Enter The World's Most Respected Spirits Competition by April 14!

Call it founder's pride. Call it what you want. But here's the unbridled truth...since 2010 Ultimate Spirits Challenge (www.ultimate-beverage.com) has rocked the professional evaluation paradigm on its ear.

We've brought the concept of competitive spirits analysis into the 21st century with our innovations, such as my insistence on small judging flights of 2 to 6 products; of manageably short judging days; of never scheduling more than two consecutive days of judging to allow judges to refresh their palates on their days off; of introducing the "double blind" method of service to the judges; of always paying both judges and our organizational crew proper wages; and of bestowing meaningful awards based on competitive merit, not just for participation.

We've pioneered these advances because for a century and a half beverage alcohol competitions never caught up with the times. As a result virtually all spirits competitions have now descended into absurdity and folly as they give away triple gold, double gold, gold, silver, and bronze medals like hot dog vendors at the beach. This is reprehensible. This doesn't honor the distilling craft with honesty and candor. It is pandering. It is phony.

Our core belief at USC is that how we conduct ourselves with the utmost integrity through our methodology shows the respect that the world's distillers deserve.

Due to the avalanche of 2023 entries, we've had to extend the entry deadline to Friday, April 14, which still allows plenty of time to enter.

USC: What All Other Spirits Competitions Aspire To Be.