Ardagh Group, Glass – North America (ardaghgroup.com/glass/americas/), a division of Ardagh Group and a  leading producer of glass containers for the food and beverage industries in the United States, announced that three of its customers were awarded Clear Choice Awards by the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI).

Ardagh Group manufactures the award-winning glass packaging for Wicked Weed Brewing’s 500ml Sour, McIlhenny Company’s TABASCO® brand Diamond Reserve Pepper Sauce and Monster Energy Company’s Caffé Monster.

For the second consecutive year, Wicked Weed Brewing has won an award. This year, the unique beer bottle Ardagh Group manufactured for Wicked Weed Brewing won GPI’s Clear Choice Award in the Beer, Cider and Flavored Alcoholic Beverage category. The Wicked Weed 500ml Sour collection captures the perfect blend of a classic Belgian beer bottle and a champagne bottle, with a 29mm cap and neck that accommodate a wine cork to finish the presentation. The long neck, beveled base and deep punt help set this innovative beer package apart from the pack, and showcase the brand’s premium spot on the shelf.

The elegant glass bottle Ardagh Group manufactured for McIlhenny Company won GPI’s Clear Choice Award in the Food category. An American tradition since 1868, McIlhenny Company has a rich history of packaging its TABASCO Sauce in glass containers. For the brand’s 150th anniversary, McIlhenny selected the finest peppers on Avery Island, mashed with a small amount of salt, then aged and blended with white wine vinegar, resulting in it TABASCO brand Diamond Reserve Pepper Sauce. To celebrate this exceptional sauce, it is packaged in a 187ml sparkling wine Champagne Green glass bottle. The bottle is finished with gold label decoration and a gold foil seal, and packaged in a special-edition sealed gold box.

The Newcomer to Glass Packaging category was awarded to the unique glass bottle Ardagh Group manufactured for Monster Energy Company. Monster Energy Co. shook up the category with the first sleek, 13.7-oz. premium glass bottle for Caffé Monster. The tall, slender, square glass bottle delivers on market differentiation, and the traditional coffee house chalkboard font on the label provides a premium, unique look on the shelf. Both the label and cap feature the Monster Claw to ensure consumers that this coffee is brewed with killer Monster flavor and supercharged with Monster Energy blend.

“Ardagh Group is proud to have earned more than 90 Clear Choice Awards during the last 29 years,” said Alex Robertson, chief commercial officer of Ardagh Group’s North American Glass division. “We continue to demonstrate our commitment to innovation and new product development, and are pleased that many of the world’s leading brands continue to choose glass packaging because of its ability to preserve product integrity, its beautiful shelf appeal and its endless recyclability.”