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Buckfast Tonic Wine, in the UK is produced in the same way. And it has been much maligned, linked with many alcohol related crimes, particularly in Scotland.

Buckfast Tonic Wine, in the UK is produced in the same way. And it has been much maligned, linked with many alcohol related crimes, particularly in Scotland. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_Tonic_Wine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_Tonic_Wine [2] https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/7702950/buckfast-crime-scotland-police/ https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/7702950/...

mabbo 4y ago
270mg of caffeine and 112ml of alcohol per 750ml bottle. Like three strong coffees and seven shots of vodka in a single serving. I truly think it ought to be taxed heavily to repay the costs that society bares for it's existence.
- Metacelsus 4y ago
  It's the British equivalent of Four Loko.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    It is a bit funny that Four Loko got this reputation, when alcohol+caffeine have been helping people make bad decisions faster for ages (it isn’t like the FDA is gonna somehow ban rum and coke).
    - TheCondor 4y ago
      I don’t know that I’ve ever seen or heard about rum and coke resulting in the same effects as four loko or vodka Red Bull. Could be the formula, could be the intent of the drinkers. I don’t think it’s a cognitive bias, but there is a rowdiness at a party with a keg and then there is a different level at a party with 40s.
      - jonhohle 4y ago
        The median rum and coke drinker is very different from the median Four Loko drinker for any metric except maybe height and weight.
      - SturgeonsLaw 4y ago
        > I don’t know that I’ve ever seen or heard about rum and coke resulting in the same effects as four loko or vodka Red Bull Then I take it you have never been to Australia... https://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/cane-champagne-is-the-most-dangerous-drug-in-australia/ https://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/cane-champagne...
    - fknorangesite 4y ago
      Because there's practically no caffeine in a rum and coke. Very fuzzy napkin-math incoming: if you were to consume an equivalent amount of caffeine as a Four Loko via rum-and-cokes, you've now had about 50oz of rum. The caffeine would, uh, not be the problem. Edit: Hm, though maybe this says more about my "rum, wave a Coke over it" preferences.
      - bee_rider 4y ago
        Haha, that could be it. I guess it is a mixed drink anyway so you could do whatever, but coke has a pretty overpowering taste, so if you want to taste the rum, you’d have to go pretty strong I guess.
        fknorangesite 4y ago
        Yeah. I guess the point is Four Loko has (had, I guess?) ~2.5x the caffeine by volume as Coke does - before adding any liquor to dilute the Coke.
        bee_rider 4y ago
        Fair, another comment mentioned Red Bull and Vodka which would probably have been a better example, but I suspect that’s more a case of “we’d ban it if we could.”
  - red-iron-pine 4y ago
    In college we used to mix Sparks or Four Loco with Vodka -- "maniac juice". Nothing good ever came of it. Redbull mixed with anything e.g. Jager, was also known to lead to terrible things. Sort of an entry level cocaine and scotch.
- galangalalgol 4y ago
  Surely they don't market it as a single serving!? It is fairly weak as far as fortified wines go, but you typically don't drink a whole bottle... As far as the caffeine, the whole bottle has less than a scoop of most pre-workout.
  - mabbo 4y ago
    Market it however you want, but when I lived in Scotland I never watched anyone pour any into a glass, or close a bottle back up. They opened it. They drank it. Chaos followed.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    But you could finish a whole bottle, even if you had a low tolerance for alcohol, because of the caffeine.
  - dbspin 4y ago
    It's equivalent to 'bum wines' in the US. Huge market would be teenagers and problem drinkers. They absolutely drink it in a single serving, it's an incredibly cost effective, high sugar way to get out of your mind. We certainly employed its dubious abilities in my teens.
  - e12e 4y ago
    Market it? No. Then again: > A diet of four bottles a day has been described as 'not conducive to a long life' in a Scottish court.
soylentcola 4y ago
Ah, Buckfast gets ya fucked fast. I remember splitting a bottle with friends on a few occasions when doing a semester abroad in Ireland. Even then we didn't particularly like it, but it was a cheap buzz when we were young and less discriminating.
Thoreandan 4y ago
While looking to see if Buckfast was explicitly banned from import, I did a Google search for '"buckfast tonic" site:gov' giving two hits, one of which was a cardiology report about a 16 year old who'd reported to the ER after drinking it mixed with Red Bull. Yikes.
mustacheemperor 4y ago
I'm not an expert, but I think it's different in that Buckfast is licensed to big commercial distributors but Chartreuse production is quite restricted - hence the current situation. It sounds like this monastery doesn't want to industrialize production in the same way.

mabbo 4y ago

270mg of caffeine and 112ml of alcohol per 750ml bottle. Like three strong coffees and seven shots of vodka in a single serving. I truly think it ought to be taxed heavily to repay the costs that society bares for it's existence.

