Since we announced last year’s class of SevenFifty Daily Drinks Innovators, it has been a challenging year for the drinks industry. Amidst a social shift away from alcohol, especially amongst younger consumers, tariffs and anti-alcohol messaging have contributed to economic headwinds. There is a lot to contend with—which is why it’s more important than ever to acknowledge and celebrate the passionate individuals, organizations, and businesses dedicated to driving positive change and shaping a brighter future.
From over 100 nominations, we selected eight innovators representing every sector, including spirits, wine, and beer, and spanning fields from scientific research to distributor compliance, not to mention brewing and bar work. But each of these innovators have one thing in common: they’re deserving of recognition. This year’s award winners are committed to making the drinks space more dynamic and diverse, and over-delivering not just for the bottom line, but for the community as a whole.
Join us in celebrating the 2025 class of Drinks Innovators!
Stephen Cronk and Caine Thompson
Stephen Cronk, cofounder, and Caine Thompson, trustee, The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation
Awarded for: Spearheading the One Block Challenge to help more grape growers transition to regenerative farming
In February 2025, The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation (RVF) launched its One Block Challenge, an initiative created to help grape growers “test the waters” of regenerative agriculture. “This initiative is about meeting growers where they are, and encouraging the first step by minimizing risk,” says RVF trustee Caine Thompson.
The program asks farmers to start small—farming one row, one block, one acre regeneratively—to help them learn how regenerative farming practically applies to their specific piece of land. “The process not only builds awareness of practices and benefits, but creates a low-risk way of discovery while transitioning,” adds RVF cofounder Stephen Cronk, who also founded Maison Mirabeau, the first certified regenerative organic vineyard in France.
In Thompson’s experience from transitioning properties owned by O’Neill to regenerative farming, the soil and vines were rejuvenated by the introduction of practices like cover cropping, composting, and animal grazing, and the elimination of synthetic materials. By helping growers of all sizes experiment and see these kinds of positive results, Thompson and Cronk hope to get more growers working regeneratively. “We can’t do this alone,” says Thompson. “Collectively, however, we can create a huge impact that the wine industry can lead for the wider agriculture sector.” (Stacy Briscoe)
Samara Oster
Founder, Meli
Awarded for: Brewing the first gluten-free beer made with an unlikely—and highly sustainable—grain
Making quinoa salad is a snap. Brewing beer with the nutritious, gluten-free, itsy-bitsy seed is trickier. Inspired by her functional health journey, Boston’s Samara Oster and MIT food scientists spent three-plus years trialing North and South American quinoas. Protein, lipid, and carbohydrate levels proved variable, creating a challenge to determine what worked best for flavor and fermentation. “I didn’t want anything to be unachievable on basic commercial brewing equipment,” says Oster, who opted for Bolivia’s organic royal quinoa. It’s the foundation for Meli, America’s first beer solely fermented from quinoa.
The snappy low-alcohol beer naturally includes potassium, sodium, and protein, which are listed on the nutritional label—a rarity in beer. Transparency has helped Meli land placements at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and restaurants with robust gluten-free menus. Beer is often categorized by style, but styles can be “alienating,” says Oster, who doesn’t categorize Meli. (It’s a blonde ale, FYI.) The intent is to seed a new customer base. As Oster says, “We’re opening the beer aisle to consumers that have been alienated by it or haven’t discovered it.” (Joshua M. Bernstein)
Tiffany Hernandez
Founder, Escuelitas, and bartender
Awarded for: Mobilizing the hospitality industry with resources to protect workers and community under threat from new federal immigration policies
When Donald Trump was re-elected President, Tiffany Hernandez, then a bar manager and educational coordinator for a restaurant in Colorado, partnered with civil rights attorney Milo Schwab to host a know-your-rights workshop. Sixty bartenders and brand ambassadors turned up. Recognizing the demand for this resource, Hernandez founded Escuelitas and expanded nationally, with sponsorship from Mexican spirits brands like Mijenta. She had no background in advocacy, she says, “but there are so many things I’ve learned.” The most important lesson she shares? “You don’t have to be a citizen for the Bill of Rights to apply to you. That is universal for anyone on U.S. soil.”
With seminars hosted in Denver, Boulder, Phoenix, and Chicago, and due to continue this summer, throughout California, in Nashville, at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, and wherever the drinks community invites her, attendees of Escuelitas get fed lunch, schooled by Schwab or immigration lawyer Juliana Manzanarez on responding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence, and connected to a local organization for ongoing help. “Bars and restaurants are the heartbeat of communities, and this is a five-alarm fire,” says Hernandez, who has launched a GoFundMe to support running Escuelitas full time. “It’s extremely important to mobilize people on a grassroots level to stand up for each other.” (Betsy Andrews)
Dr. César Iván Ojeda Linares
Postdoctoral researcher, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Awarded for: Documenting, preserving, and reviving the indigenous fermentation traditions and knowledge of Mexico
What happens during a fermentation? For a nuanced answer, turn to César Iván Ojeda Linares, Ph.D, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Genomic Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) whose research in ethnomicrobiology (looking at the intersection between human culture and microorganisms) has been unlocking the invisible worlds inside of traditional fermented beverages for nearly a decade. Born and raised in Mexico City’s Xochimilco neighborhood, where extant chinampas (floating farms) recall ancient foodways, Dr. Ojeda Linares uses scientific techniques like metagenomics and chromatography to document, explain, and preserve the disappearing indigenous fermentations of Mexico.
