Virginia Cocktail Games Application

The Virginia Cocktail Games is a celebration of the very best distilled spirits, bartenders, and licensees in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As such, the host of this event, The Virginia Spirits Board Marketing Office (VSBMO), will hold all participants and their affiliates to high standards of conduct.

The following rules for bartenders and their licensee affiliates will govern conduct during the entirety of the event and be interpreted and enforced at the sole discretion of the Virginia Spirits Board Marketing Office. These rules apply to conduct both in person and in the digital space, including online and social media. Failure to adhere to any of the rules below may result in corrective action up to and including disqualification.

Rules for Competitor Conduct

1. Bartenders will comport themselves at all times as hospitality professionals.
2. Digital vote manipulation of any kind, including purchasing or engineering spam votes, is prohibited.
3. Written or verbal defamation of other participants or representatives of the competition is prohibited.
4. Unsportsmanlike conduct of any kind is prohibited.
5. Bartenders are responsible for communicating these rules to all licensee affiliates, including managers and coworkers. Failure on the part of licensee affiliates to follow these rules may result in bartender disqualification.

Rules for Licensee Conduct

All rules stated above for competitor conduct also apply to licensee affiliates, including owners, managers, employees, and other paid or unpaid affiliates of the license holder.

Below, please fill out the details of your submission for the first (digital) round of the competition. Successful entries will be evaluated by our panel of judges, who will review each application based on the following criteria:

• Adherence to theme ("Time in a Bottle")
• Creative use of Virginia-made spirits and ingredients
• Flavor & Balance (based on the information provided in your application)
• Accessibility & Replicability (can others recreate your cocktail?)

Please Note: You are not required to submit precise measurements for your cocktail. However, including them may help the judges more accurately evaluate your submission for both Flavor & Balance and Accessibility & Replicability.

Cocktail Theme: Time in a Bottle

As we enter the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary we are reminded that time has a way of attaching itself to flavor, and Virginia’s history is full of moments worth remembering. For the first phase of the 2026 Virginia Cocktail Games, your challenge is to create an original cocktail that captures or represents the importance of time and the role it plays in the glass and in our imaginations.

Using flavor, technique and presentation, build a cocktail that deploys time as a key ingredient. Whether you draw inspiration from a defining chapter in Virginia history, a spirit or ingredient with a flavorful legacy or a memory you seek to capture in a sip, your cocktail should demonstrate to the judges that time can be tasted. Each entry must feature at least one eligible Virginia-made spirit.

By checking the box below, you certify that all information submitted in this application is accurate and complete, and that you agree to abide by all competition rules and instructions issued by Virginia Spirits throughout the competition.

You also certify that The Virginia Spirits Board and its affiliates have permission to collect, use and publish any digital assets created during the course of this competition, now and in perpetuity.

Failure to adhere to the conduct rules and guidelines listed here, or in any official written communication from Virginia Spirits, may result in ineligibility, rejection of your submission or disqualification at any stage of the competition.

You understand that the Virginia Spirits Board Marketing Office is the organizer and sponsor of the Virginia Cocktail Games and, as such, is the sole arbiter in determining infractions and may disqualify any contestant at any time.