Allen's Coffee Brandy is a coffee-flavoured liqueur popular in New England, especially Maine. Allen's Coffee Brandy is prepared and bottled by M.S. Walker, Inc. of Norwood, Massachusetts. [1] The beverage is 60 proof.
In the 1990s into the 2000s, the product was the best-selling liquor product in Maine for about 20 years. [2] Sales in 2008 were 1,100,000 bottles. [3] Gary Shaw, vice president of M.S. Walker, has noted that his company ships "a phenomenal amount" of brandy to Maine each month. [4]
Allen's Coffee Brandy is typically served in a drink consisting of equal parts brandy and milk in a pint glass, sometimes called a "Fat Ass in a Glass". According to Gary Shaw, an executive of the drink's parent company, the brandy's popularity in Maine may originate from fisherman adding it to coffee, "maybe to kind of warm 'em up from the inside as well as the outside". Allen's is also popularly mixed with another Maine staple, Moxie, to produce the "Burnt Trailer", or (with Diet Moxie), the "Welfare Mom". [5]
Consumers of Allen's are known to call the drink by various humorous names, including "Hancock County Panty Remover", "The Champagne of Maine", "Lewiston Martini", and numerous others. [5]
New concoctions and mixers have resulted in new variants and naming conventions. "Maine Breakfast" (alternatively: "Corker") is an Allen's and oat milk.
Allen's came into some legal question when the United States placed a ban on caffeinated alcoholic beverages. However, with a significantly lower caffeine content, produced by the coffee flavorings and not added intentionally as with (the original) Four Loko and the other alcoholic energy drinks targeted by the ban, Allen's Coffee Brandy is still legal to sell. [6]
A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothies and soft drinks. Traditionally warm beverages include coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Caffeinated drinks that contain the stimulant caffeine have a long history.
Moxie is a brand of carbonated beverage that is among the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It was created around 1876 by Augustin Thompson as a patent medicine called "Moxie Nerve Food" and was produced in Lowell, Massachusetts. The sweet soda is similar to root beer, with a bitter aftertaste. It is flavored with gentian root extract, an extremely bitter substance commonly used in herbal medicine.
An energy drink is a type of drink containing stimulant compounds, usually caffeine, which is marketed as providing mental and physical stimulation. They may or may not be carbonated and may also contain sugar, other sweeteners, herbal extracts, taurine, and amino acids. They are a subset of the larger group of energy products, which includes bars and gels, and distinct from sports drinks, which are advertised to enhance sports performance. There are many brands and varieties in this drink category.
The Oregon Bottle Bill is a container-deposit legislation enacted in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1971 that went into effect in October 1972. It was the first such legislation in the United States. It was amended in 2007 and 2011. It requires applicable beverages in applicable sizes in glass, plastic or metal cans or bottles sold in Oregon to be returnable with a minimum refund value. The refund value was initially 5 cents until April 1, 2017, when it increased to 10 cents. The Oregon Legislature has given the Oregon Liquor Control Commission the authority to administer and enforce the Bottle Bill. For COVID-19 related reasons, from March 15, 2020 until July 5, 2021 enforcement was suspended a few times and retailers were allowed to limit acceptance hours. Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC), a private cooperative owned by retailers and beverage distributors, administers the collection and transportation of returned containers and keeps all the unclaimed deposits. Materials from returned containers are sold by the OBRC and proceeds are handed out to beverage distributors. In 2022, the bottle bill was expanded to include canned wine, which will become eligible for redemption on July 1, 2025.
Eggnog, historically also known as a milk punch or an egg milk punch when alcoholic beverages are added, is a rich, chilled, sweetened, dairy-based beverage. It is traditionally made with milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and whipped egg whites. Distilled spirits such as brandy, rum, whisky or bourbon are often a key ingredient.
Grappa is an alcoholic beverage: a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin that contains 35 to 60 percent alcohol by volume.
Aguardente (Portuguese), or aguardiente (Spanish), is a generic term for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume (ABV). It originates in the Iberian Peninsula and in Iberian America.
Liquor is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit, distilled beverage, spirituous liquor or hard liquor. The distillation process concentrates the liquid to increase its alcohol by volume. As liquors contain significantly more alcohol (ethanol) than other alcoholic drinks, they are considered 'harder'; in North America, the term hard liquor is sometimes used to distinguish distilled alcoholic drinks from non-distilled ones, whereas the term spirits is more common in the UK. Some examples of liquors include vodka, rum, gin, and tequila. Liquors are often aged in barrels, such as for the production of brandy and whiskey, or are infused with flavorings to form a flavored liquor such as absinthe.
Container-deposit legislation is any law that requires the collection of a monetary deposit on beverage containers at the point of sale and/or the payment of refund value to the consumers. When the container is returned to an authorized redemption center, or retailer in some jurisdictions, the deposit is partly or fully refunded to the redeemer. It is a deposit-refund system.
A liquor store is a retail shop that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors – typically in bottles – usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence, off-sale, bottle shop, bottle store or, colloquially, bottle-o, liquor store or other similar terms. A very limited number of jurisdictions have an alcohol monopoly. In US states that are alcoholic beverage control (ABC) states, the term ABC store may be used.
Licor 43, or Cuarenta y Tres, is a Spanish liqueur, made in Cartagena, Spain.
Four Loko is a line of alcoholic beverages sold by Phusion Projects of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Four Loko's recipe formerly included caffeine. Phusion operates as Drink Four Brewing Company. Four Loko, the company's most popular beverage, debuted in the United States market in 2005 and is available in 49 states, and in 21 countries including Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, The Bahamas, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, China, Canada and some countries in Europe. The name "Four" is derived from the original drink having four "key ingredients".
Ready to drink packaged beverages are those sold in a prepared form, ready for consumption. Examples include iced tea and alcopops.
Absinthe is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from several plants, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium, together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. Historically described as a highly alcoholic spirit, it is 45–74% ABV or 90–148 proof US. Absinthe traditionally has a natural green color but may also be colorless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as la fée verte. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a liqueur, but is not traditionally bottled with added sugar, so is classified as a spirit. Absinthe is traditionally bottled at a high level of alcohol by volume, but it is normally diluted with water before being consumed.
Moonshine is a generic term for distilled alcoholic beverages made throughout the globe from indigenous ingredients reflecting the customs, tastes, and raw materials for fermentation available in each region. The term commonly applies to small-scale production, which is often illegal or tightly regulated in many countries, in the same order that is for example making food.
There are ten U.S. states with container deposit legislation, popularly called "bottle bills" after the Oregon Bottle Bill, the first such legislation passed.
