Double Gold: Manny's Wins Big at the 2026 San Francisco Ready-to-Drink
Competition
Manny's Ultimate Bloody Mary Mix just took Double Gold at the 2026 San
Francisco Ready-to-Drink Competition - one of the most respected
blind-tasting competitions in the beverage industry. It was also named
a Best of Class finalist.
If you don't follow beverage competitions, here's why that matters:
Double Gold means every judge on the panel independently scored it
gold. Not a majority. Every single one. In blind tasting, where nobody
knows whose bottle they're judging, that's the industry's way of
saying there's no argument about it.
What the Judges Tasted
The San Francisco competitions (run by the Tasting Alliance) are
blind, which means the judges didn't know they were tasting Manny's.
They tasted a Bloody Mary mix against every other Bloody Mary mix
entered - the big national brands, the craft upstarts, all of them -
and scored it purely on what's in the glass.
What they found: a mix built on Sacramento tomato juice, organic
Connecticut horseradish, low-sodium Lea & Perrins, Tabasco, and
Portuguese sea salt. Eight to twelve natural ingredients. No
preservatives. And the lowest sodium of any Bloody Mary mix on the
market - which, in a category where most products are salt bombs, the
judges clearly noticed.
Why This Win Matters for the Category
The ready-to-drink Bloody Mary category has a quality problem. Walk
the aisle and most of what's there was formulated to be cheap to
produce and shelf-stable forever - high sodium, citric acid, "natural
flavors," and enough preservatives to survive a nuclear winter. It all
tastes roughly the same because it's all built roughly the same way.
A Double Gold from a blind panel is the industry's own judges saying:
the other way works. Real ingredients, real flavor, low sodium - and
it beats everything else in the glass. That's not a marketing claim.
That's a scorecard.
What This Means for Manny's
Founder Manny Ferreira has been making this recipe since 1999 - first
behind the bar, where he was a working bartender, then as a bottled
product since 2014. Twenty-seven years of iteration. The Double Gold
is validation, but it wasn't the goal; the goal was always a mix he'd
actually want to drink himself.
The win also lands at an interesting moment. Manny's recently
partnered with Food Network chef Aaron Sanchez as brand spokesperson -
so the product with the industry's top blind-tasting medal now has one
of America's most recognizable chefs behind it. That's a combination
the big brands can't buy.
And for the holiday season: Manny's will be pouring at the Top Shelf
Gala on November 8, 2026, where gala attendees get to taste exactly
what the judges tasted.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the San Francisco Ready-to-Drink Competition?
It's run by the Tasting Alliance, the same organization behind the San
Francisco World Spirits Competition - one of the most influential
beverage competitions in the world. The RTD (ready-to-drink)
competition specifically judges pre-made cocktails and mixers. Entries
are tasted blind by panels of industry professionals.
What does Double Gold mean?
Every judge on the tasting panel awarded the product a gold medal
independently. It's a unanimous decision - a step above Gold, which
only requires a majority. It's rare.
What does Best of Class finalist mean?
After the medal rounds, the top-scoring products in each category
compete head-to-head for Best of Class. Being named a finalist means
Manny's was in the final round for its category.
Where can I buy the Double Gold winner?
Manny's Ultimate Bloody Mary Mix is available in over 1,000 locations
nationally (400+ in Connecticut alone), all Bristol Farms stores in
California, and direct at mannysultimatemixes.com and mannysmixes.com.
The 1L bottle is $17.99; the 25 oz mason jar is $13.99.
The Manny's Bottom Line
Awards don't make a product good - but blind judges don't hand out
Double Gold to products that aren't. Twenty-seven years, one recipe,
and now the medal to prove it.
Shop the Double Gold winner - Manny's Ultimate Bloody Mary Mix, the
lowest-sodium Bloody Mary mix on the market.
Double Gold: Manny's Wins Big at the 2026 San Francisco Ready-to-Drink Competition
