‘Far-reaching consequences’ for Kentucky bourbon after LCBO strips U.S. spirits off shelves

Deep blue cities in deep red states can be pretty great places. Austin's another example.

Maybe I'm dreaming, but I hope that all these people suffering because of the GOP makes some red states shift to purple, and some purple ones go solidly blue. But, I really wonder if it's a lost cause.

Under every GOP president in the 21st century, Canada has been attacked. Under Bush Jr it was because Canada refused to join the US in attacking Iraq after 9/11. Canada sent soldiers to Afghanistan (a step-cousin of mine died there), but thought the justification for attacking Iraq just wasn't there. That led to months of tension with Americans boycotting Canadian goods. Of course it wasn't just Canada, it was Europe too (the famous "freedom fries" BS).

Then the US elected Trump, not just once but twice. A quarter century of this kind of thing means it's more than just a fluke This is who the US is, and the country really can't be trusted anymore. Sure, under the next democratic president things might get back to normal for a while, but it's just a matter of time before the country elects someone like Ivanka Trump or Meghan McCain or something.

I don't know if the US will ever win back the world's trust.

Exactly. When it’s a loss of profit to the top it’s “boo hoo think of the workers.” And when it’s profit in surplus it’s “money for the top no money for the workers sry :)”

Thankfully many Americans are starting to see the pattern. The programming is insane and it’s a lot for most to break free from.

Like, you’re exactly right. If you’re worried about labor rights lobby to government for labor rights. Oh what’s that you don’t want that? You just want to guilt Canadians for protecting themselves?

It’s abuse tactics on an international scale. Fuck these assholes. Leck mich im Arsch.

One time I saw a commercial where a Hollywood employee was like “when you download movies for free on the internet, you aren’t hurting the big executives, you’re hurting me.” I thought “wow I had no idea. I had no idea you could download movies for free on the internet.”

Full stop!

They didn't "create" money. They "extracted" it from the working class.

❤️ Much thanks!

Absolutely. I always forget about local distilleries.

Oh, nice! I’ll look for the Niagara one. What Japanese brand are you looking at?

I live in the Chicago area and we have a chain called Binny’s that carries a ton of alcohols from all over. I’d love to see if I can find these.

Thanks for the heads up. I’m willing to spend a little to try something!

Nice! I have always enjoyed the typical Jameson, but I’ll check out the mid tier stuff.

Never had the Jameson black barrel. That’s a new one to try! Never heard of “Swear Nar” but I do like that name. 😃

CO seems a bit complicated for me, being fairly purple.

Looks like 291 is in Colorado Springs, a place further ruined for me by memories of Focus on the Family and Dr. Dobson from my childhood. But at least it isn't Boebert's district I guess.

Stranahan's is Denver though, so that's definitely fair game.

Now you got me thinking about trawling open secrets for donor information by owners...

I think this recommendation is a good segue into how important it is to think about where your money is going.

First of all, it seems obvious to buy Canadian whisky to support Canada. However we're slapping big tariffs on them. That means that when you buy them that's giving that tariff money to the US government, which I think we want to avoid.

Further, we're in a very global economy. Damn-near every brand you've ever heard of is owned by the subsidiary of a subsidiary or some other company.

Canadian club is now owned by Suntory Global Spirits (Formerly Beam-Suntory, as in Jim Beam, they actually consider it to be a part of the Jim Beam brand portfolio) an American company, that is itself a subsidiary of Suntory, a Japanese company.

So an American company is getting a good slice of the profits from Canadian club.

And of course Suntory owns a lot of American brands (like Jim Beam since I already mentioned them) and they might well decide to take some of that Canadian Club money they take in and use it to prop up one of their Kentucky Bourbon brands which ends up funneling money towards whatever crazy right wing nut jobs there stand to profit from that.

So yes, Canadian Club is in fact made in Canada, presumably by Canadian employees, and contributing to the Canadian economy, paying Canadian taxes, etc. but a lot of it is also going to other places, and not necessarily places you want it to go, so it would be wise to weigh that into your decision-making here.

And I'm not trying to badmouth Suntory in particular, in the scheme of terrible megacorps I don't think they're the worst by a longshot (not that they're necessarily at all good either) that's just where I found a jumping off point. I enjoy a lot of their brands, and at least the handful of them that I make some effort to follow still seem to at least be paying lip service to some half decent ideas about things like DEI and sustainability, where some other companies have totally bent the knee to Krasnov.

EDIT: Out of curiosity I just spent a little time researching a few different Canadian whisky brands to see if any of the names I recognize are actually wholly Canadian-owned. It doesn't look like it, it's all huge multinational corporations based in other countries when you dig into them. The only thing I could personally come up with is Glen Breton, which is a Canadian single malt, not a Rye, so it fits the bill as a whisky made in Canada, but it's a totally different style than what most people think of as a "Canadian Whisky." I'm certain there are some smaller craft distillers that are fully owned by Canadians, but I couldn't come up with any big brands that fit the bill. Do what you will with that information. I'm not trying to suggest that anyone should or should not buy Canadian whisky, just that if they want to be mindful about which companies and countries are getting their money, it's a complicated web.

I'll keep an eye out!

Just what I could grab on the shelf conveniently so far.

• Redwood Empire - Pipe Dream
• Woodinville - Straight Bourbon