Liquor Store Scavenger Hunts
I spend a lot of time in liquor stores. I mean a LOT of time, mostly in the liquor section (as opposed to wine). So I tend to notice when new things come into the Chicago market, and also when things go on sale or are discontinued. Its interesting to see how many products have already come and gone in the few years that we’ve been in the craft distilling business, as well as how many have changed hands among the mega-producers, marketing companies, importers, etc. Its a tough business, and the competition is pretty intense.
At any rate, one of the other interesting thing we’ve noticed is that certain brands sometimes have odd things happen that make their way into the liquor store and/or bar. Here are a few of the examples we’ve seen:
Over-Dipped Wax - at The Alembic in San Francisco, we saw a bottle of Makers Mark that was over-dipped into the red wax. Josey, our friendly bartender, told us that every once in a great while the little old ladies who dip the bottles get to over-dip one of them, and sometimes they make it out of the warehouse. We saw one recently here in Chicago - unfortunately it wasn’t for sale.
Upside-down Labels - We’ve seen a couple of upside down labels from the folks at Templeton Rye. One of their founders told us that they have some older gents putting on the labels, and every once in awhile an upside down one sneaks out of the warehouse. Here’s a photo of an upside down label from a bottle of Cointreau that we also recently found. We needed it for an event, so I figured why not buy the one with the funny label.
Crazy Glassware - A lot of glassware gets sold in liquor stores. Sometimes its just accessories or plastic cups for parties, and sometimes it actually comes out of gift sets that didn’t sell or weren’t requested. Here’s one of the crazy glasses we found at a store recently. It was on clearance for $.25, which is why I had to have it - it does have some potential for mischief, after all.
Have you seen anything weird or unusual that you hunt for at the liquor store (or perhaps that I should keep an eye out for)?
I recently picked up a set of Reidel spirit glasses and one of them has a very deep indentation in the side of the glass. It is the one I always tend to grab, since it fits my thumb quite well.