An anonymous reader wrote to us about this Zubrowka label as follows:

Free Range Vodka? As if there weren’t already enough confusion with health food terms like organic, natural, cage-free, and free-range, we’ve found a product that extends the health craze to alcoholic beverages. Meet Zubrowka, bottled with “neutralized” buffalo grass. What exactly is neutralized buffalo grass? Well, your guess is as good as ours. But if one were to assume that by neutralizing it, it is rendered somewhat inactive or less potent, that begs the question, why bother adding the ingredient in the first place? So, the purpose of adding a neutralized ingredient is definitely curious, but the label’s image may give us some clues. The image of a large, muscular, and almost fearsome bison dominates the label. One could assume the message here is that by ingesting the very essence of what these imposing creatures thrive on, the drinker would too be infused with virility and strength.

In fact, there is a good reason it’s neutralized. Real bisongrass raises serious health concerns as suggested by Bill Dowd here. Zubrowka is native to Poland and goes back at least 500 years.

It’s a tiny island, 5,000 miles away from the US (near the pointer). But it’s the source of at least two alcohol beverage products bound for the US market. Hinano Beer (above) is made in Tahiti, French Polynesia and it is imported by mighty Anheuser-Busch. A-B produces and imports a shockingly huge number of alcoholic beverage products — well beyond Bud and Michelob, and this is but one example of the many others. Another Tahitian product is Manuia Tahiti, Passion Punch. The label suggest it is made with a rum base, but TTB’s qualifications suggest that the base is actually distilled from cane and pineapple. The database shows only a few other alcohol beverage products made in Tahiti, and this makes sense because the island is only 28 miles wide.

Former Senator George McGovern is 86 years old and he’s still slugging away. In the video above, he is urging TTB to mandate calorie and carbohydrate-type serving facts on every beer, wine and spirits label, forthwith. He said:

It’s time for the federal government to issue a regulation that will be useful and … list complete information about the amount of alcohol and calories contained in the drinks we are consuming. … It looks like the government is trying to keep that a secret.

Mr. McGovern has been closely connected to this issue for more than thirty years. His daughter died of acute intoxication in 1994. This 2001 Congressional Research Service Report explains that Mr. McGovern has been pressing for wider nutrition labeling since the 1970s:

The most comprehensive bills for mandated nutrition labeling for most packaged foods and meat products were introduced in the late 1970s by Senator McGovern and Congressman Richmond. Most bills took a more limited approach to mandatory labeling; i.e., sodium labeling. These labeling bills received little attention, and none was enacted. In considering these bills, Congress faced the same dilemma as the agencies. The science was slowly evolving, but there was still inadequate evidence on the relationship of nutrients to chronic disease to require the nutrient content listing...

Here we present several members of the pine family. Above is Clear Creek Eau de Vie of Douglas Fir. It is made in Portland, Oregon. Clear Creek explains how it’s made:

Inspired by an obscure Alsatian distillate called Eau de Vie de Bourgeons de Sapin, Steve McCarthy worked on developing the perfect Oregon version of a tree spirit, an Eau de Vie of Douglas Fir, for ten years. This eau de vie is made from an infusion of the springtime buds of Douglas fir picked by hand into clear brandy which is then re-distilled and re-infused with more buds. Finally it is strained and bottled. The green color and complex fresh flavor are from the Douglas Fir buds. No artificial colors or flavors are added.

Mandrin, by contrast, is a malt beverage made in France, and “brewed with Pine Needles.” A third example is Zirbenz, the Stone Pine Liqueur of the Alps. The Zirbenz website has a lot of surprising information about the stone pine — the “Agave of the Alps”:

the Arolla Stone Pine can withstand temperature extremes down to minus 40 Celsius. … the tree may take over thirty years before producing fruit, and thereafter has a harvest cycle of five to seven years. In the interest...