Inventory for August 23rd, 2015
Welcome to the news! Fan favorite Food52 gives media brand a cocktail personality, Starbucks wants to invite people to spend more quality grown up time in their establishment, craft beer gets its own show centered in Portland, Sazerac sues a brewery (once again), and this year is set to be a gooood one for wine.
Are you having FoMo (FearOfMissingOut) as summer slowly but surely draws to an end? We suggest you catch all the rays you possible can. Go see an air open movie, make a watermelon campari granita, host a ribs party, and dip your toes into a lake. It won’t last forever, let’s make the last summer weeks count!
1) If Media Brands were Cocktails
Our love for Food52 runs true and deep, they’re an invaluable source for obscure cooking techniques, genius recipes, hilarious commentary, and yes – even sometimes drink recipes. A couple of days ago they decided they came up with a new game: if media brands were cocktails, what would they be? Some of them are hilariously on point. Take Buzzfeed, they’d be “27 Versions of the Black and Blue Every Lazy Bartender Needs to Know (a variation on a Black and Tan; half of our staff refers to this as the White and Gold)”, or Bon Appétit, they’d be “ANYTHING with Campari in the winter; a Budweiser tallboy on ice in the summer, bro”.
It only follows that Epicurious is “whatever Bon Appétit drinks” and of course, Yahoo (forgive us while we hide our snort) is “whatever Epicurious drinks”. Check out the complete list (including their take on Vice: “rebel moonshine in a hideout with ISIS”) here. On point, good for a laugh. Thank you Food52, this Sunday needed this.
2) Starbucks: Get your Buzz on Here
The rumors have been circling for years, Starbucks is no longer satisfied holding the monopoly in the coffee world, it now wants to expand into your evening plans too. Fortune reports that Starbucks has indeed confirmed “it has applied for liquor licenses at several hundred additional locations throughout the U.S. in recent months, with plans to have most of the stores selling beer and wine by the end of the year”. Fortune approves of SBuck’s plan, saying that it only makes sense to try and fill their locations as they’re relatively empty in the evenings, compared to how they almost burst with customers needing their coffee fix (a la Lorelai Gilmore) in the mornings. Only time will tell if this works out for the bucks.
3) Craft Beer gets its own Show
It was only a matter of time really. If there’s one city that could be called the home of craft beer, it’s Portland. As the popularity of craft beer continues to grow it’s only natural that other media outlets want it on it.
Founder of Taplister Kerry Finsands hosts a new web series named “Beer Artisan”. In the pilot episodes he promises to cover all things craft from an industry standpoint. That includes “production quality and scalability to the best equipment and interesting ingredients. The show explores the movement that has transformed America from a country dominated by big-label beers, into one with more than 3,400 craft breweries. Beer Artisan serves to tell the story of this phenomenal culture shift, as well as introduce the passionate personalities that make it happen – and what they went through to get here.” A bit of drama, some personal history, and beer facts. Sounds like a match made in heaven.
4) Sazerac Sues Brewery over Fireball Trademark
Last week Sazerac filed a complaint against Stout Brewing Company and its Fire Flask malt liquor, The Spirits Business reports. The reason for the claim was that Fire Flask’s packaging and name “was confusingly similar to Fireball” and was designed to “trade on the longstanding goodwill of the popular whisky liqueur brand”.
Back in 2012 Sazerac sued Hood River River Distillers over the name and packaging of its cinnamon-flavored SinFire Cinnamon Whiskey. What would the world come to if we can only have one devil-horned, cinnamon-flavored whisky? Come on Sazerac, light(en) up.
5) Twothousandfifteen Is Set to Be a Good Year for Winos
After weeks of worries Franconian winemakers are now confident that this year might just top the previous peak years 1975, 1993, and 2003. Thanks to heavy rainfalls last weekend the grapes are in fantastic shape, all they need now is enough sun for us to have a very good wine year. “Basically, what we’re looking for here is a climate similar to New Zealand: warm days and cool nights”, president of the Franconian winemakers Artur Steinmann tells the Faz. Fingers crossed, this would be good news for all of us!
6) Rhum Clément in Germany
We’ve got a few distribution news! Ferrand Deutschland are set to take over the exclusive distribution of Martinique’s Rhum Clément in Germany. This sees the brand, produced in Le François on the island, joining the likes of Plantation Rum from Guadeloupe and Barbados’s Kaniche Rum on the Maison Ferrand books. We love Caribbean rums!
Rhum Clément Agricole Blanc for example is used in the famous Ti Punch of Martinique. We’re looking forward to see the rhum in even more stores, and bars from now on.
