ED ALLER
Southside Alchemy's Sweat & Tears Bloody Mary Mix racked up another gold medal.
The accolades keep pouring in for Southside Alchemy's Bloody Mary Mix. This past weekend, the online spirits publication The Fifty Best announced that the brand's spicy mix, Sweat & Tears, was awarded a gold medal in its annual Best Bloody Mary Mix awards.
This is the second gold medal Southside Alchemy has earned this past year and its third overall; the first two came courtesy of the International Drunken Tomato awards for its 2021 and 2020 competitions. However, as Southside Alchemy founder Todd Brutcher explains, this nod feels particularly special because it was by invitation only.
"A year ago, I couldn't have contacted them to review my stuff," Brutcher says. "This is so neat for the fact that some guy in New York heard of me somehow. It's just another form of validation that industry insiders and cocktail professionals dig my stuff. That's the coolest thing on earth."
Brutcher founded Southside Alchemy in 2019 after perfecting his Bloody Mary and Sangria recipes over the years working as a bartender at Onesto Pizza & Trattoria. Currently, his line consists of two different varieties of Bloody Mary Mix, the spicy Sweat & Tears and the less-hot Mild Mannered Mary. He also sells a Bloody Mary dry spice blend and Paradise Plum sangria mix, with more flavors on the way.
For Brutcher, who now devotes himself full-time to Southside Alchemy, the acclaim has been both humbling and validating of his decision to take the leap into entrepreneurship — something he hopes will inspire others who might be unsure of whether or not to strike out on their own to just go for it.
"These [awards] are all incredibly humbling, and it just makes me realize that my fear or reservations about doing this were unfounded, and my own self-doubt about it, in general, was all in my head," Brutcher says. "It’s something that my friends colleagues and loved ones who encouraged me to do it love it, but perfect strangers who I have never met are loving this stuff, too. It's just cool, because I worked my ass off and it's really paying off."
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