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The Latest "Inflation Evasion" Scam: Bars Serving Caramelized Rubbing Alcohol Instead Of Scotch
In the past, food and alcoholic beverage makers got in trouble for attempting to cover the impact of inflation (such as the 12% Y/Y increase in Fed employee salaries) by diluting the content, or simply serving less, of their products while keeping the price constant: the same thing as rising prices, but optically more palatable to less than sophisticated consumers. That was the past. A new breed of industrious, high profit margin-seeking alcohol vendors have decided to skip this protocol entirely and instead of serving booze, have opted to replace the product outright. As AP reports, at numerous New Jersey bars, including 13 TGI Fridays restaurants, owners were accused of substituting cheap booze while charging premium prices. The profitability at all costs situation was so bad that at one bar, a mixture that included rubbing alcohol and caramel coloring was sold as scotch. In another, premium liquor bottles were refilled with water — and apparently not even clean water at that.
State officials provided those new details Thursday on raids they conducted a day earlier as part of a yearlong investigation dubbed Operation Swill.
As part of Operation Swill, investigators collected 1,000 open bottles of vodka, gin, rum, scotch, whiskey and tequila from the wells of the bars, state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said.
“This alleged scheme is a dishonest ruse to increase profits and is a slap in the face of the consumer,” Chiesa said.
Within seven days, the establishments must turn over records to help state authorities determine how many patrons were overcharged and by how much. They also will have to inform the state which employees were at work the days samples were covertly taken earlier this year.
Being ripped off at bars by industrious dilutive bartenders is hardly new, however it has taken on a new life ever since Bernanke started diluting the fiat supply:
In January and February, investigators went to 63 establishments they suspected were scamming liquor customers. They ordered drinks neat — that is, without ice or mixers — and then covertly took samples for testing.
Of 150 samples collected, 30 were not the brand as which they were being sold.
Somehow we doubt The Briad Group will make a big public announcement about just how it is that it manages to post very healthy profits, even if the patrons drinking its "booze" hardly are:
TGI Fridays Inc. said it was conducting its own investigation, working with the franchisee that owns the 13 restaurants cited, The Briad Group.
Briad, based in Livingston, said it “takes great pride in the quality of food and drink” served at its TGI Fridays franchises and was troubled and surprised by the allegations. It said in an emailed statement it would take immediate steps to correct any problems it identified.
“We want every assurance possible that our guests can continue to feel confident in the great food and drink they order at our T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants,” said Rick Barbrick, president of The Briad Restaurant Group.
And if TGIF is doing it, everyone else is.
What is confusing to us is why there is so much anger at such criminally dilutive operations in our every day lives, yet nobody dares to lift a finger at that uber-dilution mastermind, who literally dilutes the fiat supply (and yes, money is fungible, and yes, reserves will spill out into the broader economy sooner or later: just as soon as banks realize they can no longer make easier money in assorted rigged capital markets) to the tune of 2.5% each month, Ben Bernanke?
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I'll take mine with a double-shot of Chinese melamine milk please.
Hah! I've had a friend of mine supply me rectified spirit for years now. I said goodbye to the beer belly, you can too!
I've lost 25 lbs over the last year, all while drinking IPA every day. All I had to do was to ditch ALL processed foods and grains (other than the barley in the beer, of course). Oh, and I ate all of the animal and plant fat that I want.
www.marksdailyapple.com
You could have cut out the alcohol and lost 50lbs.
How DARE they put caramel in my isopropyl ! Now I'm pissed!
Ben "Bathtub Gin" Bernanke.
"at one bar, a mixture that included rubbing alcohol and caramel coloring was sold as scotch."
Shameful.
I hope to hell they don't dilute the Gin :-)
Too late:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/18/uk-backpacker-dies-poisoned-alcohol-indonesia
D-:
OMG, that's plain awful.
