Double Gold: Manny's Wins Big at the 2026 San Francisco Ready-to-Drink Competition

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 SanFrancisco Ready-to-Drink Competition - one of the most respectedblind-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'dactually 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 ShelfGala 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 SanFrancisco 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 meansManny'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, thelowest-sodium Bloody Mary mix on the market.