Archives for the 'Drink' Category
In Movies: The Day California Wine Grew Up
The Judgment of Paris is coming to film this summer. No, it’s got nothing to do with the heiress or with the city’s notoriously unfriendly residents. It’s all about the wine.
The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 or the “Judgment of Paris” was a wine competition organized in Paris in 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, in which French judges did blind tasting of top-quality chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon wines from France and from California. California wines rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world’s best wines. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win.
The movie, which comes out in the U.S. this August, is titled Bottle Shock. Though Variety digs it, the movie features a mostly underwhelming ensemble cast–which worked for Sideways, that other wine movie, but not for many other films. I’m guessing it won’t work for audiences, especially as there also lurks a competing movie about the same events (and packed with more star power), titled Judgment of Paris. Journalists hate when that happens.
Beer for Dogs (Pairs Well with ‘Beggin Strips’)
If you’re a pet owner, you know that beer isn’t something you want to share with your dog. (Apologies to Hosehead, pictured.) But that was before Holland’s kwispelbier (which in Dutch means tail-wagging beer), the healthy, beef-flavored, non-alcoholic brew for man’s best friend.
Kwispelbier just saw its debut in England–where it’s sold by retailer Pets at Home under the “Dog Beer” label.
Dogs are overjoyed. Just ask this pair of Weimaraners, happy kwispelbier slurpers they. Or some unemployed scientists.
Or you could ask jolly Helen Pearson.
Dog-owner Helen Pearson, 58, said she disagreed with [Dog Beer] because it encouraged people to drink alcohol.
The housewife, from Sherwood Avenue, Chaddesden, [England,] said: “If it’s that good for the dog’s health, you would be able to get it from a vet.
“There shouldn’t be bottles for dogs that look like that.”
Um, yeah. Anyways, there’s no word if Dog Beer is going to cross the pond just yet. An American competitor, Happy Tail Ale, is on “indefinite hiatus.” Still, if you act fast you might still be able to pick some up here.
Dunkin’ Donuts: Free Iced Coffee Nationwide on Thursday
Dunkin’ Donuts, where I started drinking coffee when I was 7 years old, and where I spent about 45% of my superovercaffeinated teenage years**, is giving the iced variety away on Thursday starting at 10 a.m. and running until 10 p.m.
Find the Dunkies nearest you here. Find the (sadly remodeled) Dunkies that virtually raised me here.
**Here’s the math: Four-five trips a day with friends. (We had our own booth.) Each trip lasted about two hours.
When the Barkeep Has a Circuit Board
Last month I noted how the unstaffed restaurant might be the wave of the future. Speaking of the whole wave thing, you might soon be able to wave goodbye to your friendly neighborhood bartender, Wired is reporting. Or at least one of the human variety, as Chassis, the mobile kegbot (pictured), would probably confirm.
Aficionados of alcohol and androids alike celebrated the first stateside gathering of cocktail-serving robots this weekend at Roboexotica.
Patrons delighted in drink-making droids that ranged from a fire-spewing drink warmer, a fully automated mind-reading mixologist and a shot-pouring conveyor belt built entirely from Legos.
“You have liquor, fire and robots,” said Johannes Grentfurthner, Roboexotica organizer and member of art collective monochrom in Austria. “How could we go wrong?”
The annual gathering of booze-pouring robots is usually held in Vienna, Austria. To celebrate its approaching 10-year anniversary, organizers threw a San Francisco satellite event.
Though the U.S. event was slightly smaller than its Viennese counterpart, the barbots landed with a booze-fueled bang.
What would Pimpbot think about these advanced mixologists?
Thanks to Caleb for the tip. (As a non-robot, I accept tips.)
To Your Health: 100-Year-Old Schlitz Ad
Highway Wrecks Spill Spoilt Dog Food, Gatorade (With Bonus Gatorade Coverage!)
In possibly the most noteworthy highway food spillage since a trucker lost his load of spoiled dog food on Route 222 in Maxatawny, Pa. last month, a trucker this morning wrecked and spilled a shipment of Gatorade all over U.S. 27 outside Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Today’s wreck is, in turn, likely the most resoundingly negative Gatorade spillage since the Gatorade shower that may have led to the death of then-Long Beach State football coach George Allen in 1990.
