A rosé by literally every other name: why everything from vodka to mustard is rosé-flavored now

By.Rebecca Jennings

If rosé got really big in 2014 and became a “lifestyle” the year after that, 2019 would be the year it got so big that everything that was not previously rosé became rosé too. 

There are now rosé-flavored energy drinks, rosé-flavored candy, rosé-flavored condiments (jam, vinegar, and, yes, mustard). And as of this year, we will also have no fewer than four brands of rosé-flavored vodka, in addition to multiple kinds of rosé gin, beer, cider, and spiked seltzer.

Even alcoholic drinks that are not rosé are now trying to capitalize on the incomprehensible hugeness of what rosé has become. It raises the question: Why would an alcoholic drink want to taste like a wholly different alcoholic drink? Cocktails that involve wine and beer are delicious. But an amalgam of multiple discrete types of alcohol conjures horrific flashbacks of sneaking tiny swigs from a dozen different bottles from my parents’ liquor cabinet into a water bottle. That is something that no one should ever drink, much less sell. 

There are two main factors at play that led to the advent of wine-flavored liquor. One of them has to do with the way the beverage industry is experimenting with marketing to more drinkers. And the second, of course, is that rosé is bigger than alcohol: It’s an aesthetic. After all, why wouldn’t you capitalize on the wine that has its own Instagram museum?

Why rosé is everywhere

Let’s get this out of the way: Rosé is good. The kind of rosés we think of when we think of rosé in 2019 are generally not the sweet magenta white zinfandels of the 1970s, which lots of people understandably despise. They are whispery pale pink and dry as a bone, which makes them largely neutral, flavor-wise. Sure, you might pick up some strawberries or citrus, but these are flavors that very few people truly hate, and even if they do, they’d barely taste them anyway. 

But this is not why rosé has suddenly eclipsed the confines of the wine section. It’s because rosé is no longer a drink but a way of life, so much so that it’s almost a cliché to even point this out.

“Rosé pulled off a neat trick,” writes Sarah Miller in a piece for Eater about the cultural baggage associated with rosé, “It reminded people of something fun and a little silly from the past, and even as it exchanged the silliness for sophistication — for marvelousness — it maintained that sense of fun. ... Its enjoyment was intertwined with the delicious smugness that comes with having good taste and knowing it.”

Rosé’s first big tipping point occurred in the US around the summer of 2014, the year that Whole Foods, after noticing its rosé promotions were hugely successful in Southern California, decided to extend the promotion nationally. There were a few reasons for its immediate appeal: First, you don’t actually have to talk to a sales representative in order to know what you’re getting. As Eater notes, you can kind of tell what a rosé will smell and taste like simply by looking at the color of the bottle, which isn’t always the case for reds or whites. They are also, for the most part, cheap. 

That rosé is also pink and pretty is of crucial importance, and it is probably not an accident that its popularity coincided with the elevation of the color pink as cultural icon, particularly within the food industry. And though this is presumably part why rosé is so often coded as feminine — and therefore often derided in the same breath as anything pumpkin-spiced — in the US, men and women drink basically the same amount of it. 

Continue Reading

Marines are now allowed to ship booze with household goods, like other military branches

By.Karen Jowers

Marines are now able to ship their alcoholic beverages with their household goods, reversing a longtime policy.

Previously, Marines were only authorized to ship alcoholic beverages when they moved it themselves through a personally procured move. The Marine Corps policy differed from other branches of service, where military members have long been able to ship their libations.

The change was announced in a Marine Corps administrative message Thursday.

As with other military members, the ability to ship alcohol may vary depending on international customs or state-specific import laws.

In the past, there were instances when alcohol was shipped in containers and either spoiled due to the high temperatures during shipping, or there was damage caused by broken glass containers and spilled liquids, said Capt. Joseph Butterfield, a spokesman for Marine Corps headquarters.

“These types of issues contributed to the previous policy of not allowing alcoholic beverages to be shipped with the [household goods],” Butterfield said.Continue Reading

Beer or Wine? Magic Hat hopes that Millennial say BOTH.

In the soggy, gray late winter of 2019, Magic Hat Brewery had a problem that other brewers would die for. Founded in 1994 in Burlington, Vermont, the craft brewery had quickly gained a reputation for fun, risk-taking beers with colorful labels–imagine if Ben & Jerry had gone into beer rather than ice cream. Twenty-five years later, Magic Hat had gone through multiple changes in ownership and management–scooped up in 2010 by North American Breweries (which also owned Labatt’s and Genesee), which was purchased in 2012 by the Costa Rican company Florida Ice & Farm Co–and its reputation and bottom line were linked inseparably to the success of a single beer that was almost as old as the company.

