After reversing its initial approval of Palcohol last year, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has once again approved the powdered alcohol product, making it likely that it could appear on shelves in some stores this spring. [More]
alcohol
Federal Agency Approves Powdered Alcohol For Sale In U.S. — But Your State Might Still Ban It
By 3.11.15
Police: Woman Swilled Other Customers’ Drinks, Hit TGI Fridays Manager In Head With A Glass
By 3.5.15
It’s bad enough to purloin drinks from your fellow restaurant patrons, but police in upstate New York say one TGI Fridays customer added insult to injury by not only walking around sipping from other customers’ beverages, but she then allegedly smashed a drinking glass against the manager’s head after being told she’d have to leave. [More]
Is This Just Zima?
By 2.11.15
This week, ABInBev announced that it’s unleashing something terrifying sounding called a Bud Light Mixxtail, a malt liquor beverage that pretty much sounds like someone dropped a couple cinnamon red hots in a vat of Zima and called it a day. But hey, it’s sweet, and millennials like sweet stuff! According to the powers that be. [More]
Parents Say Joe’s Crab Shack Accidentally Served Alcoholic Drinks To Table Of Kids
By 11.7.14
It’s understandable that a seafood restaurant might want to employ marine life in the naming of its drinks, both virgin and alcoholic, but perhaps it’s time to reconsider having the kiddie and adult versions named after the same sea animal, after parents say a table of kids aged 8 and under were served a round of boozy beverages. [More]
Study: Raising Cigarette Prices Means People Drink Less Beer & Booze
By 9.24.14
For those who drink and smoke, it’s no surprise that often, the more you smoke, the more you end up drinking, and vice versa. So it follows that when state taxes make cigarettes more expensive, you might be inclined to smoke less, and as such, you might end up drinking less beer and whiskey as a result. That’s the effect rising cigarette prices have on alcohol consumption (except for wine), say researchers in a new study that looks at consumption habits of smokers and drinkers. [More]
Feds Pushing States To Lower The Drunk Driving Threshold To 0.05 BAC
By 9.4.14
Having a glass of wine with dinner and thinking about driving? That might be a bit more of a gamble in the future, as the National Transportation Safety Board is lobbying states to reduce their thresholds for drunk driving from the national standard of 0.08 blood alcohol concentration to 0.05. [More]
Walmart Says Dad Can’t Buy Beer Because He’s Shopping With Teen Daughter
By 7.28.14
Back in college, I’d to the grocery store with friends and we always had to separate the beer from the other items being purchased because anyone chipping in money (yes, this was a time when most people paid by cash or check) had to be of legal drinking age. But if anyone under 21 just happened to be standing in line near the beer, no one cared. This is apparently not the case at Walmart, where a dad was told he couldn’t purchase beer and booze because he was shopping with his teen daughter. [More]
Urologist Starts Hangover I.V. Treatment Service, Selling Relief For $250 A Pop
By 6.23.14
For those of you’ve never had a hangover, I’m not going to go to lengths to describe how awful it can be because you don’t need that bad energy in your life. And if you’ve had one, well, let’s not dwell on things in the past, but it’s safe to say you’ve tried every method under the sun to make it all go away. One doctor says he’s got The Cure. [More]
Palcohol Creator: “You Won’t Get Drunk Faster Snorting Powdered Alcohol”
By 5.9.14
A couple weeks back, the Internet went a bit nuts when it learned that federal regulators had given the green light to a powdered alcohol product called Palcohol. Then a backlash ensued, fueled in no small part by things mentioned on the product’s nascent website, and regulators quickly rescinded their approval while some called for a ban on the product. But in a recently released video, Palcohol’s creator attempts to show that this is much to do about very little. [More]
Booze Coming To Thousands Of Starbucks Locations, Eventually
By 3.20.14
After a few years of testing and slowly expanding the number of Starbucks shops that serve alcohol, the coffee colossus says it will be going wide with that evening menu of adult snacks and drinks. But don’t expect it to happen overnight. [More]
As U.S. Postal Service Sinks Into Irrelevance, It Seeks Hope In the Bottom Of A Bottle
By 12.19.13
Like too many once-great leaders who have been knocked from their pedestals by the disruptive forces of time and progress, the U.S. Postal Service is turning to wine and spirits while trying to hold on to the belief that it still has a future in the world that has outgrown it. [More]
Mommy, This Orange Juice Tastes Funny––Because It’s A Mimosa
By 6.5.13 — Updated: 6.6.13
It seemed that the nation’s restauranteurs tightened up their standards and found ways to not serve spiked drinks to children. 2011-2012 was a landmark period of Booze 4 Kids, but we haven’t heard any reports of the phenomenon in exactly one year. Until a restaurant in Rochester, N.Y. decided to serve up mimosas instead of orange juice. [More]
13 TGI Fridays Restaurants Among Those Busted In NJ For Selling Cheap Booze As Premium Pours
By 5.23.13 — Updated: 5.24.13
You might not be surprised to find that a sketchy dive bar is refilling its empty bottles of liquor with cheaper booze, but many consumers probably don’t expect a chain restaurant to get involved in such underhanded hanky-panky. And yet, 15 of the 29 places caught in yesterday’s sting by New Jersey liquor regulators are outlets of national chain eateries — and almost all of those were TGI Fridays. [More]
Idaho State Police Ignoring Tastiness Of Bacon, Cracking Down On Infused Alcohol Drinks
By 2.12.13
What’s better than bacon or a tumbler of whiskey? Whiskey infused with bacon, of course (if you’re a fan of that sort of thing and well, we are). But Idaho State Police have started cracking down in Boise at establishments that are serving up infused alcohol, citing state law. [More]
Maker’s Mark Dropping Potency Of Its Bourbon By 3% Due To Demanding Customers
By 2.11.13 — Updated: 2.12.13
Perhaps it’s that guy who always shows up with a bottle of Maker’s Mark instead of a six-pack, or maybe you’ve got a stockpile of the stuff in your basement where the wife can’t see, but because so many people want bourbon, it’s getting harder to supply the liquid to drinkers of the stuff. To remedy the problem of lacking supplies to meet high demand, the makers of Maker’s Mark (say that three times fast) are reducing its alcohol by volume three percentage points. [More]
Could Charging More For Boozy Beverages Curb The Amount Of Deaths Related To Drinking?
By 2.7.13
Where there’s alcohol consumption, there are ill health effects — from liver complications to death. But what if the price of alcohol and boozy beverages was raised just a little bit, say, 10%? A new study says in those countries with a minimum alcohol price, ticking it up just that much would result in a big drop in drinking-related deaths. [More]
Sorry, Massachusetts: Looks Like You’re Not Getting Happy Hour Anytime Soon
By 2.4.13
If you live in a state where happy hour is legal, pat yourself on the back and consider pouring one out for your Massachusetts cocktail-loving brethren. Lawmakers had been flirting with the idea of repealing the state’s 29-year ban on happy hour, but from the sound of it, regulators think it would be a bad idea for both businesses and the public’s safety. [More]
As Economy Recovers, Americans Are Drinking More Alcohol
By 12.4.12
It looks like Americans’ spirits are up — or at least the sales of spirits to Americans are up, as a new survey shows that people are buying more beer, wine and liquor when they go out to eat. [More]