I know what's going on, they are trying to stamp out bootleg liquor because it's untaxed! That is exactly what these statists are doing and with a propaganda spin as well to let you think that you're in danger. Shame on those who trust the gubermint and shame on anyone who downvoted me below. Suck it.
Can I have a rat burger with that 'Scotch'?
Rubbing alcohol and caramel coloring sold as scotch and the customers couldn't tell the difference.
A friend showed me an old book from 1875, a manual for bartenders and hotel keepers. It included recipes for making all kinds of liquor by the barrel using water, alcohol, and different flavoring and coloring additives. The secret ingredient in scotch: creosote.
There used to be a cough syrup called Creo-mulsion(can't remember the spelling). Creosote and alcohol were the main ingredients. I enjoyed it when I was a kid.
Pretty sure creosote is a carcinogen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote#Health_effects
I may be someone who could be paid copious amounts of money to help resolve this problem here.
You see, I only drink top line Whiskey, like the Glenlivet 15-18 year swag, or McCallum same age. You cant fuck on with the genuine article, I can fucking smell the difference.
Dont try this shit on here TGI, you will be soundly found out.
Cunts.
Having said that, if this is true, how the fuck do you not know you are drinking white spirits if you know nothing of the real taste?
Double fucking cunts, you shouldnt fuck on with a mans drink as thats fighting talk round these parts.
Amen. I'm by no means a sophisticated man, but even I can tell the difference between my usual Woodford Reserve and the bottle of Blantons I get for father's day. How the fuck can you not tell your drinking rubbing alcohol and piss water?
Nothing new here. Came across a bar owner in Dallas back in the early 90's who use to fill his high-end vodka bottles with the cheapest stuff possible and sell shots at premium vodka prices.
Yup.
The bars in the D.C. area were accused of this in the '80's.
A friend of a friend was a bartender and when we came in he gave us what good stuff they had. Said they bought one glass bottle of the good stuff for every box of the 1.75L cheap stuff.
People paying for Stoli but drinking Popov.
Same thing in the 70's.
I used to bar tend at a Rock & Roll Hall and the head guy would be in the back filling EVERTHING with Popov and maybe some caramel. I think he got that shit in 55 gal. drums.
Kids didn't know or care. I swear on any given weekend half of them were on acid.
Saw some great bands though.
TGWDGWOF - thank god we're doing gods work on friday -- and now everyday.
TGIF = The Gov't Induces Fraud
Yank their liquor license first and charge them with product tampering.
If you want to stop this shit, send a big fucking message.
Guido and the boys have the liquor control board in their pocket; probably the cops too.
The "Briad Group". Sheesh, even the mob is into catchy names now.
Drink up, citizen!
The mob is profiting from the outrageous liquor taxes. Remove the taxes and they move on.
Here is the regulating body.
Have a laugh and look at the location.
http://www.ttb.gov/public_info/5170-2a.htm
Section 6 should apply.
Fake markets, fake booze, fake corporate families...
http://www.fakenation.info/please/the-panera-bread-family
Fake everything!
This is how USA is. You didn't expect there to be honest business practices, did you? That's pure BS taught to the sheeple when they go for programming at the brainwashing institutions they call colleges.
When I was a lad, I used to fetch fresh beers for my old man when he was in a drinking mood. After about four or five refills I used
to fill the empty with tap water as a joke. He never twiged to the fact he was drinking water. Amazing! I guess these people came
to the same conclusion.
Who the fuck would drink it those annoying shitholes,id take the local dive bar with chicks with their doggies,tits and get drunk.
See what rubbing alcohol does to you?
This has been going on for how many decades. So people are catching on. Russian and central Europeans have perfected the game of serving crap with a fancy label.
Example, some Russian businessman (sounds like oxymoron) have been importing French wine. The wine was of very good quality. Before shipment they would switch labels to a much cheaper label so the taxes would be lower. Switched back when sold to restaurants and others.
You might call this reverse NewJersey trick.
