Atlas Obcura - Maine,
unlike most states, is a “control state,” meaning the state government
maintains some level of monopolistic control over the distribution
and/or sale of alcohol. What this also means is that Maine has extremely
precise records of exactly what Mainers are drinking. It’s how we know
that of the 10 most popular bottles of alcohol sold in the state in
2016, three of them are just different sizes of the same booze.
It
would be reasonable to expect that brand to be, say, Jack Daniels or
Smirnoff or Bacardi, something like that. It’s not. The most popular
liquor in Maine by an extremely large margin—nearly two-and-a-half times
as popular as the second-most, in terms of number of cases sold—is a
coffee-flavored liqueur called Allen’s Coffee Brandy.
Allen’s is
not a brandy, exactly; strictly speaking, a brandy is a spirit made by
distilling wine. Allen’s is technically a liqueur, a neutral grain
spirit like Everclear that’s been mixed with flavorings and sugar.
Coffee-flavored liqueurs are not particularly popular in most of the
U.S. In other control states, like Oregon and Pennsylvania, the only
liqueur to make the top 10 list during the last two years is Fireball, a
cinnamon-whiskey liqueur (it ranks fourth in Maine).
Even
weirder, Allen’s isn’t even from Maine—it’s produced in Massachusetts,
just outside Boston. And yet, the manufacturer tells me, 85 percent of
the Allen’s they produce is sold in Maine. So why is a
Massachusetts-produced coffee liqueur more popular in Maine than any
vodka or whiskey?
more
2 comments:
Perhaps Mainers like a bit of kick with their morning coffee?
Flavored grain alcohol might be more economical than a brandy.
Also, do we know how much might be bought by Canadians and carried / smuggled across the border?
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