policy

Fox and Reason have a good video about the recent brewhaha over beer with caffeine. The video features John Stossel, Nick Gillespie, and Rhonda Kallman (owner of Moonshot, Beer with Caffeine). Among the highlights: Rhonda says FDA’s ban is “clearly a case of the government over-reaching. … My Moonshot Beer is nothing like these Four Loko drinks.” FDA:

didn’t fully research it … they put the onus on the small entrepreneur to have a scientist. … It’s 5% alcohol by volume and less than a half a cup of coffee of natural caffeine. It’s a great combination. … They won’t stop here. Where will they stop?

Sen. Schumer won’t stop at calling these drinks a “blackout in a can.” He goes further to suggest they may be a death wish in a can. And here, Iowa takes a step toward going much, much further (toward banning any mixture of cola, coffee or Red Bull with alcohol, at bars and restaurants). Near the end of the video, Rhonda points to her petition to save Moonshot. She seeks to distinguish it from the circa-2010 Crunk, Four Loko and Joose products, and explains:

For the time being, Moonshot has ceased production due to [the FDA ban]. … Three of the products targeted are high alcohol, high...

Most people assume TTB would be okay with the second word but not the first. Actually, it’s the other way around. The federal government is okay with Santa, but is not fond of his elixir. TTB asserts, from time to time as the issue arises, that the term “elixir” ought not to be allowed, because it would tend to suggest that the alcohol beverage has medicinal properties. That’s a big no no. Good old Webster does not really disagree, and defines the term as:  “a substance held capable of prolonging life indefinitely.” Hence there are very few “elixir” approvals after about 1999. We don’t normally show the whole paper COLA in the space above. But the paper COLAs are getting fewer and fewer, as the bulk of labels are submitted via COLAs Online. The above is starting to look like a fondly remembered antique. This 1999 approval, for Santa’s Elixir wine specialty, is one of the oldest readily available in TTB’s Public COLA Registry, because it starts showing images in about 1999. Adding to this approval’s old school quaintness, I believe I see indications of a typewriter, a Xerox machine, and perhaps there is some Wite-Out lurking in the shadows. I am writing this about a week before Christmas, but now that we’ve...

We thought this approval (for Smirnoff Frozen Vodka & Lemonade) was noteworthy because it points out several things. First of all, it tends to show that it’s okay to add a little bit of extra verbiage, to the mandated statement of composition, on a distilled spirits specialty. The required statement is probably VODKA WITH NATURAL FLAVORS AND FD&C YELLOW #5. The one on this label adds a few extra words such as MADE WITH SMIRNOFF. It adds a few other descriptors nearby, at VODKA & LEMONADE. Second, it tends to show it’s okay to put the color details on the back, if the general statement is on the front. CERTIFIED COLOR (general) is on the front and CONTAINS FD&C YELLOW #5 is on the back only. Third, this shows it can take a lot of work and a mighty long time for a big company to bring a product to market. This approval is already about eight months old, and there is no sign of  this product on the web or at the indicated domain. Fourth, it’s probably an unusual, pouch-type package and freeze technology, based on the approval, but we’ll need to wait a bit longer to see it. Finally, as with many other Smirnoff-branded products, the references to VODKA are very large, even though...