By Vanessa Wolf

Courtesy image

When life hurls you airborne, full-speed lilikois, make Lilikoi Drops.

For those of you who included Ocean Vodka as part of your hurricane preparedness emergency kit, we’ve got a suggestion for the upcoming wet and windy weekend: drink (responsibly!)… or at least work on beefing up your bartending skill set.

There may be an actual payoff in it for you.

Organic Ocean Vodka and Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa have partnered to create “The Ultimate Ocean Cocktail Contest,” which features both local (state of Hawaii) and national categories.

The winners receive a staycation at the Sheraton Maui and their recipe on a menu at one of the Sheraton’s Maui restaurants for a year.

“You can be a professional bartender or spirits aficionado, an amateur mixologist, backyard bartender, or anything in between. Follow the rules and give it your best pour!” says Ocean Vodka CEO Shay Smith.

Submissions are accepted through Friday, August 29 at 11:59 p.m. and specifics – registration forms, photos of your creation, promises to name your firstborn Shay – can be found online.

State finalists will be profiled and judged at an event open to the public on Saturday, Sept. 20 at the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa, while national entries will be assessed by a panel of industry professionals and announced at the same event.

Ocean Vodka notes that their product is “100% certified USDA Organic, gluten-free and the only vodka in the world made from organic sugar cane and deep ocean mineral water, sourced from a depth of 3,000 feet off the Kona Coast of the Island of Hawaii.”

Ocean Vodka is sold in 35 states and Washington, DC, where they pay taxes, but aren’t allowed to vote.