Lucky only one businessman is doing it. You had me worried.
if you want to survive the "new" economy, trust no one.
Well, take a taste test at home. If you can't tell the fucking difference, then order the cheap stuff in the bar. Most of it is marketing ripoff anyway. You're paying for the "quality" of the Madison Avenue programming. Of course the isopropanol is a little over the top :-) These guys are almost as bad as Monsanto when it comes to a public poisoning
In NJ you can get a fake drink with your fake food using your Fake FED money, but you look good with your fake tan to go with fake tits or fake muscle to impress your fake friends! Love it NJ
Yo homie,
Dats Guido discrimination.
Giddafuggattahere...
It's been a long time since I smoked any oregano. This bud's for me.
Ha,
If you're a grower, the oregano would cost more than the weed itself.
For the BLS, that is just another hedonic adjustment.
and to think ALCOHOL is the biggest margins for any establishment.............AND YET ITS STILL NOT ENOUGH FOR THE GREEDY SCUMBAGS !!!!!!
Shaken not rubbed.
I can just see a class action suit by a bunch of drunks.
Well I guess it makes the pig bung calamari go down easier.
Swill, Bitchez!
This is happening in every facet of life, from so called healthcare, food, booze, products, being cheapened to extract more weatlth from the overshorned sheeple.
I'm pretty sure ammunition isn't what it used to be, even the made-in-America stuff. I'd happily take sealed cans of 20 to 60 year old ammo over new stuff in many cases.
Every time I see the movie "White Lightning" I still laugh at the scene in the bar where the bar tender replaces the contents of each type of booze with moonshine and some coloring.
the box is the same size...and the contents within is less.. no one will notice..
pretty simple
Well, this just goes to show you that all those pretentious-ass Scotch drinkers can't even tell the crap from rubbing alcohol. Sooo, for once I am glad to see the consumer get screwed. Here is an Irish Poem to celibrate!
Water Of Lies
Scotch Whiskey's a rare kind of booze!
Which the snobs love to swill while they schmooze.
But, rubbing alcohol
With a food color pall
Will their delicate palates confuse!
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
Squeeky, I've been dying to tell you to shut the fuck up, and now seems an appropriate moment, so STFU. You add nothing to the discussion and your putrid attempts at poetry has made Keats and Shelley twirl in their graves. Besides, it is offensive to those of us who actually can write proper poetry but don't feel the need for public approbation.
So, STFU, you pallid, sad excuse for a homo sapien.
And go away.
And GFYS.
Fuck you, Squeeky, you're no reporter, either, and probably not even a girl, or, if one, probably a butt-ugly one with no tits.
Fuck off.
Was that too harsh?
I'll bet 'she' would never touch Goldwasser either.
akak:
Not at $1,800 an ounce I wouldn't. Now, if the price was more reasonable . . .
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
FreeNewEnergy:
Oh, I just bet you are a Scotch drinker! Sooo, here is another Irish Poem to celebrate your discriminating palate:
Glenfiddle
When you think "Scotch", you gotta think "Gall"
Cause don't it just kinda beat all?
That some silly twits bought
A new single malt,
That was labeled as Glen-Ethanol.
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
So... You think Scotch is from Ireland?
css:
Well, if you could pict, the result could be werse.
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
There may be half a dozen Gaelic speakers left in Scotland vs a million or so in Ireland. But they don't make Scotch there.
css:
In 2001 there were over 50,000 speakers. There used to be a whole lot more. As far as making "scotch" in Ireland - well they kinda do but they just can't or won't call it "Scotch." "Scotch" is a subset of whiskey/whisky and lots of folks in many countries make whiskey. The recipes and techniques are all over the place. When I drink whiskey, which is rare anymore because it is unseemly for a proper young lady to want to wallop everybody in a bar, and dangerous - - - I drink Jack Daniels Old No.7. I presume that were that recipe or one close to it, brewed in Scotland, as opposed to Tennessee, it would qualify as "Scotch."
