St. Louis-based Southside Alchemy receives award for bloody mary mix

St. Louis-based bloody mary mix producer Southside Alchemy was among the winners at an international drinks industry contest on May 31, taking home a gold medal at the 2023 SIP Awards. 

Southside Alchemy’s Mild Mannered Mary mix – the less spicy of the company’s two bloody mary mixes – received a gold medal in the Bloody Mary Mixer category. The SIP Awards uses consumer input to recognize outstanding performance across a range of drinks categories. According to the competiton’s website, the event is “the only internationally recognized consumer judging spirits competition.” 

The Mild Mannered Mary mix also picked up a Drunken Tomato Award in March this year, receiving a gold medal in the Mild category of the annual contest, which obsesses each year over the best bloody mary-related products around. 

The recent award wins are a vindication of Southside Alchemy owner Todd Brutcher’s decision to change the recipe for the Mild Mannered Mary over the past year. Customers had also asked him to mellow the spice a little. “I kept getting a lot of feedback that it was still too spicy, so we brought down the white pepper and the garlic,” he said. 

Brutcher said he was delighted with the award win and said it was proof that “a small St. Louis company run by one guy can compete with the mass-produced big boys, like a David and Goliath story.”

“What's cool about these guys is, say they get five bloody marys or 10 bloody marys or whatever, and if all the judges are like, ‘Well, all these suck,’ they just don't give an award,” said Brutcher. “If they just feel like the category entries didn't live up to their reputation or standards, they just don't hand out a bloody mary award. That's pretty neat.”

Southside Alchemy’s bloody mary mixes and seasonings, as well as Brutcher’s sangria mixes, are available at a range of retail locations around the St. Louis region. Brutcher also appears at a variety of pop-up markets throughout the summer season – he’s at the farmers market in Francis Park every Thursday evening, and will be at the Cherokee Pop Shop at the Rita Ford Community Center on the second Saturday of every month, starting June 10. However, if you just want to go to a restaurant and order a Bloody Mary made with Southside Alchemy’s products, they’re available at venues including Winslow’s Table, Bowood by Niche, Grace Meat + Three, Anthonino’s Taverna and The Boathouse at Forest Park.