The spirits behind the 6th Annual Battle of the Babes.
Behind every great competition is the infrastructure that makes it possible. This year, four brands are bringing their craft, their stories, and their missions to the 19th-floor rooftop at Merchant + Trade on September 27, 2026. Here is who they are and why they belong in the room.
A sponsorship is only as meaningful as the alignment behind it. The brands joining the 6th Annual Battle of the Babes are not here because the numbers made sense on a media kit. They are here because what they stand for and what this event has always stood for share the same foundation: the deliberate recognition of craft, identity, and people the industry has historically underinvested in. Pronghorn, IslandJon, Edmond's Honor, and Humano Tequila each carry a story worth knowing before you taste the product. And once you taste the product, the story only gets better.
Industry growth engine · Mission partner
Pronghorn
Pronghorn is the spirits industry's leading growth engine for Black founders, executive leaders, and entrepreneurs. Their model is built on a conviction that most diversity programs avoid stating plainly: diversity is not a social initiative. It is a growth strategy. And the spirits industry has been leaving economic value on the table by underserving the very consumers driving its culture and its revenue.
In three years of operation, Pronghorn has delivered $428 million in economic impact, trained and accelerated more than 542 careers, and invested in 39 brands across every major spirits category. Their industry-wide economic target is $2.4 billion. Their partners include Diageo, Beam Suntory, Rémy Cointreau, Moët Hennessy, Campari, and more than two dozen other major industry institutions. In 2025, Fast Company named them one of the Most Innovative Companies in Social Good. Inc. named co-founders Dia Simms and Erin J. Hall to its 2026 Female Founders 500.
Two of those 39 brands are also sponsors at Battle of the Babes this year: IslandJon and Humano Tequila. That connection is not incidental. It is what it looks like when an organization that says it invests in diverse founders actually follows through. Pronghorn is in the room because building platforms for people the industry has overlooked is exactly what they do. Battle of the Babes has been doing the same thing for six years. The alignment runs deeper than a sponsorship agreement.
Caribbean heritage · Award-winning vodka
IslandJon Vodka
IslandJon Vodka carries the Caribbean in every bottle. The brand traces its roots to a family legacy that began in 1950, formally establishing itself as a craft spirits company in 2013 with a clear point of view: that vodka should have a personality, a place of origin, and a story worth telling. The lineup spans Mango Peach, Apple Gwayav, Coconut Vanilla, and Legacy Reserve, each expression a reflection of heritage and flavor that the standard vodka category rarely attempts to carry.
What sets IslandJon apart is specificity of character. This is not a neutral spirit chasing the broadest possible appeal. It is a brand built around identity, and that identity shows up in the glass. The same boldness that makes IslandJon distinctive as a sipping spirit makes it compelling as a cocktail base: a spirit that already has something to say gives a skilled bartender something to respond to. That creative tension is exactly what a competition cocktail needs, and it is exactly what IslandJon brings to the bar.
Pronghorn's investment in IslandJon reflects the same values that put both brands in this room: a commitment to building equity and visibility for founders and products whose stories the industry has been slow to tell.
2026 WSWA Brand Battle Champion · Double Gold · 96pts SFWSC 2026
Edmond's Honor Madagascar Vanilla Bourbon
🏆 2026 WSWA Brand Battle Champion 🥇 Double Gold · 96pts · 2026 SFWSC
In 1841, a twelve-year-old enslaved botanist named Edmond Albius, living on the island of Réunion, discovered the hand-pollination technique for vanilla that made its commercial cultivation possible worldwide. His discovery transformed the global food and beverage industry. He received no recognition for it during his lifetime. Edmond's Honor gives him a name on a bottle, a story on every label, and a spirit worthy of the legacy he created.
A bourbon built to honor someone history overlooked. In a glass, it makes that history impossible to ignore.
The spirit itself is built with the same level of intention as the story behind it. Tennessee Straight Bourbon with an 80% corn, 10% rye, 10% barley regeneratively farmed mash bill. Aged a minimum of four years in Char 4 American Oak barrels. Then finished for three months to a year in French Oak casks previously used to produce vanilla extract, delivering what the brand calls a refined flavor experience: bourbon vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, and warming allspice in an 86-proof pour that drinks above its price point at every tasting table it lands on.
The 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition awarded it Double Gold and 96 points. The 2026 WSWA Brand Battle named it Champion. At $49.99, it is the kind of bottle that converts first-time buyers into loyal ones, which is exactly what the brand means when it says the story inspires brand loyalty. A spirit this specific, this layered, and this rooted in a narrative worth sharing does not need a hard sell. It sells itself the moment it is poured and the story is told.
Perfect neat. Excellent on the rocks. Outstanding in the brand's signature Madagascar Mule. And one of the most compelling gifting spirits available at any price point because the bottle comes with a story the recipient will repeat every time they pour from it.
Crafted by humans, for humans
Humano Tequila
Humano Tequila was built to honor the people the tequila industry has long depended on without crediting. The jimadores, the farmers whose hands harvest agave across four generations of the same family using centuries-old methods and no shortcuts, are the story Humano tells. No junk. No industrial shortcuts. Just pure tradition and the craft that comes from knowing a plant, a process, and a landscape across a lifetime of work.
Pronghorn invested in Humano in April 2026, recognizing a brand whose commitment to authentic production and meaningful storytelling made it a natural fit for a portfolio built around founders doing work that matters. The investment reflects what Pronghorn has been building since its founding: not just diversity for its own sake, but economic equity driven by the real market value of brands with genuine stories and genuine quality.
The lineup covers every expression a serious cocktail program needs. The Blanco brings crisp citrus and soft caramel, clean and direct. The Reposado adds white oak and vanilla from its barrel rest. The Añejo delivers cinnamon and rich caramel with a long, warming finish. The Joven, a sophisticated blend of Reposado and Añejo, balances cooked agave with herbal and citrus notes in an expression that rewards experimentation and rewards the drinker who takes the time to discover it. Every bottle carries the story of the family that made it possible, and that story is what turns a first pour into a long-term relationship with the brand.
Four brands. One shared commitment.
Pronghorn invested in both IslandJon and Humano. Edmond's Honor was built to honor a Black botanist whose contribution to the global vanilla industry went uncredited for 180 years. Humano was built to honor the farmers whose generational labor created a category without ever seeing their names on a label. IslandJon was built to carry Caribbean heritage and identity into a market that rarely makes room for either. These are not coincidental parallels. They are a pattern, and it is the same pattern Battle of the Babes has been building for six years: the deliberate recognition of craft, identity, and people whose contributions to hospitality have not always been acknowledged at the level they deserve.
The brands in this room chose to be here. On September 27, when the eight competitors step behind the bar and the room fills with the energy that only this event produces, that choice will be visible in everything being poured. A sponsorship is only as strong as the alignment behind it. This one runs all the way down.
The 6th Annual Battle of the Babes Cocktail Competition is on September 27, 2026, at Merchant + Trade, 303 S Church St, Uptown Charlotte, from 5 PM to 9 PM. Eight competitors. Four sponsors. One rooftop. Your ticket includes entry, all 8 competition cocktails, heavy hors d'oeuvres, and a swag bag. Tickets are available now. The 5th Annual sold out. Do not leave this to the last minute.
HoCo builds the events and partnerships that give the hospitality industry something worth gathering around. If your brand is looking to align with an experience whose mission and audience run this deep, the conversation starts here.