As far as the language stuff, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
Squeeky, I......love you;)
Bought a jug of Sunny D at the dollar store and I knew it wasn't the same. Sure enough, checked against my empties, this one's 40 oz., while the previous ones were 48 oz., so, that's a 17% price hike by my math.
There's no inflation. We're running a leaner economy.
Drink heavily and tell your non-believer fake friends, at their fake barbeque that the economy is fucking fake. It's a solid alternative to anger management, plus, if you're lucky, your fake friends won't invite you to any more parties, so you can drink your own booze without having to listen to their BS.
Just sayin...
Um, you are joking, right. You don't actually drink Sunny D, right?
Sunny D ingredients:
Water, High Fructose, Corn Syrup and 2% or Less of Each of the Following: Concentrated Juices (Orange, Tangerine, Apple, Lime, Grapefruit). Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Beta-Carotene, Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Natural Flavors, Food Starch-Modified, Canola Oil, Cellulose Gum, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Sodium Benzoate To Protect Flavor, Yellow #5, Yellow #6
If you're serious, you'd be much better off drinking Kool-Aid, and adding sugar or Sweet & Low or stevia.
Cherry Kool-Aid ingredients:
Citric Acid, calcium phosphate, red 40, salt, artificial flavor, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), artificial color, blue 1.
Mint tea is really cheap and good.
i went almost bat shit crazy 2 days ago at my local pub...ordered a pint of guinness..as usual
my usual 14 oz glass of guinness ....instead of a real pint 16oz.. ok i can deal with that ..you need a little room to make a buck..
but fuck they got new glasses and now my pint is only 12 oz's
all i got.... was a .....sorry tough luck, thats the way it is
fuck me..!!! the price didn't change
"A 'alf litre ain't enough. It don't satisfy. And a 'ole litre's too much. - Orwell
Next time you go in, bring a flask of your favorite spirit to compensate... You'll get a laugh out of them when you tell them the same thing. If you're a regular they won't kick you out.
You are a man, show them what you are made of and never set foot in there again, ever.
I'm just wondering if filling up the empty bottles with brown water water isn't a little like world financialization in that the good collateral is gone and all thats left is the rehypothecation and credit default swaps
Just put 1/2 oz of 15yr good stuff in each bottle, call it 15yo scotch, have MBIA guarantee the quality and you have a AAA scotch.
Oh jeez people have been replacing the contents of bottles for centuries, but rubbing alcohol and caramel? FFS....
You owe it to yourself. Go, buy a bottle of expensive Scotch... from Scotland...(do I really have to say that?) Minimum 12 year old single malt not a blend. Smell it. Taste it neat, no ice, no water, no mixer. You may not actually like it, particularly if you're under 35 but at least you won't mistake it for rubbing alcohol and caramel. The good ones you can drink neat, no coughing, no roughness. They don't need ice, or water or to be mixed.
Why does this story sound so familiar? Oh right, Gordon’s Bar in Glasgow.. LOL
No Scot_ch pun intended, Winks.
Seriously, I rarely drink spirits outside my home precisley for this reason. Did I suspect it? If I do, it is always a bottled beer I know the taste of already having had it at home. As for wine, they are either red, white or pinkish, because they too are more or less the same. Oh and if Big Adminsitration brings in a national .05 level to DUI, well then you better dilute the alki a great deal...
New Jersey and you, perfect together!
I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned the latest on French restaurants. That if you go out to eat in a fancy French restaurant, you'll be getting a frozen entree, courtesy of Nestle. Naturally this is not disclosed to the patrons. It's because labor costs have gotten so high in France: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732339820457848899059754909...
It really seems to defeat the purpose of going out to eat in a Fancy French Restaurant.
Good reason to buy yer bottled beverages at a store and take them home.
Good luck finding a place that sells (real) absinthe.
W.C.Fields would be apalled! "I never drink water because fish function in it." - Mr. W.C.ƒields.......