Metacelsus 4y ago
It's the British equivalent of Four Loko.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  It is a bit funny that Four Loko got this reputation, when alcohol+caffeine have been helping people make bad decisions faster for ages (it isn’t like the FDA is gonna somehow ban rum and coke).
  - TheCondor 4y ago
    I don’t know that I’ve ever seen or heard about rum and coke resulting in the same effects as four loko or vodka Red Bull. Could be the formula, could be the intent of the drinkers. I don’t think it’s a cognitive bias, but there is a rowdiness at a party with a keg and then there is a different level at a party with 40s.
    - jonhohle 4y ago
      The median rum and coke drinker is very different from the median Four Loko drinker for any metric except maybe height and weight.
    - SturgeonsLaw 4y ago
      > I don’t know that I’ve ever seen or heard about rum and coke resulting in the same effects as four loko or vodka Red Bull Then I take it you have never been to Australia... https://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/cane-champagne-is-the-most-dangerous-drug-in-australia/ https://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/cane-champagne...
  - fknorangesite 4y ago
    Because there's practically no caffeine in a rum and coke. Very fuzzy napkin-math incoming: if you were to consume an equivalent amount of caffeine as a Four Loko via rum-and-cokes, you've now had about 50oz of rum. The caffeine would, uh, not be the problem. Edit: Hm, though maybe this says more about my "rum, wave a Coke over it" preferences.
    - bee_rider 4y ago
      Haha, that could be it. I guess it is a mixed drink anyway so you could do whatever, but coke has a pretty overpowering taste, so if you want to taste the rum, you’d have to go pretty strong I guess.
      - fknorangesite 4y ago
        Yeah. I guess the point is Four Loko has (had, I guess?) ~2.5x the caffeine by volume as Coke does - before adding any liquor to dilute the Coke.
        bee_rider 4y ago
        Fair, another comment mentioned Red Bull and Vodka which would probably have been a better example, but I suspect that’s more a case of “we’d ban it if we could.”
- red-iron-pine 4y ago
  In college we used to mix Sparks or Four Loco with Vodka -- "maniac juice". Nothing good ever came of it. Redbull mixed with anything e.g. Jager, was also known to lead to terrible things. Sort of an entry level cocaine and scotch.
galangalalgol 4y ago
Surely they don't market it as a single serving!? It is fairly weak as far as fortified wines go, but you typically don't drink a whole bottle... As far as the caffeine, the whole bottle has less than a scoop of most pre-workout.
- mabbo 4y ago
  Market it however you want, but when I lived in Scotland I never watched anyone pour any into a glass, or close a bottle back up. They opened it. They drank it. Chaos followed.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  But you could finish a whole bottle, even if you had a low tolerance for alcohol, because of the caffeine.
- dbspin 4y ago
  It's equivalent to 'bum wines' in the US. Huge market would be teenagers and problem drinkers. They absolutely drink it in a single serving, it's an incredibly cost effective, high sugar way to get out of your mind. We certainly employed its dubious abilities in my teens.
- e12e 4y ago
  Market it? No. Then again: > A diet of four bottles a day has been described as 'not conducive to a long life' in a Scottish court.

soylentcola 4y ago

Ah, Buckfast gets ya fucked fast. I remember splitting a bottle with friends on a few occasions when doing a semester abroad in Ireland. Even then we didn't particularly like it, but it was a cheap buzz when we were young and less discriminating.

Thoreandan 4y ago

While looking to see if Buckfast was explicitly banned from import, I did a Google search for '"buckfast tonic" site:gov' giving two hits, one of which was a cardiology report about a 16 year old who'd reported to the ER after drinking it mixed with Red Bull. Yikes.

mustacheemperor 4y ago

I'm not an expert, but I think it's different in that Buckfast is licensed to big commercial distributors but Chartreuse production is quite restricted - hence the current situation. It sounds like this monastery doesn't want to industrialize production in the same way.