I noticed this just yesterday at the Circle K near me.
I was wondering how a gas station could sell whiskey legally. It's cool that they can seel beer and wine, but this got me thinking...
People buying small bottles of Fireball at their local convenience store might be surprised to learn that they're not getting the same as the stuff that comes from the liquor store - and that difference is at the center of a lawsuit in which a customer is suing the maker of both beverages.
"Fireball Cinnamon Whisky," the spicy-hot booze sold in liquor stores, is the drink most people are probably more familiar with. But "Fireball Cinnamon," which is available at grocery stores, gas stations and other places that are not permitted to sell liquor, is something else. The drink, which debuted in 2020, is actually a malt beverage flavored to taste like whiskey; it's sold in small bottles that usually go for 99 cents.
A recent lawsuit filed against Sazerac, which makes both, claims that the convenience-store version is misleading, because the packaging is almost identical to its boozy older sibling, and one would have to read the very fine print on the bottle to know that it wasn't just a smaller version of the popular liquor. "The label misleads consumers into believing it is or contains distilled spirits," according to a class-action lawsuit brought by Anna Marquez, an Illinois woman who claims she purchased the small bottles assuming they contained whiskey.
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Malt beverages are made by fermentation and are often categorized with beer and wine (popular examples include Colt 45 and hard seltzers). Distilled spirits, like whiskey, are typically more tightly regulated.
The lawsuit takes issue with the way the malt-beverage version's label describes its ingredients: "Malt Beverage With Natural Whisky & Other Flavors and Carmel Color." The lawsuit calls this a "clever turn of phrase" meant to trick consumers into thinking the drink contains whiskey and not just a whiskey flavoring. Shoppers "will think the Product is a malt beverage with added (1) natural whisky and (2) other flavors."
I bet she’s just a tool used by a slick lawyer looking to make an easy buck.
ReplyDeletewell so far all the fireball I've bought has been at the booze shop. And I just checked our stash of minis, and they do not say "malt" on them anywhere. 33% alcohol. So are they the real thing, as the ones in your picture appear to be? I went to the company web site and it said nothing about there being 2 kinds of the product. And yes, 99 cents is the usual price for a mini, but they're cheaper in a sleeve, and cheapest yet in the holiday "party yard" box of 40. Far cheaper than even the 1.75L bottle, and the taste seems exactly the same.
ReplyDeleteSo please do a follow up ... show us a pic of the junk stuff ... link to tasting notes please.
And don't forget the 2 ladies in a candle shop joke.
Aha. The malt stuff says "Liqueur blended with cinnamon whisky" on the lable; or at least the Canadian version does . Proof is the same as the real stuff. Have read that US gas station fireball is half the proof?
ReplyDeletefrom their web site:"Fireball Cinnamon malt-based is 33 proof (16.5% alcohol by volume) and Fireball Cinnamon wine-based is 42 proof (21% alcohol by volume). Fireball Cinnamon contains less alcohol than our 66 proof Fireball Whisky." So there are actually now 3 versions of the stuff. :eye_roll:
ReplyDeleteJust buy a bag of minis at the liqueur store. Same price, but more booze in it.