The Tales of the Cocktail Swag Awards

It became clear at Tales of the Cocktail that the amount of swag was going to be unmanageable, so I started declining freebies unless I was prepared to lug them home. Not everything made it (hope the hotel maid likes vodka!) and I still had two additional pieces of luggage on the way back.

My end tally was 9 pens, 6 keychains, 4 bottle openers, 2 shaker sets, 11 pieces of glassware, 4 DVDs, 4 CDs, 5 mini-bottles, 7 muddlers, 4 books, and a heck of a lot of miscellaneous. And I now present:

The Tales of the Cocktail Swag Awards

• Most over-gifted swag category: muddler
• Best muddler: Plymouth Gin's long unfinished wood mallet
• Most unnecessary swag category: keychains
  
• Most unexpected item: Twelve ounces of Dancing Goats coffee, not ground
• Best item for brownosing journalists (tie): Bombay Sapphire reporter's notebook and Ciroc light-up pen
• Most practical item I didn't already own: jigger (unbranded, donated by Barsol Pisco)
• Biggest missed branding opportunity: see above
• Most practical item I didn't know I wanted: Rums of Puerto Rico cocktail apron
• Most expensive swag: set of 9 Riedel spirits tasting glasses
• Most unwieldy swag: full-sized bottle of Absolut New Orleans vodka
  
• Best use of brand name in swag item: Rain Vodka umbrella