
| Chef Ramsey Called Out Gordon Ramsay routinely berates contestants – often in the most colourful terms – on his television shows for their poor sense of taste.But now the celebrity chef’s own tastebuds that are being called into question after he appeared in a TV advert promoting a South Korean beer that can politely be described as bland.In the ad, Ramsay waxes lyrical about Korean food to his two dining companions before downing a mouthful of Cass, a widely sold, but often derided, lager. “Great beer,” he says. Ramsay then declares the beer “bloody fresh” and orders another bottle. Social media users duly sharpened their knives. Ramsay can’t possibly like the “pretty terrible” beer, said one. Cass is “maybe the worst beer in the world”, a second wrote. Another offered a reward for proof that Ramsay was a Cass drinker before its maker, Oriental Brewery, made him a brand ambassador. Ramsay responded saying that Cass was the “the beer of the people” – unpretentious, affordable and the perfect antidote to the spicy, pungent flavours of Korean food. |
Emotional Beverages According to a new study, different varieties of alcohol—liquor, red and white wine, and beer—may trigger different emotions. Hard liquor, for example, most often elicited aggression; red wine, relaxation. Red wine was the most soothing of the libations: about 53% of the participants said it made them feel relaxed. (It was also linked to feeling tired—more than white wine.) And beer was a close second, with 50% of participants reporting that beer made them feel relaxed. Liquor was the least likely to be linked to feeling relaxed—only 20% of the participants said they felt more relaxed after drinking it. But hard liquor was linked to fierier emotions: 30% of people said liquor made them feel aggression (red wine was the least connected to that feeling, at 3%). Almost 60% of the participants said liquor made them feel energetic and confident. And 43% of people associated liquor with feeling sexy. Interestingly, people who fell into the category of alcohol-dependent were five times as likely as non-dependent drinkers to report feeling energized by alcohol. Heavier drinkers were also six times as likely to report feelings of aggression, which suggests heavier drinkers feel more emotions on both ends of the spectrum when they drink. Men were also more likely to report feeling aggression after any type of alcohol, though beer drinkers felt less aggression than men who drank liquor. The big caveat is that this was an observational study, relying on people’s memories of their own motivations and responses |
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| Road Rage A New Mexico brewery that uses "Route 66" in its name faces a lawsuit from a European company that says it owns the beer sales and marketing trademark for the famed American highway and old time TV show about it. Henry Lackey, the owner of the Route 66 Junkyard Brewery in the town of Grants, New Mexico, said that he is fighting the federal lawsuit recently filed by Lodestar Anstalt. That company is incorporated in the tiny European nation of Liechtenstein, with headquarters on the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus. In his response to the lawsuit, Lackey said Lodestar “should not be allowed to use an iconic name, ‘Route 66’ as a trademark because it contributed nothing to what makes ‘Route 66’ great to all Americans.” Lackey said his brewery doesn’t make a beer named after Route 66 but has the name on its brewery. Its beers are named after car parts. |