(Photo via Gatorade-book author Darren Rovell’s “unauthorized” Gatorade blog.)
P.B.R.I.P.
The Woman Who Gives Appleton Estate Rum Its Good Taste
If you had to guess whom was the artist behind the Appleton rum blend, you might not guess a fiftysomething woman, right? I wouldn’t. But we’d both be wrong.
Meet Joy Spence, Master Blender and former high school chemistry teacher, who’s currently on tour where the water drains a different way. She’s breaking barriers with every tasty sip, as she describes in a New Zealand Herald interview published today.
How did you become a master rum blender?
I joined the company as a chemist, and had to work very closely with the master blender - who looks at the sensory side of blending - and I had to look at the chemical process. I became very fascinated with the whole idea so I went into training for 17 years, then took over the role of master blender when he retired.
So you don’t just chuck some Bacardi in with the Captain Morgan and see what comes out?
Ah, no.
[…]
Is the position of master blender an unusual one for a woman?
Very strange. It’s a male-dominated profession. I’m the first female in this industry to be a master blender. I am proud. And I didn’t have much difficulty being accepted because they knew me as a chemist and I was being tutored by the master blender. I thought I would be in a lab with beakers and test-tubes, not doing this.
More here. Read Mrs. Spence’s bio at Appleton Estate. Also worthwhile is this previous brief interview.
Achtung Bier Kosten, Ja?
Peter Suderman, who more-than-capably edited my interview with Anthony Bourdain and my piece on Chicago’s foie gras ban, and who kindly threw a shout out to Crispy, has a great piece at Reason on the green reasons lurking behind spiraling beer prices.
[B]iofuel subsidies… are pushing more farmers to ditch their barley crops—which are necessary to make beer*—in favor of crops that earn them lucrative subsidies from regulators trying to fight global warming. Topping the list of these subsidized crops are rapeseed and corn, ingredient which are used in the creation of biodiesel and ethanol-gasoline fuel blends which supposedly reduce the greenhouse gasses that cause global warming.
Thanks to these crop shifts, the price of barley has doubled in the past two years, an increase that eventually gets passed along to consumers. Some brewers have raised their prices already, and many others are planning on raising them soon. German beer drinkers are already feeling the hit on beers like Erdmann’s Ayinger, which raised its price from 6.10 euros to 6.40 euros over the last year. That’s roughly fifty cents a beer for Germans who consume an average of more than 30 gallons of beer person each year.
I’m working on a piece of my own that explores the issue from a hoppy-beer-fan angle. More from Peter here.
Starbucks Gets Back to Basics and Wins
Starbucks today unveiled what it hopes will be a new black gold. And it looks and tastes a hell of a lot like what made the company vital and famous in the first place: a new, served-everyday, drip-brewed coffee.
It’s Pike Place Roast–not Pike Place Blend (pictured). Though it’s unclear from where the beans hail, the coffee’s got more in common with a fuller-bodied Starbucks cup like Sumatra or Sulawesi than it does with some of the company’s lighter-bodied Latin American roasts. The chocolatey undertones, though, are to me unmistakably reminiscent of its Colombian coffee. I don’t taste Africa in the cup.
Anecdotally, the coffee is a huge hit. I love it. And some guy in my Property class loves it, too.
The company also ditched its censored logo–at least for the time being–in favor of the good ole nude siren. Anecdotally–again, with a sample size of two people, including my positive review and a bad one from some girl in my Animal Law class–reviews on the what’s-old-is-what’s new cup are split right down the middle.
Can I afford a $2 cup of coffee every day? Probably not. But will I pick up a cup, in colder months, 2-3 days a week? You bet. And will I buy whole-bean Pike Place Roast in stores, in order to brew at home? Absolutely.
More here. What Seattle thinks here. Crispy previously on Starbucks here.
Remembering When Booze Was Back
I’m not 100 years old, so I don’t actually remember when FDR–convinced he should at least do one thing right during his seven or eight presidential terms–put the final nail in Prohibition on this date in 1933.
