economics of drinking [Booze]
2013 Nov 13
My mother used to buy some kind of no name alcohol at the LCBO - maybe "Alcool"
can't remember, this was in the 70s. To it she would add sugar and coffee and make coffee liquor. BUT....This was back in the days when all the coffee we ever saw was INSTANT. She invested in the "best" instant coffee for this project:
Maxim Freeze Dried Instant Coffee.
Looking back I'm surprised we all lived to tell the tale!! But we all thought it was deelish!!
can't remember, this was in the 70s. To it she would add sugar and coffee and make coffee liquor. BUT....This was back in the days when all the coffee we ever saw was INSTANT. She invested in the "best" instant coffee for this project:
Maxim Freeze Dried Instant Coffee.
Looking back I'm surprised we all lived to tell the tale!! But we all thought it was deelish!!
2013 Nov 14
Global produces a 94% abv product that you can get at the SAQ, but it ain't cheap - $63.25 for 1.14 L
www.saq.com
www.saq.com
2013 Nov 14
Of course you can still buy it in Quebec. That's where I get mine.
Yes. I illegally transport alcoholic beverages across provincial borders for commercial purposes. I'm a rebel.
That $63.25 is for 94% alcohol. Bring that down to 40% and the cost comes down equally, to around that same $30/L that krusty was talking about.
Global can get away with this because their product is only 94%. In order for it to be considered NGS (neutral grain spirit), it has to be 95%. That's a completely different category.
I'm looking into the option of getting an excise duty user's license so I can buy NGS straight from the distilleries, but it's a hell of a lot of paperwork.
BTW, nice batch there krusty. If I wasn't selling my vanilla to other people, I might be giving that a try myself. Or were you talking about some other internationally renowned vanilla producer?
HOWEVER, they don't sell it in the 1.14 L bottles anymore.
Here's why: At the SAQ Depot, you get a discount based on the number of bottles you would buy. That worked out great for me because when I get booze to make vanilla I'm always dropping about a thousand dollars. Global wouldn't allow them to discount the price further than the pretty reasonable price they were already selling it at. So, the largest size you can get now is the 750 ml bottle. This is a pain in a couple of ways. The 1.14 was a much lighter plastic bottle. It is still on the website, so maybe they've changed that policy again.
Oh, well. I can live with the situation as it is. It's still pretty cheap.
Yes. I illegally transport alcoholic beverages across provincial borders for commercial purposes. I'm a rebel.
That $63.25 is for 94% alcohol. Bring that down to 40% and the cost comes down equally, to around that same $30/L that krusty was talking about.
Global can get away with this because their product is only 94%. In order for it to be considered NGS (neutral grain spirit), it has to be 95%. That's a completely different category.
I'm looking into the option of getting an excise duty user's license so I can buy NGS straight from the distilleries, but it's a hell of a lot of paperwork.
BTW, nice batch there krusty. If I wasn't selling my vanilla to other people, I might be giving that a try myself. Or were you talking about some other internationally renowned vanilla producer?
HOWEVER, they don't sell it in the 1.14 L bottles anymore.
Here's why: At the SAQ Depot, you get a discount based on the number of bottles you would buy. That worked out great for me because when I get booze to make vanilla I'm always dropping about a thousand dollars. Global wouldn't allow them to discount the price further than the pretty reasonable price they were already selling it at. So, the largest size you can get now is the 750 ml bottle. This is a pain in a couple of ways. The 1.14 was a much lighter plastic bottle. It is still on the website, so maybe they've changed that policy again.
Oh, well. I can live with the situation as it is. It's still pretty cheap.
2013 Nov 15
When I made coffee liqueur long ago I used Camp Coffee concentrate (www.google.ca) to flavour it, not knowing that (according to Wiki) it is a Scottish product containing 4% caffeine-free coffee essence and 26% chicory essence.
southshore, having made cold-brewed coffee concentrate I think that I'd use it to flavour my homemade liqueur nowadays - it'd likely be better than using instant coffee.
Just wondering - do they still sell freeze-dried coffee?
southshore, having made cold-brewed coffee concentrate I think that I'd use it to flavour my homemade liqueur nowadays - it'd likely be better than using instant coffee.
Just wondering - do they still sell freeze-dried coffee?
2013 Nov 17
I "remember" Camp syrup- my dad used to buy it to mail to friends in Romania as they really liked it!
Camp syrup was/is tasty I recall. No idea it had caffeine as I have not looked at a bottle lately.
When we were kinds my dad would let me sister and I use the Espresso machine to make coffee and then I remember finding some recipe where you mixed in ice cream to make a very tasty drink and it was topped w real whip cream.
I'm so tempted to make that now,but coffee at this hour is not good for me...
-not that giving kids real strong coffee is great either!
Camp syrup was/is tasty I recall. No idea it had caffeine as I have not looked at a bottle lately.
When we were kinds my dad would let me sister and I use the Espresso machine to make coffee and then I remember finding some recipe where you mixed in ice cream to make a very tasty drink and it was topped w real whip cream.
I'm so tempted to make that now,but coffee at this hour is not good for me...
-not that giving kids real strong coffee is great either!
krusty
I have read some scholarly articles which claim you could head to your local Walmart and spend $38 dollars on white sugar, tomato sauce and lemon juice, then drive across the lot to Bulk Barn to buy $5 worth of bread yeast. Toss it all into a 150L fermenter and watch it bubble away. Here is a pic I found on the net from one of those popular search engines.
If there was a scientific method to clean & concentrate this 11% ABV 'wine' to something along the lines of 40% ABV you would end up with about 40L of net product or just over $1/L plus the cost of fuel for the scientific concentrator.
As the holidays are approaching, one must be prepared and stock up.....