FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dear Readers,

We welcome Sunshine Punch as our cover story for this issue as a fun and refreshing drink.

It is unbelievable how quickly this year has flown by. We are just three months from the 2023 PR%F Awards 2023, and this is my final letter before the competition to get you all to enter your emerging new brands and established favorites into the competition. You can enter now at www.proofawards.com.

I want first to thank our incredible family of partners, including Delta Sky Club®, Palms Las Vegas, Food and Beverage Magazine, PR%F Live! with Jennifer English, the NEAT Glass and Bootleggers Distributing in Las Vegas.

We are the spirits/wine competition that believes in more than giving your brand a medal. Each of our judges is a beverage buyer, a decision maker looking for refreshing new brands to make it to their shelves. At PR%F Awards, it’s all about building awareness of new, emerging brands and ensuring our existing brands are still at the forefront of the marketplace.

Each judge is a beverage buyer for a casino, resort, airline, restaurant, bar, nightclub, liquor store, distributor, online distributor, retail chain, and more. Nearly 100 judges will engage in our competition this year with their wisdom, experience, and desire to find the newest brand, define the trends for tomorrow, and help push our industry into the next phase. This year, we are elated to announce that Walmart (East Coast and West Coast) will join our lineup.

Our dual competition platform continues. Enter one time, and your SKU gets entered into two separate competitions. PR%F Awards-Masked! is the coveted double-blind competition where our judges with impeccable palates rate and honor your brand with accolades based upon all senses of taste, smell, color, finish, and flavor. The next day, the judges return for The “unmasked” competition, The Total Package Award. Our judges want to taste your unique brands while viewing your logo, bottle shape and size, price point, origin, and more. This unique competition allows the judges to know the brands more intimately. Each entry gets a chance to win two medals.

This year, we are thrilled to announce that all companies that enter six brands will be automatically entered into Distillery of the Year or Producer of the Year.

The private judges-only PR%F Awards Spirits, Wine & Beverage competition is set to be held in Las Vegas on Nov. 8-9, and entries are due October 1. Check out our site for information and our easy entry portal at www.proofawards.com.

Cheers & Namaste!

Michele D. Tell Executive Director, PR%F the Magazine Founder, PR%F Awards