Jul
“You’ve trained your whole life for this,” I told myself, “Now go out there and show them what you’re made of!”
We had arrived early, but the venue was already filling up with men and women thirsty for a Sunday morning brunch beverage. High Brew Coffee staff were on hand to assist those too tired to lift the sloshing plastic cups to their lips.
We checked in with The Bloody Mary Festival representative and picked up our Judge’s badge and Bloody Mary contest sheets, then headed over to say, “Hi,” to our friend and fellow judge, Dr. Brian King, of Bloody America.
Then it was time for the real work to begin. We visited the booths for restaurants who were participating in the competition, took some pictures, took tasting notes, and wrote down scores. We were on a time crunch, as scores had to be tallied before the end of the day.
THERE WILL BE BLOODIES
I don’t mind telling you, though I’ve had a lot of Bloody Marys in my time, trying to score them is not easy. There was no simple system like checking “Good” or “Bad”, there was a numerical scale, and they were all tasty. Choices had to be made. Consistency of ranking was key. We swore off tasting non-participant’s offerings until the deed was done.
ThE RESULTS
After all the votes were in and counted, the winners were announced.
The People’s Choice award:
Winner: Taverna Rossa – Craft Pizza & Beer
2nd Place: Frankie’s Downtown
Best bottled mix: The Bloody Buddy
Best distillery: Hill Country Distillers
Judge’s pick – Best Bloody Mary (Original recipe)
Winner: Taverna Rossa – Craft Pizza & Beer
2nd Place: Frankie’s Downtown
Best Bloody Mary (Traditional recipe)
Winner: Republic
2nd Place: Lucy’s Lot
ENJOYING THE FESTIVAL
After I fulfilled my judging obligations, I got to wander and enjoy the festival. For some video of the event, I refer you to Dr. Brian King’s footage (because we were having too much fun to do much filming).
He was nice enough to interview me as well!
Drinking With Paul at the Dallas Bloody Mary Festival
We had a great time at The Bloody Mary Festival – Dallas with our friends at Drinking with Paul. You should probably go ahead like their page.
Posted by Bloody America on Wednesday, May 23, 2018
I hope to see some of y’all out there the next time the Bloody Mary Festival comes through Dallas. You don’t want to miss it!
