Sober October is off to a good start!
The winners of the first edition of the Dutch Non-Alcoholic Spirit Awards have been announced.
“We are thrilled that Bax Botanics Sea Buckthorn has been awarded Silver in the Clear Spirits category, it’s a great honour to get Silver in this hotly contested sector. We would like to thank the judges and say how much we look forward to more people being able to taste Bax Botanics.”
The expert jury – consisting of: cocktail personality and expert Timo Janse, Mister Cocktail Albert van Beeck Calkoen and Cocktailicious.nl founder and cocktail influencer Bart Waterschoot – assessed the number of entries based on 3 criteria: taste, packaging & design and concept. Taste determined 50% of the score and the other two criteria for 25% each. Janse: “When you assess a spirit, you mainly look at the complexity and the extent to which a tension is sought.”
Winners: Light spirits – Gold Medal: GinIsh; Silver Medal: Bax Botanics Sea Buckthorn; Bronze Medal: Ginamis.  The other gold medal winners were for Aperitif – Three Spirit Livener and Dark Spirits – Gnista Barreled Oak.
Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to Wim Boekema (NIX & NIX) who set up the Awards “to encourage further growth and development of the category.”