Reading material

- A nice summary of micro-distilling in Oregon. They have 17 micro-distilleries already! The article also alerted me to a surely fine Oregon product called Bu-Tay vodka, which comes in regular and blue. It's hard to beat their tagline: "Make Bu-Tay Your Call." - Eric Felten rediscovers the Twentieth Century cocktail, and an annual celebration of the drink by train (and Sherlock Holmes) enthusiasts. - The "Richard Branson of India," Vijay Mallya, announced a patent on diet vodka and diet whisky. Approximately .0002 seconds later, the Scotch Whisky Association announced "that ain't no whisky." - This article from Plenty Magazine lists some eco-cocktails. I learned from it that there is an organic Pisco, an organic line of liqueurs including brandy, orange (could this be the orgo triple-sec we've been waiting for?), chocolate, and coffee, as well as two more organic rums called Matraga and Papagayo. - Madison approves banning cheap liquor in the downtown area to discourage panhandlers. That's ridiculous. If they can do this, can't neighborhoods ban cheap anything to keep out the poor and middle classes? You suck, Madison. - Mmm, tacky fashion wine box.

Bottles vs. cans

Slate has a great analysis of the environmental impact of bottles vs. cans for your beer. It's another one of those questions answered with "It depends." Aluminum mining has bigger environmental impacts, yet the cans are more often recycled. Bottles are heavier and some municipalities don't recycle green bottles (who knew?) so if they're shipped from long distances they're definitely bad. Here's the short answer:

If your chosen tipple is produced very close to home and your town has a robust recycling program, then glass bottles are probably the way to go. But if your preferred suds are brewed far away, by a company that's even mildly eco-aware, aluminum cans are the wiser choice.

But the analysis is interesting, so read the whole thing.

Booze, light up my life

Gizmodo reports on a new LED-enhanced cork for lighting up your bottle collection. It makes me feel sorry for Ty Ku sake liqueur, who spent all that money for a customized light-up bottle.

Nice package!

I get a lot of booze and booze-related swag in the mail, which is nice since I'm always writing about it. Generally speaking, the more expensive the product the fancier the packaging and press kit that it comes with. I have to say I enjoy a good press kit (as long as they're not unwieldy- 10 Cane you're pushing it) since I keep them around for future reference, but usually the box the booze comes in just takes up space and I need to throw it away. The St. Germain elderflower liqueur that arrived in the mail today sells for under 40 bucks, but totally wins the prize for impressive packaging. Given that most everybody is raving about how good the stuff is they could have sent it in a brown paper bag with "Yer Booze" written on it, but they decided to go all-out. The case is a faux cloth-covered box like you might have around a collector's set of books, with a leather pull-tab at the end. Inside the bottle rests on a satiny pillow like... I don't know, a fancy tea set you get as a wedding gift? (I tend not to own breakable things so I don't have much experience here. Also note if I ever get married I don't want a fancy tea set.) Anyway, the press kit is nice too, so I'm happy about that. The box, as lovely as it is, isn't really convenient to keep around. I searched the house for something large and tubular it might hold, but it's too small for the Dust Buster and too big for the cordless phone.