No. 9, a fruity, floral, light ale, was introduced as a seasonal summer beer in 1994, and it’s never left the company’s lineup. Bashed by beer snobs–is that . . . apricot?!–it was a breakout hit with less uptight drinkers, especially women, and demand for No. 9 helped Magic Hat reach a market outside New England. Today, No. 9 represents 54% of Magic Hat’s sales (estimated at $354 million); it’s sold alone and as a cornerstone of the company’s variety packs, with distribution spread across 40 U.S. states (most craft breweries do 80% of their business in just two to four states). But fierce competition in the beer space has started cutting into No. 9’s sales, highlighting the urgency of innovation at company that, with each passing year, was looking more and more like a one-trick pony.

[Photo: courtesy of Magic Hat]

Making a splash in the beer market, though, is a lot harder today than in the heady days of the mid-1990s. In 2018, the number of breweries operating in the United States surpassed 7,000 for the first time; some 1,000 new breweries are expected to open in 2019, according to the Brewers Association. Most of these are small, “craft” breweries, which now account for about a quarter of all U.S. beer sales. It’s a good time for beer drinkers seeking novelty, less so for established brands like Magic Hat trying to stay relevant.

The standard playbook includes rebranding (revamping packaging and trying new form factors, aka cans), introducing seasonal or limited-run products that glom on to emerging trends, and, if all else fails, retrenching around a few core products (see Sierra Nevada). Magic Hat has enjoyed some success on the repackaging and product innovation front. In late July last year, for example, the company did a nationwide rollout of a new Double IPA called Laughing Stock–a burly No. 9 antidote selected as an employee favorite in an in-house competition two years earlier, which had strong local sales.

FROM HANGOVER TO HAIL MARY

But there’s a bigger problem with beer itself. While craft brewers continue to increase sales–they were making 5% more beer at the middle of 2018 than the year before–since 2008, the total beer category has been slowly declining, as millennials remodel the beverage alcohol industry. In a 2018 Gallup poll, more than a quarter of American drinkers listed wine as their preferred beverage–the largest share in the poll’s 25-year history. And according to Wine Spectator, millennials consumed more wine in recent years than any other generation–42% of all wine drunk in the U.S. Liquor sales are also rising, boosted by millennial’s love of vodka and tequila; 2018 was the 23rd consecutive year of growth for the U.S. spirits market, according to Shanken’s Impact Databank Review & Forecast.

Continue Reading

Metro bartenders see increase in more realistic looking fake IDs

By.Caroline Vandergriff

Minors have been using fake IDs for decades, but now technology is making it harder for bartenders and bouncers to know what’s real and what’s not.

Just last year, Tulsa police called in Homeland Security to investigate a spike in high quality fake IDs.

“You see a whole lot more that look real, rather than somebody just taking their friend’s when it’s obviously not them,” said Josh Simpson, who’s been a bartender for a decade.

Simpson works at Osteria in Oklahoma City.

He received the state training to serve alcohol, so he knows what to watch out for.

“If it’s obviously not them or the picture has been tampered with, that kind of thing,” he said. “The signature. I usually check the signature, like misspellings and stuff.”

Simpson doesn’t see a lot of fakes at the restaurant he works at.

“They use them at knock off gas stations where they have different people working,” said 16-year-old Autumn Sharp, who says several of her friends have fake IDs.

Sharp doesn’t have one, but she says they don’t seem hard to get.

“A couple of my friends have people in college they know that they just text like, ‘Hey can you get me a fake ID?’” she said “And then you have to pay a certain amount and it just comes in the mail.”

There are also plenty of sites online that promise to send you premium fakes that scan and have working holograms.

Simpson thinks the ability to detect fake IDs is now more important than ever.

“It’s probably going to be a much bigger problem as technology makes things easier,” he said.

It’s illegal in Oklahoma for people under the age of 21 to drink alcohol or to use a fake ID. Minors caught using one can be charged with a misdemeanor and face a $300 fine, up to 30 hours of community service, and the suspension of their driver’s license.

Businesses who sell alcohol to minors could lose their liquor license and face steep fines as well.

On Food: A unique wheated bourbon whiskey is the latest addition to Blinking Owl Distillery’s liquor lineup

By.Bradley Zint

You’ve heard of Scotch whisky and you know all about Kentucky bourbon.

But what about Orange County whiskey, distilled and aged right in Santa Ana?Enter the Blinking Owl Distillery on Washington Avenue. Established in 2016, this business is named after an old Santa Ana bar once at Third and Birch streets. In its short tenure, the new Blinking Owl has quickly made a name for itself as Orange County’s first-ever craft distillery. They call themselves a “grain-to-glass” operation that strives to use California ingredients for their vodkas, gins, aquavits and whiskeys.

On a recent afternoon, Blinking Owl debuted a new distinction to its liquor lineup: a 90-proof, single-barrel wheated bourbon whiskey. The proprietors believe their business is the only one around O.C. and L.A. to make this particular type.

