Rum of the YEAR
You may have already seen online that Saltwater Woody was announced Rum of the Year by San Francisco's Bartender Spirit Awards. We could not be more excited about this momentous award, but we wanted to take the time to entail exactly what this award means.
Score
Saltwater Woody Real Grapefruit scored a 95/100, but what does that mean? Well that score is a summation of multiple scores:
Mixability: 95
How well the product is blended or combined for your cocktails.
Balance and Versatility: 93
Balance of the spirit refers to the flavour and aroma. A well-rounded, full-flavored, and balanced spirit is a much more desirable stocking option for the back-bar.
Taste/Mouthfeel/Finish: 95
Physical sensation drink creates in the mouth, including the tongue and the roof of the mouth. The sensory impact of the spirit after it has been swallowed (or spat).
Value: 99
The objective is to understand how well a particular spirit is priced and what value it offers, Greater the quality offered for the price, greater the price score should be.
Packaging: 91
Creative design, label quality, label details, back-bar appeal, and functionality (including shape, size, weight, and ease of pouring) should be considered.
Judges
Who are the judges? Are these just some no-names that we at Saltwater Woody paid under the table to rank us highest? Not even close. The list of judges spans a wide array of bartenders and mixologists from various establishments from high end speakeasy's to dive bars. The full list and descriptions of the judges can be found HERE.
Having these judges, who have a remarkable palate and great understanding of all liquors is incredible. We could not be more thankful to these judges for seeing (and tasting) something amazing in our products.
What's Next?
Well, there are no new major competitions in 2020, but we are already eyeing 2021 for a few more competitions. The San Francisco Spirits Awards is right around the corner, and we are undoubtedly going to be submitting our products there. Fortunately, this submission will include our upcoming flavors: Original and Lemon. We are incredibly excited at the opportunity of having our new flavors be tasted by these experts as well.
Finally, we at Saltwater Woody cannot begin to describe the joy we felt when we received this award. Years of hard work went into developing our rum, so having the Bartender Spirit Awards name us Rum of the Year truly let us know we are on the right track.
If you haven't tried it yet, this is your reason to go out and try the Rum of the Year.
