In the last post, we showed a pineapple wine from Radee. As in the image above, Radee also imports a wine fermented from mangosteen. The New York Times has a good introduction to the mangosteen in this video. It features an ethnobotanist and explains that this fruit was banned from the United States until a few years ago. In other unusual ingredients, a Cooperstown, New York brewer makes an ale with mace, among other spices such as grains of paradise. Mace is similar to nutmeg but is not the same. The nutmeg tree is the source of both spices and is one of very few plants that produce more than one spice; nutmeg comes from the tree’s seed and mace comes from the seed’s cover. Ommegang’s Adoration Ale also features coriander and cardamom according to the label, and cumin according to the website.

Back in the 1970s ATF/TTB worked vigorously to control wine-labeling, where FDA wanted to get involved and insist upon detailed ingredient lists, as is common on most other food labels. The matter got resolved by way of Brown-Forman Distillers Corp. v. Mathews, 435 F. Supp. 5 (W.D. Ky. 1976). But this did not stop Bonny Doon Winery. Many of Bonny Doon’s labels include quite detailed ingredient labeling, and Bonny Doon has been one of few alcohol beverage companies willing to swim against the tide and volunteer this information. Bonny Doon’s Cunning label shows the following ingredients:  grapes, tartaric acid and sulfur dioxide. It goes on to say the product was made with cultured yeast, yeast nutrients, French oak chips, and French oak barrels. According to Decanter, Bonny Doon president Randall Grahm said:

It’s useful to provide more detailed information about the ingredients used in wine production and reduce our dependence on standard wine additions, even those considered to be benign such as tartaric acid, bentonite, yeast nutrients, enzymes, sulphur dioxide.

Let us know if you see other TTB labels with detailed ingredient labeling.

You can probably find some examples of American flags on TTB labels. But TTB usually does not allow it, and for that reason you won’t find one on this label. Manchester Brewing explains:

The feds forced us to remove part of the American flag, and replace the stars with a hammer and sickle. It’s the law, doesn’t have to make any sense. Originally, the Kombat ale was a Special Bitter, but it’s moved a bit beyond that.

A better view of the modified flag is here. Is it any wonder that TTB rejected a bunch of Manchester’s labels? Manchester goes on to explain:

Smacked Down by The Man! The TTB rejected all of our labels! One had a flag over the capitol; it was an American flag but that’s not allowed — so we put a Hammer and Sickle where the stars go, and that’s ok. Also, we used OMFG! on another label, and the government decided that was obscene, even though we protested that it meant Oh My Fairy Godmother and told them we were sticking to that story. So now it says “Censored” over the OMFG, and people tell me they find that funnier.