LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Welcome to PR%F the Magazine. On our cover this month is ShakaCan—an amazing forward-thinking invention to get our customers to interact with their cocktails. It made its debut at PR%F Awards 2021, and the judges’ eyes lit up at the imagination and genius behind creating its own shaker system as part of the experience. Welcome to our cover this month, and we are thrilled to share your story.

PR%F Awards 2021 just wrapped up, and we are notifying the hundreds of winners from this year’s double competition PR%F Awards—Double Blind Tasting “Masked” and PR%F Awards Total Package. All that entered had a chance to win two medals per SKU.

Our special PR%F Awards Magazine Winners Edition will be out on January 2, 2022, featuring our Most Innovative Spirit Awards and all of the winners in both categories.

I want to thank our amazing partners Westgate Las Vegas, Delta Sky Club (especially Dave Hoemann), The NEAT Glass, Food & Beverage Magazine, and Fat Ice for their support and fantastic comradery and passion for the beverage industry.

This year, our lead spirits judge Brittney Chardin (Delta Sky Club) and Lead Wine Judge Matthew Loren Lindsey (Blended Festival, West Coast Beverage) led a talented team of amazing spirits and wine buyers from across the US, including representatives from Bashas Grocery Chain in Arizona, AJs Fine Food, Carnival Cruise Line, Liquor World, Specs Online, Craft Shack, Liquid Distributors from Atlanta, Influx Consultants, JING, Chinglish, 18bin, Little Rituals-Arizona, Breakthru Beverage, Sugar Factory, Horse & Cow Pub, Art by Kailava, Opulent Wine & Spirits, Boyd Gaming Group, Peter Madrigal (Vanderpump Rules), Frankie’s Uptown, and so many more. We will be highlighting our judges in our special edition coming out in January 2022.

PR%F Awards 2021 showcased our first trade-show style, Total Package Awards, where the entire panel of judges walked up and down each row, rating each brand for juice, bottle, logo, price-point, and more. At the end of the day, we are a buyers’ competition; this is what makes our spirits and wine competition special. We provide a private atmosphere for our judges (all buyers) to go shopping, learn and taste new and emerging brands, focus on trends, focus on what they need to fill the shelves of their cruise line, airline, restaurant, bar, nightclub, distributor, retail shop, liquor store and more. Each outlet has its own specific targeted market, and this fantastic showcase gives our judges a two-day private shopping experience.

I want to give a special holiday shout-out to our entire team as we prepare for PR%F Awards 2022 in July 2022 in Las Vegas. There will be an incredible line-up as PR%F the Magazine editions lead the beverage, spirits, and wine industry trends.

These special events are designed to bring move visibility to our PR%F Awards entrants. So here is gratitude to Michael Politz and the team at Food and Beverage Magazine; our PR%F the Magazine editor-in-chief Debbie Hall; our PR%F Director of Graphics RJ Dixon; our Business Development Director Colleen Banks; our Director of Competition Terry Hart; our competition managers Brandon Freter, Almas Khemseth and Roberto Trendel; our Directors of Bar Services Rob Smith and Alys Zic, Daniel De Anda Fast, Ben Harrison; John Harrison, Cheryl Wingate, and Shannon Bentham, The NEAT Glass creator George Manska and James Beard Award Winner Jennifer English, our editor at large and chief correspondent of PR%F Live!

Special thank you to Dave Hoemann, Gordon Prouty, Dawn Rawle, and the entire team at Westgate Las Vegas.

Happy, Healthy Holidays, and have a spectacular New Year.

Cheers & Namaste

Michele D. Tell Executive Director, PR%F the Magazine Founder, PR%F Awards