Maker’s Mark announced it is reducing the amount of alcohol in the spirit to keep pace with rapidly increasing consumer demand.
Yes, lowering demand by denaturing the product should work nicely. I’ve pretty much gone to Four Roses anyway for home use, but I will know better than to order Maker’s in a bar now.
… Yes I know Four Roses is 80 proof. It’s the principle. If I want a stronger bourbon, I’ll pick up Jim Beam Black.
… Sonny Bunch:
As I joked on Twitter, the geniuses at Maker’s Mark are diluting their product in order to ensure that more people have access to a crappier product. This is so remarkably stupid I don’t even know where to begin. All I’ll say is that we have a tried and true solution to this problem: raise the price! When demand for your product increases and you have no ability to make the same product at the same price point, you raise the price of the product. Then, once your production capabilities have caught up or demand slackens, you lower the price again. You don’t damage the brand by making an inferior product.
It’s grimly hilarious. Maker’s is surely the best bourbon brand on the planet. (Remember, please, that Jack Daniels is not bourbon.) The people at Jim Beam must be high-fiving one another in incredulous joy.
The folks at Jim Beam are high-fiving each other because they (Beam, Inc.) own Maker’s?
More here.
Oh right. I forget everyone owns everybody now.
I’m not sure I give them credit for being geniuses, because I think there are people in the world dumb enough to do something like water down bourbon, but I think the guys at MM might be taking a page from New Coke’s playbook. I expect the product to fly off the shelves like the ammunition (against reality) it is, and then the company, basking in the glow of all of its free press, to announce they have seen the light and will never change what is, surely, the best product in the world.
It’s actually the perfect Bourbon for Lent, if you think about it.
Well, the Maker’s Mark folks have announced on their Facebook page that they are killing their version of New Coke before it even hit the market.
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Since we announced our decision last week to reduce the alcohol content (ABV) of Maker’s Mark in response to supply constraints, we have heard many concerns and questions from our ambassadors and brand fans. We’re humbled by your overwhelming response and passion for Maker’s Mark. While we thought we were doing what’s right, this is your brand – and you told us in large numbers to change our decision.
You spoke. We listened. And we’re sincerely sorry we let you down.
So effective immediately, we are reversing our decision to lower the ABV of Maker’s Mark, and resuming production at 45% alcohol by volume (90 proof). Just like we’ve made it since the very beginning.
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Maybe it really was New Coke.