The recipient of the 2024 Howard Scott Gentry Award, which recognizes leaders in collaborative research on agave conservation and use, Ojeda Linares delves into how producers control fermentation, codify that information in culture, and use it for tasty and utilitarian ends. He has shared his knowledge at industry events like the Agave Heritage Festival and Pueblos del Maíz, and his research has appeared in a variety of peer-reviewed journals. In his work, Ojeda Linares sees lessons for brewers, vintners, and distillers everywhere. How do the containers we ferment in affect microbes? How can we use traditional knowledge to solve modern problems? “What all brewers should know is to embrace diversity,” he says. “There’s a lot of yeast, and we are probably just focusing on alcohol production, but the other yeasts are related to other metabolites such as aroma compounds, ester production, and other acid metabolism.” (N.C. Stevens)
Daddy Long Legs
Founder, DNA Haus , and bartender
Awarded for: Championing audacious self-acceptance among queer and BIPOC bartenders
In the beverage industry, there are sizable gaps in representation for LGBTQIA2S+, BIPOC, and other intersectional hospitality workers. So, when Daddy Long Legs entered the spotlight—first as an acclaimed pastry chef, then behind the bar—they decided to be the representation that they needed to see in bartending.
Daddy Long Legs is a nationally recognized, Black, nonbinary bartender; a mentee in Uncle Nearest’s Raise the Bar mentorship program; and an advocate working to increase the visibility of marginalized bartenders. To do this, they created DNA Haus in 2024, a creative space for events and programming that centers BIPOC and queer artists of multiple mediums and uses hospitality as a tool for community and creation. DNA (which stands for “Diversity and Authenticity”) Haus is their love letter to the hospitality industry, but Daddy Long Legs also works to spread their message through discussions and panels; they are co-leading a panel called “Queer Bodies in Hospitality: Finding your Community” at Tales of the Cocktail 2025. In an industry that still struggles with representation, Daddy Long Legs is creating opportunities for marginalized bartenders to be audaciously self-accepting, thus becoming changemakers themselves. (Shayna Conde)
Shelley Sackier
Director of distillery education, Reservoir Distillery, and founder, Virginia Heritage Grain Project
Awarded for: Uncovering the potential of Virginia’s heritage grains for future distillers
On any Virginia farm, Shelley Sackier never sees just a patch of dirt. She sees a natural canvas for the state’s historical flavors that are waiting to be uncovered. To that end, she established the Virginia Heritage Grain Project to identify, plant, harvest, distill, and analyze historical grains and rediscover America’s oldest spirit-worthy varieties. The first heritage varieties were planted in the fall of 2023, and this year they barreled the first single-grain spirits distilled at Reservoir using heritage corn, wheat, and rye.
Working with small-scale farmers and distillers, and tracking a matrix of variables, Sackier aims to identify the Platonic ideal of a heritage grain: high yields for farmers, and distinctive flavors for distillers. And all of her data is open source. “The project is about rediscovery, preservation, and an historical treasure hunt for flavor,” she says.
By uncovering unique flavors, Sackier also hopes to give small distillers, who don’t have economies of scale, a competitive edge. It’s hard to compete, she says, if you don’t make products that stand out on the shelf. “I want to create a viable local alternative that prioritizes flavor and heritage and economic resilience—something uncopiable.” (Liza Weisstuch)
Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger, Constance Jablonski, and Rodolphe Taittinger
Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger and Constance Jablonski, founders, and Rodolphe Taittinger, winemaker, French Bloom
Awarded for: Upending non-alcoholic winemaking and packaging to forge a new path for the category
When Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger and Constance Jablonski first imagined French Bloom, they were focused on solving a singular problem: a lack of high-quality, non-alcoholic wines. But in realizing that dream through the innovative winemaking of Rodolphe Taittinger, they put in motion something much larger: an entirely new vision for the non-alcoholic wine landscape.
By producing terroir-focused non-alcoholic wines in premium packaging, French Bloom is putting the category on par with any serious full-alcohol wine, which is a core part of their mission. “We are first making wine,” says Rodolphe Taittinger. “The fact that it’s alcohol free is secondary.”
Like so many wine consumers around the world, the team at French Bloom loves wine—but doesn’t want to drink alcohol all the time. In fact, Frerejean-Taittinger shares that 93 percent of non-alcoholic wine buyers purchase alcoholic options as well. This is a product—and a new era of non-alcoholic wine—for them, offering a serious wine-drinking experience for the moments when alcohol is not needed. (Caitlin A. Miller)
Rob Weir
Cofounder and CEO, Maguey Exchange
Awarded for: Creating a platform to shepherd artisanal producers through the complexities of the U.S. beverage alcohol supply chain
Rob Weir sits at the nexus of a fast-expanding network of artisanal wine and spirits producers and global buyers including importers, distributors, restaurants, and premium retailers. A West Point graduate, U.S. Army Airborne Ranger veteran, and former Kearney consultant, Weir is now the CEO of Maguey Exchange, a platform that connects artisanal producers to brands. His ambition? “We’re building a universal digital infrastructure for artisanal trade, starting with the $380 billion artisanal spirits and wine industry.”
Small and medium producers, whose expertise lies in craftsmanship, do not always have the resources to locate buyers or fulfill international orders. Estimating that producers lose between 15 and 25 percent of potential revenue to logistical challenges, Weir strives to empower the expanding network of so-far 750 verified producers (across all categories but mainly agave spirits) with easier market access, simplified supply chains, and the increased employment opportunities of successful producing communities.
On the buyer side, Weir helps brands identify producers and verify authenticity, reducing sourcing time by an estimated 80 percent. His platform offers blockchain-backed tracing to prove provenance of spirits, an AI-powered tasting tool called SpiritsSense to match flavor profiles to producers, and compliance tools to get products to market. (N.C. Stevens)