At Pabst Brewing Co. in Milwaukee, thousands of onlookers cheered as company employees hoisted barrels and crates onto trucks. About 800 people stood in the rain outside the White House, watching as a man hopped out of his vehicle and unloaded two cases of beer. Secret Service agents accepted the goods, a gift for the chief executive from one of the nation’s brewers. “President Roosevelt,” read a sign on the side of the truck, “the first real beer is yours.”
None of that highbrow PBR for me. I’ll be celebrating tonight the same way I did last night: with some damn fine Mickey’s Malt Liquor widemouths.
More on the end of Prohibition here and here.
My friend Sean Higgins interviewed the head of the U.S. Prohibition Party–yep, that’s a political party fighting to ban booze–last year for the unabashedly awesome Modern Drunkard.
Update: For accuracy’s sake, instead of “booze,” I should have stated “low-alcohol beer was back,” as Jacob rightly notes in comments.
Big Changes in Big Beer
Miller, the Pepsi of beer, is introducing a line of craft-brewed Lite beers. People like em, too. Love em, even.
[W]hat does it mean when the nation’s second biggest brewer takes its most popular beer and does it up, craft-style?
It’s confusing, analysts say, but it makes sense for a company like Miller Brewing Co. as it woos today’s drinker, who wants more flavorful brews. It also makes sense from a money standpoint because craft beers are growing faster than the overall beer segment, and they command higher prices.
Miller, hoping to latch on to part of that growth, announced this week it’s introducing a trio of different styles of Miller Lite, which it hopes will lure new drinkers to the craft segment.
The Miller Lite Brewing Collection, which will be nationwide by September, features variations on the brewer’s biggest brand, Miller Lite: wheat, amber and blonde ale styles, all popular among craft brewers.
The craft lites are being sold as “Lite done right.” More here.
Meanwhile, Budweiser, the Coca-Cola of beer, is spinning off Michelob, the Fanta Grape of beer.
Schultz Caresses, Ponders Coffee Bag, Company’s Future
While the consensus is that Starbucks will take a while right its listing ship here in the U.S., business is booming in some surprising international locations. Take Mexico:
Reuters reported last month that, since entering Mexico in 2002, the company’s expansion rate has increased sevenfold. In fact, Starbucks plans to open 80 new stores in Mexico this year.
For Mexico’s trendy and monied set, Starbucks has become a status symbol of indulging in American tastes.
The company is also planning aggressive expansion in China (with possibly “thousands” of stores), Great Britain, Japan and Canada.
Meanwhile, Starbucks is mining customers’ minds for improvements with its My Starbucks Idea site — linked from the corporate homepage. Easily my favorite so far — and it’s baffled me for years why no company uses this — is the order/pay swipe card.
Why the Expression ‘Drunk Tank’ Doesn’t Translate Easily Into Russian
Getting thrown in the drunk tank is one thing, but getting drunk in a tank and plowing into a house, as one Russian serviceman did, is something else entirely.
A Russian tank crashed through a villager’s house after the crew stopped to buy more vodka at a nearby shop.
Footage from a mobile phone camera showed the tank hitting a corner of the house and a laughing, and apparently drunk, driver awkwardly trying to clamber aboard with two bottles of vodka.
In other vodka news, singer Amy Winehouse — who’s become a one-woman cottage industry for this blog — snorted flaming vodka at a London club the other night. Though I’d never admit it, my friends and I preferred (no kidding) to snort non-flaming, off-label rum and tequila during college.
Senate Candidate Brews Up Handy Beer
U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick (D-Oregon) has a thirst, a prosthetic hand, and a sense of humor.
Like all politicians, Oregon Senate hopeful Steve Novick wants to be seen as the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with.
And Novick hopes it’s a “Left Hook Lager,” a beer concocted for the campaign by a Eugene-based brewery and named in honor of the metal prosthesis the candidate sports in lieu of his left hand.
Since it’s a political story, somebody’s got to be whining about something.
