Photo: Top Note Tonic
Top Note Tonic grapefruit sparkling mixer
Top Note Tonic grapefruit sparkling mixer
It can be a challenge to stand out in today’s crowded craft and specialty beverage market, but Top Note Tonic continues to rack up accolades for their complex yet versatile drink mixers and alcohol-free beverages. Top Note Tonic’s Sparkling Grapefruit Soda recently won a gold medal at the 2023 Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) World Spirits Championships.
Chicago-based BTI’s World Spirits Championships is America's oldest annual international Spirits competition. Spirits are judged in a blind tasting by BTI's staff, along with beverage industry professionals and buyers from restaurants and retailers. The medal-based competition is based on a 100-point scale. Top Note Tonic’s Sparkling Grapefruit Soda was awarded 92 points this year in the Cocktail Mixer category.
With a goal of creating “better for you” soft drinks and mixers, Top Note Tonic uses pure botanical extracts, herbs, spices, citrus peels and juices in their products, along with natural sweeteners such as cane sugar and date sugar. The grapefruit soda contains 15% real grapefruit juice, along with high-quality grapefruit peel extract. It has aromas of black pepper and orange. Notes of white pear and lemon complement the tangy grapefruit.
“It’s so exciting for us to be recognized again this year by the prestigious Beverage Testing Institute. We designed our Sparkling Grapefruit Soda with just the right amount of real cane sugar and grapefruit juice to mix creatively into so many cocktails. It is a customer favorite, so it is nice to see it rewarded,” Top Note Tonic co-founder Mary Pellettieri states in a press release. “It definitely makes for a delicious Paloma (a tequila-based cocktail with lime and grapefruit soda).”
Pellettieri, along with Noah Swenson, founded Top Note Tonic in 2017 after experimenting with bitter beer, which eventually led them toward botanicals, herbs and syrups. They continue to craft new products at their production facility in Bay View and have recently launched a Cascara Cola, with a LemonLimeade and Real Ginger Juice Ginger Ale coming soon.
Top Note Tonic also won a BTI World Spirits Championships gold medal in 2019 for its Classic Tonic Water and its Ginger Beer in 2018. Their Indian Tonic Water won a silver medal in 2018. In addition, they’ve been named Best Craft Tonic Water (2021, 2022, 2023) and Most Unique Ginger Beer (2021, 2022) by Liquor.com. Top Note Tonic also won Specialty Food Association’s SoFi Platinum Award.
For more information, visit topnotetonic.com.
