13 Comments
Jan 8Edited

Good cocktail. Missing 1 oz lemon juice in your recipe

Expand full comment

Thanks for catch, fixed now

Expand full comment

Oh shit - you’re right - sorry. Fixing now

Expand full comment

Confirmation bias update—just back from a solid neighborhood restaurant in the DC burbs (Falls Church) and yes, PP on the menu. Well made too.

Expand full comment

So with the Surgeon General and WHO and their overly alarmist language where do you see this heading? I would think some form of compromise on warning language, albeit phrased more in terms of “risk” as opposed to “safety”, from the alcohol industry in exchange for not making it harder to advertises and access alcohol. This seems difficult now as both sides seem to be taking an absolutist approach (more so on the public health side for sure) and the language isn’t adding to the debate right now.

Also, something I’ve noticed missing from all the coverage is the fact that even with the Surgeon General’s own findings alcohol is still the third cause of “preventable” cancer after obesity. I’m not sure why no one is talking about that and the fact that there are virtually no warnings or restrictions on fatty and sugary foods. It makes me question motives quite a bit.

As an aside I also read a “Time” magazine article on this topic where the scientists admitted observational studies are difficult and cancer also can’t really be traced to one single cause in most cases, but nevertheless same scientist insisted alcohol was completely unsafe despite the difficulties in studying it this way.

Overall I’m not opposed to updating labels (though I think ingredients and nutritional content would be more helpful) but I am opposed to more restrictive laws on the industry, we already still have pretty restrictive laws on alcohol and how and where it’s produced, how it’s advertised, and the drinking age is already 3 years older than you have to be to buy a gun.

Expand full comment

I think the industry has to take a no-compromise position because the anti-alcohol people will never stop and will never be satisfied. As far the cancer studies, you’re right. For instance has anyone controlled to look at the additives in cheap mass market American wine or beer - the kind most people buy? Maybe one of those is the cause of cancer? How do we know?

Expand full comment

I see these things as highly cyclical, looking at history there is an anti-alcohol (quasi puritanical) movement roughly every 20-40 years so we were kind of due for it. I don’t think the hard core anti-alcohol activists will set the policy and language, I think cooler and reasonable heads will prevail. I even saw Tim Stockwell saying the language is over the top and alarmist in one article and he said basically a few drinks a week is a tiny risk relatively and people are fine to indulge in that. So I just don’t see it sticking that well despite the media sympathy they seem to have at the moment.

Anyway, it’s good people are noticing and you are writing about it. It lets them know there is a good amount of support and pushback coming from people who don’t want to see their favorite businesses shutdown or burdened with onerous regulations when they already are, especially since these are some of the most civically minded companies out there. Where I live we have a brewery that donates all its profits to charity. On that note I think I’ll have a drink.

Expand full comment

Something I always think about with health and alcohol is that all booze is lumped together even though there are massive differences in beverages. Taking two extremes as an example, is drinking an 11% low intervention (for lack of a better term) wine as bad for you as an industrially made vodka? I can't believe there wouldn't be differences between different types and quality of alcohol. In fact, I wrote about this a while back - and your story has inspired me to write again about it!

Expand full comment

Yeah it’s so true. Even just the difference between a cheap 15% abv CA with additives vs a natural wine at 12%

Expand full comment

After the Surgeon General's recommendations and all the dry January talk, I realized that appreciating wine is a form of mindfulness that slows me down, wakes up my senses, makes me present, and connects me to others and the earth. So maybe it's good for me after all?

Expand full comment

I recently checked in to my medical notes online and saw that I'd been categorized as a "heavy drinker" after saying I drank one craft beer a day (typically a DIPA, no session beers). Apparently, I fit their definition. Seems extreme to me.

Expand full comment

That's insane! But we can see how subjective these things are

Expand full comment

Call me trendy, but I love the paper plane. Neo-prohibitionists clearly have never tried one, otherwise they’d change their tune.

Expand full comment