When should you enter San Francisco Spirits Awards versus Great Taste Awards for your spirits brand?

The choice depends on your primary goal and resources. **San Francisco Spirits Awards** is one of the most prestigious competitions and can help with distributor conversations and on-trade listings, especially in crowded categories where a gold or double gold signals quality. However, it's expensive to ship samples to the US and involves significantly more admin than UK alternatives. **Great Taste Awards** is better recognised by the UK public, cheaper, easier logistics, and provides a sticker you can put on your pack—making it particularly effective for building public trust and driving direct consumer sales. Members with retail experience noted that a 2–3 star award makes a measurable difference to product sales. The decision ultimately hinges on whether you're targeting distributor/on-trade credibility (San Francisco) or consumer-facing brand-building and sales lift (Great Taste). Both can be worth entering, but logistics and cost trade off against perceived audience and impact.