Tales of the Cocktail awards nominations open
Tales of the Cocktail’s eighth annual Spirited Awards, which recognises the year’s best bars, bartenders, cocktail experts and writers, is now open for nominations.
Tales of the Cocktail 2014 is calling for nominations for the eighth annual Spirited AwardsThis year’s awards include a new category, Best Bar Team to acknowledge one American and one international team of bartenders who consistently deliver the best quality cocktail experiences.
In addition, the Best Cocktail Writing categories have been renamed Best Cocktail & Spirits Writer and Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication to “better define both awards”.
As in previous years, winners will receive Riedel Crystal trophies.
“Today there is so much talent in our industry and judging these awards is only getting tougher and tougher which is why we have made these changes,” said Simon Ford, chairman of the American judging committee.
“With that said everything begins with you, the people who nominate. It is the people and places you submit that end up being voted on by the judges. You have to be nominated to win.”
The number of judges has also been increased, with the American and international judging teams now comprising 140 of the world’s most respected mixology experts.
Jacob Briars will chair the International judges and Dave Wondrich, five-times Spirited Awards winner, will head the judging team dedicated to the writing categories.
“Every year the Spirited Awards gets bigger and its audience wider. In response we have expanded our judging committee to an unprecedented 135 expert judges from all over the world,” Ford added.
Nominations for the 23 categories are now being accepted online at www.talesofthecocktail.com. The winners will be announced on July 19 as part of the 12th Annual Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans.
