THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!

Back in 1990 when I worked in the radio news department at WTMJ we produced a number of weeklong series of reports. Five days, five segments on one selected topic broadcast during critical morning drive. One of them was the poor customer service in America.

Every week before the first part aired the station ran an ad promoting the series. I suggested “Service Stinks.” It was rejected for something else that I don’t recall, but you get the message.

That was more than 30 years ago. Performance hasn’t improved.

We’ve all been there. The drive-thru order that’s not even close to being correct. The lazy young staffer who will never work up a sweat who tells you to “Have a nice day” but wouldn’t be enthusiastic about it if his/her life depended on it. The person on the end of the phone you desperately need assistance from but is 0% concerned.

FOGEY ALERT: America’s work ethic has deteriorated. Those youngins just don’t work as hard as we used to.

Scott Morefield is a columnist at one of my favorite wesbites, Townhall. Morefield writes about how he couldn’t get a simple smoothie one night. But the issue is far more serious than a missed drink.

Read it all here.

CULINARY NO-NO BONUSES

Vodka in a cardboard bottle?
By MarketWatch

We’re about to head into April, which is Earth Month. And that had me thinking about booze with an earth-minded point of view. Of course, there are wines made with biodynamic practices. Or grain-to-glass whiskey.

But here’s something else: A vodka that’s bottled in…cardboard.

Half Shell Vodka, a newly launched spirit made by Distillery 98, a micro distillery located in the Florida Panhandle village of Grayton Beach, is indeed packaged just like that. The bottle, which has the same familiar shape as the traditional Bordeaux-style glass wine vessel, comes courtesy of a British manufacturer, which markets it by noting that it has a “carbon footprint up to six times lower than a glass bottle.”

Distillery 98 co-owner Harrison Holditch told MarketWatch that the eco-conscious commitment doesn’t end there. The distillery uses locally sourced corn to make Half Shell Vodka. But the name of the spirit refers to the Panhandle’s famed oysters — and the vodka is distilled using what’s billed as a “one-of-a-kind activated coconut carbon and oyster shell filtration system.” Plus, as Holditch says, “Our distillery is about four miles straight from the beach.”  

Holditch admits that shipping the cardboard bottles from England diminishes the carbon footprint-saving aspect somewhat. But he said he has ambitions to manufacture the bottles locally. And he believe it’s only a matter of time before others hop on the cardboard-bottle bandwagon. “I think it’s the future of our industry,” he said.

What we think about it

Well, the packaging is certainly different: It has the feel of a cardboard box, but it holds the liquid without any issues (there’s a liner pouch inside the cardboard shell). As for the vodka itself, it has an appealing flavor profile on the sweet side — that’s probably the corn talking — with a clean finish.

How to enjoy it

There’s no difference pouring out your vodka from a cardboard or glass bottle, so pour away. Holditch says he likes using the vodka in a martini. But a caveat: Right now, Half Shell is available only in its home state of Florida, though there are plans to expand beyond that soon.

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