“The fun/interesting thing about our wheated bourbon to me is that we are using the same organic California-grown wheat that we use to make our base spirits for vodka, gin, OC Orange vodka and aquavit, so it’s all in the family,” said head distiller Ryan Friesen in an email. “We’re making a bourbon with a more distinct wheat expression than we have before. It’s a unique and softer version of our four-grain whiskey which retains the spice of the rye. A little something for everyone.”

Blinking Owl co-owner Brian Christenson explained how under U.S. law, bourbon must contain at least 51% corn. The remaining 49% is up to the distiller to choose from corn, rye, wheat, malt or rye malt.

For Blinking Owl’s wheated bourbon, they added more wheat instead of rye grains, giving it a sweeter quality (as opposed to the spiciness of rye).

“It tends to be a softer, more elegant style of bourbon,” Christenson said.

Blinking Owl’s wheated bourbon uses wheat from the Imperial Valley and corn from the Sacramento Valley. It is aged for two years in American white oak from the Ozarks. For the expert noses, the bourbon gives off an aroma of vanilla, caramel, smokiness and chocolate.

The people who first tasted it at the distillery and bought some were members of Blinking Owl’s Parliament Club. The name is taken from the word for a group of owls. The club has around 110 on its roster, with 60 spots left. The $299 one-time membership fee grants you some swag, three bottles of spirits, first tastes and regular events.

If you’re looking to try Blinking Owl’s wheated bourbon but missed the exclusive kick-off event, don’t worry. A second batch is on its way in about a month or two for around $75 a bottle.

Blinking Owl is also releasing a blended wheated bourbon that will retail for $65, available in restaurants, stores and bars, likely in June.Continue Reading

Andrew Gillum’s ethics fine: Is $5,000 a lot or not?

By.Steve Contorno


Photos of Gillum's trip in NYC. Andrew Gillum, Adam Corey Undercover FBI agents were the ones who gave Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum a ticket to the Broadway show Hamilton during a trip to New York City in 2016, according to a trove of records given to the ethics commission and released to the public today. Text messages between Gillum and former lobbyist Adam Corey, who arranged outings with undercover agents looking into city corruption, were among more than 100 pages of records Corey gave the ethics commission, which is investigating trips to Costa Rica and New York that Gillum took in 2016. Corey's lawyer, Chris Kise, released the records today, just two weeks before the election, because the state ethics commission issued a subpoena for the records just last week.

There was Frank Peterman, Jr., a state secretary whose excessive travelbetween Tallahassee and his St. Petersburg home cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.

And John “Jack” London, an ex-Mornoe County commissioner who illegally lobbied his former colleagues to approve a controversial and scandal-plagued sewage deal.

What do these former public officials have in common with former Tallahassee mayor and Democratic nominee for governor Andrew Gillum? A $5,000 fine from the Florida Commission on Ethics.

On Wednesday, Gillum agreed to settle his state ethics case stemming from the investigation into trips with a Tallahassee businessman to Costa Rica and New York for the Broadway hit Hamilton. In reaching an agreement, a state ethics commission lawyer said she would drop four of five charges if Gillum paid a $5,000 fine.

RELATED: Andrew Gillum agrees to $5,000 ethics fine.

Records show FBI agents gave Andrew Gillum tickets to ‘Hamilton’

Andrew Gillum’s ethics case continues after Florida commission finds cause

Gillum said the settlement was “vindication” that he never knowingly broke the law, but the size of the fine was much higher than the typical penalty from the state’s ethics watchdog.

Since 1975, the Florida Commission on Ethics has found violations of state and local laws in 929 cases, according to a Tampa Bay Times review of a state database of fines. Of those cases, Gillum’s fine was in the top 8 percent.

Half the cases with fines were for less than $630. That median rose in the last decade — to about $1,000 — but that’s still a fraction of what Gillum agreed to pay.

Continue Reading

Costco and Trader Joe’s offer liquor at bargain prices. Who does it better? Our experts test and tell you.

By. Tan Vinh

When it comes to cheap liquor, Trader Joe’s and Costco have become the go-to big-box stores.

Costco’s vodka costs $12.99 (before taxes). That’s for a 1.75 liter bottle. Trader Joe’s gin goes for a song — $11.99.

But are these any good? We wanted to know.

I enlisted a couple of discerning palates to sample some of the stores’ best-sellers.

Joining me on the tasting:

Paul Clarke, executive editor of Imbibe, a must-read bimonthly magazine for the bartending and distilling community.

Andrew Friedman, a former judge for the American Distilling Institute and former owner of the Capitol Hill bar Liberty, which, under Friedman, boasted one of the city’s largest collections of whiskeys and agave spirits, two categories heavily represented in this tasting.

We focused on the everyday consumer, not the connoisseur. No geeking out on mashbill or yeast strain. Adjectives like “quaffable” on tasting notes earn banishment to a dark corner. I run a tight ship here, people.

Continue Reading