Cocktail Competitions

We can provide a complete platform to handle every stage of a cocktail competition from

1. Call to entry.
2. Accepting and processing entries, along with accompanying video and photography.
3. Making all entered cocktail recipes publicly available for viewing.
4. Reminding our audience to enter.
5. Automatically emailing entrants during each stage, including a nudge to complete their entry.
6. Supplying a judging platform to judges, or judging on the brand's behalf.
7. Notifying winners.
8. Announcing the winners.
9. Awarding prices to the winners.
10. Making all recipes entered searchable via our Cocktail Finder, so continuing to drive page views.

All you need to do is offer a prize, or ideally prizes, and we can do the rest.

Or use Difford's Guide to find your semi-finalists/finalists and invite them to participate in an in-person semi-final/final.

Or we can simply publicise your competition and direct our audience to your own competition website.

Examples of previous competitions

We have been running and judging cocktail competitions since 1997, and both Simon Difford and Paloma Difford have extensive experience as judges in the UK and internationally

• Hayman's The Original Gin Cocktail Competition
• Merry Cherry Heering Comptetion
• Pallini Limoncello Cocktail Competition
• Lustau Sherry Cocktail Competition
• Passoã Porn Star Martini Competition

Regional or international

Open to entries from a specific country or selected countries, or open to entrants worldwide.

Trade or consumer

Restrict entries to just professional bartenders &/or home cocktail enthusiasts. If open to both, we recommend a prize for each category.

Promotion of competition

If open to consumers, then we promote competitions, from entry through to the announcement of winning recipes on our home page. For competitions open only to bartenders, we use the Competition page in our Bartenders' Lounge. We also feature each stage of our cocktail competitions in our trade and/or consumer email newsletters and on our social channels, including collab posts.

Easy to enter

Our platform allows entrants to upload their recipes directly to Difford's Guide, along with accompanying photography and video. Our clever software can make it mandatory for recipes to include a specific product or one of a set of specified products. We can also require the inclusion of at least one photograph, a video, a background story, and other information, such as the name and address of where a bartender works, to complete an entry.

Our Competition Platform includes built-in options that we apply during setup to suit every brand's needs and any style of cocktail competition.

Recipes entered contribute to cocktails using the sponsoring brand

Recipes entered into our competitions remain publicly available on Difford's Guide. Furthermore, users can find these cocktails by ingredient and creator name, automatically integrated with our Cocktail Finder.

Unlike other competitions, cocktails entered in competitions on Difford's Guide live on. Example competition page linking to all entries (accessible to any Free or Premium Member).

Judging platform

Our judging platform allows multiple judges to quickly view and review every recipe entered, along with any accompanying photography, video, or information. The platform allows cocktails to be grouped into a short list of finalists, as well as those rejected or disqualified. We can help brands judge, or we can make our platform panel available to a judging panel appointed by the brand.

Supply of entrants' contact info

When entrants sign up to a competition, they agree to our sharing their data with the competition's sponsoring brand for the running and judging of the competition. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this data cannot be used for any purpose other than in connection with the competition.