Political opponents noted Tuesday that Novick’s campaign has failed to obtain the requisite permits from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to sell the alcohol.
More here. Novick’s campaign website here.
Microsoft, Hot Wheels, Ford, and Soda
Microsoft, in an effort to remind everyone that people still use its products — “celebrating and inspiring customer heroes” in corporate parlance — recently launched Heroes Happen Here. I won’t bore you with the details of what exactly that means, because doing so would require me to have to bore myself and learn what exactly that means.
Instead, I’m only interested in the event because, as Engadget points out, Microsoft introduced a limon soda to celebrate the HHH launch. Wired noted last year that the software giant is also a soft drink giant.
But corporation-themed sodas aren’t just for Microsoft. Jones Soda launched a Hot Wheels themed soda a few years back. And, as the photo at right indicates, Ford had its own soda machines back in the 1960s. The one pictured is currently listed on Craigslist for $2,495, and is rumored to be perfect “for your Nascar room or for the garage”.
Bacony-Good Vodka
It seems like this is fifth-hand at this point, but the Accidental Hedonist shares the beauty that is… bacon-flavored vodka.
The recipe is basically the same as that for infusing pretty much any flavor into food or drink. Make some bacon, put it in a mason jar, pour vodka over, let it sit, strain, voila.
I’d like to get some generic hooch — or maybe something abhorrent like Captain Morgan — and infuse it with bologna. Or Spam.
Other Things Red Bull Gives You
The life and times of retired British soccer legend Paul Gascoigne have basically taken a track akin to that of crotch-flashing legend Britney Spears — right down to the British accent and the whole involuntary commitment for mental issues angle.
Right before Gascoigne went “to hospital” — as the definite-article-hating Brits say — he was on the sort of bender only the deadest of rock stars might identify with: he was in rehab to try to dent his habit of drinking 50 cans of Red Bull a day.
…Gascoigne said he spent £16,000 trying to cure his addiction to RED BULL.
[He…] was downing 50 cans of the energy drink every DAY.
So he checked into a £4,000-a-week rehab clinic in America for a month.
The ex-England ace confessed to the bizarre addiction during late-night chats with a hotel worker at the Marriott in Gateshead.
The Sun has more. A mere 8 cans of Red Bull just last week sent another Brit to hospital, reports the BBC.
For those truly unconstrained by, say, work, Gateshead Marriott site here.
Minn. Governor’s Coffee Cup Runneth Over (Onto Radio Console)
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s radio show came to a steaming halt this morning after the governor spilled his coffee all over the show’s control panel, reports Minnesota Public Radio.
I should just confess that I spilled some coffee into the control board here and now we’re experiencing a delay so we can’t take calls. This is not good.
Impressively, the Daily Kos put a coffee hex on Pawlenty and the GOP just two days ago.
Pawlenty, unknown among my synapses, is apparently the frontrunner and hot pick to serve as John McCain’s GOP running mate. Which I guess would make Pawlenty — potentially a cross between clumsy Gerald Ford and doofus Minnesotan Rose “Because I Come from the Land of Pawlenty” Nylund — a heartbeat away from spilling coffee on the button.
Schultz Announces Starbucks Cutbacks
Recently returned Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced he’s cut about 600 jobs at the coffee giant. In a letter to staff, which also took the form of a press release, Schultz said the review that led to the cuts…
…was done with great thoughtfulness and respect for everyone concerned, organizational changes have been made. These changes will restructure the company, but they will also result in a decrease of both the number of positions and partners by approximately 600. This total includes the elimination of existing positions and open headcount, as well as the reduction of our current workforce. Within this context, approximately 220 partners have separated from the company. Nearly all were U.S. partners serving in non-retail support roles. We are thankful and proud of the contributions our departing partners have made, and we are committed to treating them with respect and dignity.
Though I’m no fan of what Schultz did with the Sonics, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a better CEO. I met him the first day I ever worked at Starbucks (back in 1993) when I waited on him as he made his way, like every other customer, through the line. That’s how he is, and that’s why I’m still a loyal Starbucks customer, and why I’m confident he’ll right the first mate’s ship.
