Charitable Spirit Competes with Top World-Class Vodkas Nationwide
Salute American Vodka has won the 2017 Ultimate Spirits Challenge Great Value award. The charitable spirit achieved a rating of 88 out of 100 points and was given a “very good, strong recommendation” amongst the 213 finalists entered in the world-class competition.
Salute American Vodka is
“Subtle and lifted on the nose with hints of vanilla bean and almond milk. Herbs and stone emerge on the mid-palate leading into a citrusy, mineral-laden finish. Smooth and complex vodka,” according to Ultimate Spirit Challenge judges.
Salute American Vodka retails between $19.99 and $24 per bottle, depending on the local market. The high-quality, 80-proof, award-winning craft vodka is 100-percent American-made from the ingredients to the bottle. The vodka is distilled four times, giving the spirit a thicker pour with a clean, smooth and odorless taste.
The Ultimate Beverage Challenge hosts two beverage competitions annually: Ultimate Spirits Challenge and Ultimate Wine Challenge. The organization’s mission is to create and establish a new and higher standard of evaluation for spirits and wine that provides accurate, meaningful and useful results in recognizing and promoting the quality of beverage alcohol products. Each product is reviewed under ideal tasting conditions over a period of time that allows the product to express its best characteristics. Each product is evaluated blind by panels in multi-stage assessments to remove any inherent or individual bias.
The highest rated products are deemed the best by their competitive performance among their peers in each product category. Citations of excellence: Chairman’s Trophy, Finalist, and Great Value awarded at Ultimate Beverage Challenge competitions have genuine meaning and authenticity because these products have earned their way to the top. Trade buyers and consumers recognize and respond to the value of Ultimate Beverage Challenge accolades and scores.
Ultimate Spirits Challenge also provides an additional component of cocktail evaluations. The judges taste and assess a spirit’s “mixability factor” in classic cocktail recipes (for suitable spirits categories). This innovation, employed by no other competition, allows deeper evaluation of spirits. Recommendations for cocktails, along with the complete results, can be found on www.ultimate-beverage.com.
“One of the many advantages of having our own year-round facility is that instead of having to judge hundreds of spirits entries over a couple of days like other spirits competitions, we can take the time to break each category down into small flights,” says Ultimate Spirits Challenge judging chairman F. Paul Pacult. “This means that USC judging panels focus on each flight with greater in-depth attention, resulting in more accurate assessments. We don’t take shortcuts which is perhaps why USC experienced a 20% increase in entries this year.”
A complete list of high scoring products will be published in the October 2017 issue of Beverage Media publications.
As Salute American Vodka launches across the country, the vodka continues to win top and honorable mentions in national competitions. The vodka previously won Silver from the Beverage Testing Institute in 2012.
Salute American Vodka donates the first dollar of every bottle of vodka sold to organizations that support veterans and other American Heroes. To find a retailer that carries Salute American Vodka near you, visit our Availability page.