alcohol beverages generally

Here is an innovative new spirits product called Cocktail Caviar. It is “burst-able pearls of naturally flavored spirits.” You can toss them in some wine, or freeze them and add them to other drinks. The product is so new that there is not much about this product on the web so far.

If I understand correctly, these chickpea sized “pearls” are a giantized version of the tiny booze droplets that make up Palcohol. Here, the alcohol is encapsulated in a layer of kelp and so it not quite a liquid and not quite a solid. Maybe there is shock fatigue after the Palcohol surprise, or the size of the pearls makes an enormous difference, or it’s the upscale marketing — but it does not seem like this product is bound to raise hackles the way the powderized product has. Steven Hollenkamp, the man behind this product, explained that part of the appeal of the brand name is that “caviar” is not at all likely to appeal to minors.

I happened to meet Steven this week and he explained:

We worked diligently with TTB getting Cocktail Caviar approved. This included 240 emails, dozens of phone calls and several in-person meetings with TTB administrators, one of which was a lengthy sit down meeting with several high-ups at...

Another week, another lawsuit, another whiskey brand.

The above video features Bulleit Bourbon and covers the labeling and legal controversies swirling around the whiskey industry.

Bloomberg did a good job with the video, published a few days ago. It needs more views than the 1,250 as of this writing. The images are beautiful. The video avoids the sensationalism and oversimplification common to so many other mainstream media stories about whiskey. The shots of whiskey bigshots like Chuck Cowdery and Jim Rutledge are a bonus.

Bulleit got sued June 1, five days after the video surfaced. The complaint relies in large part on the Bloomberg video. Once again, as with Tito’s, Maker’s, Angel’s, Tincup, Beam, Templeton, the lawsuit alleges deceptive labeling. This one is noteworthy, though, because Bulleit is owned by Diageo, “the world’s largest liquor conglomerate” as per the video. The label is above, and a recent label approval is here.

In a rather stunning example of the pot calling the kettle black, the complaint prattles on and on about how the whiskey is actually made by the Kirin Brewing Company, god knows where, even though it is fairly easy to see that the whiskey is made by one of the finest whiskey producers in the world, right where claimed. TTB records show two...

Whoa! The first of the “handmade” cases wrapped up within the past week. On May 1, 2015 the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee dismissed the class action lawsuit against Maker’s Mark “with prejudice.” The now-defunct case alleged that Beam Suntory was bs’ing about whether the bourbon was “handmade.” The court seems to be saying “handmade” is a puff term, like “delicious.”

The term at issue has been amorphous, over the centuries, and Judge Hinkle seems to have dumped that burden on the plaintiffs:

the plaintiffs have been unable to articulate a consistent, plausible explanation of what they understood ‘handmade’ to mean in this context. This is understandable; nobody could believe a bourbon marketed this widely at this volume is made entirely or predominantly by hand. This order grants the defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted.

The Judge makes a good point, saying:

But the term ‘handmade’ is no longer used in that sense. The same dictionary now gives a circular definition:  ‘handmade’ means ‘[m]ade by hand.’ Id. But the term obviously cannot be used literally to describe bourbon. One can knit a sweater by hand, but one cannot make bourbon by hand. Or at least, one cannot make bourbon by hand at the volume...