booze

The surprising benefits of seasonal eating

In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night. Your food or mine?   Lou, I am curious about any benefits of eating seasonally — the foods or products that are traditionally […]

A tasting of five fall-friendly organic dark brews

According to hippie wisdom, early fall is a delicate time, holistically speaking. The season’s first chill causes sniffly noses and sour moods. To chase the fall blues away, one alternative-medicine-minded friend recently suggested eating plenty of greens. Well, I already eat plenty of greens. What I really need now is a beer — one dark […]

We’re headed out on the town — join us

We’re in Chicago touring green roofs and green biz ventures, but tonight we want to share all our adventures with you — live and in person — at a Chicago pub near our hotel. Meet us at O’Callaghan’s — 29 W. Hubbard St. between Dearborn St. and State St. We’ll head over there around 9 […]

Raising a glass to sustainability at New Belgium Brewery

Our visit to New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, began with a bike ride into town for some lunch at a Mexican café. So too began the New Belgium company itself. But it wasn’t Mexican food that founder Jeff Lebesch was after during his bicycle tour through Belgium. From the seat of that two-wheeler, […]

Umbra on wine bottle stoppers

Dear Umbra, Here’s a question I couldn’t find an answer to in the Grist archives: What kind of plastic is being used for the corks in wine bottles? If I decide to put a bottle in the cellar for several years, will the plastic leach into the wine? Thanks for your help! Holli B. Portland, […]

Umbra on Jell-O shots

Greetings, A very important discussion among my colleagues this week: is it better to purchase reusable, petroleum-based products (plastic) or to use paper disposables? Specifically, we’re talking about Jell-O shot cups. A recent (and brilliant) invention is this little plastic shot cup with a twistable ring inside. Ostensibly, a flick of the wrist will free […]

Oil industry compares fuel prices to liquor.

Methinks the oil barons might be getting desperate. Either that, or they're doing their brainstorming in, uh, new locations. A new industry "study" makes the following startling announcement: Gas is cheaper than booze!

Here's what the study said: "On a per-barrel basis, gasoline is America's bargain liquid: 10 percent cheaper than bottled water, a third the cost of milk, a fifth the cost of beer, and less than 2 percent the cost of a bottle of Jack Daniels."

I guess that whole "you're only paying half as much as they do in Europe" argument didn't work. Thanks, guys, for bringing it to a level we can all comprehend.