may not handle its growth well).
We also just launched High Spirits Awards, specifically for non-alcoholic cannabis- and hemp-derived beverages. While they’re not really spirits, these products are becoming an increasingly important part of the recreational beverage market, so we think it's important to offer cannabis beverages a similar, professionally judged competition for their producers. And as a brand new sector whose products are almost universally unfamiliar to consumers, we think medals can really help bring good products to the public’s attention.
Can you describe the overall experience for participants who submit their spirits for evaluation? What can they expect from the competition, and how do you support and engage with them throughout the process?
Joel Blum: We try to make the entry process as simple as possible, and we’ve developed our own proprietary online system for entering products, checking entry status, and accessing a variety of entrant resources.
Winners receive a number of tools to help them promote their awards, including complimentary medallion imagery, discounts of point-of-sale printing, and introductions to our strategic partners who provide a spectrum of services, from import assistance to trade and consumer advertising, to legal services by specialists in spirits regulations.
We also are committed to promoting our top winners through our social media channels and email campaigns.
Are there any plans for expanding L.A. Spirits Awards in the future? Are there any new categories or initiatives you are considering to further enhance the competition?
Joel Blum: The competition is a living organism, and we expect the programs we offer our winners to grow and evolve every year. We already offer our winners a number of programs designed to help them promote their awards, and we expect to add more as they make sense to do so.
Events—both for the trade and consumers—are in the planning stages for both L.A. Spirits Awards and our cannabis beverage competition, High Spirits Awards. We’ve developed important media partnerships, with VinePair for its spirits readership, and with The Clever Root for its cannabis audience, and we expect those relationships to be of great benefit to our winners.
We’re also highly attuned to developing trends in the spirits industry, and every year we adjust our judging categories to acknowledge and encourage new or expanding spirits classes.
What do you personally enjoy the most about organizing and running L.A. Spirits Awards? Are there any memorable moments or experiences you would like to share?
Joel Blum: I always like describing spirits competitions as enormous, complex machines with countless moving parts, and that to run smoothly and effectively all the parts must be finely tuned and competently managed to run without error and to be as fair as possible to the entrants and their submissions.
Nicolette and I might be a little biased, but we believe our experience in running competitions, juggling the thousands of details in play, is unmatched in the industry, and we take no end of pride in that.
I also love the feedback we get from so many of our entrants who are responding so positively to what Nicolette and I have created. I can tell it means a lot to our entrants, especially the smaller craft and minority owned distilleries, that we’ve created a space for them to be recognized by a panel of judges that seem so tuned into the contemporary spirits industry landscape.
And as I noted earlier, I’m just crazy about our judges. They never cease to impress me with their knowledge and professionalism, and they’re just all-around wonderful people.
Ready to make your spirits shine?
This year’s deadline has been extended to June 21, 2023, so there is still time to enter L.A. Spirits Awards. Our expert judging panel, with a keen understanding of industry trends and consumer preferences, awaits your exceptional entries. With our commitment to diversity, integrity, and excellence, our awards hold immense value and resonate with a wide audience.
Submit your spirits today to elevate your brand and connect with discerning consumers who recognize our medals as a mark of distinction. Join us in shaping the industry and be part of an awards program that provides meaningful recognition.