Alabama backs down on targeting margarita pitchers
In these hot summer months, nothing refreshes like a margarita. But in Alabama, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board had banned pitchers of this limey and refreshing libation. Seriously.
R Street’s Cameron Smith exposed the ban and advocated for its repeal in AL.com after a series of email exchanges with ABC representatives:
The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) doesn’t want you wasting away in Margaritaville, so they’ve banned pitchers of the frozen concoction outright.
No, I’m not joking.
But we shouldn’t be surprised. This is the ABC that cracked down on people drinking while dining on the sidewalks in Mobile. It’s the same ABC that cut a deal to impose a 5 percent liquor mark-up to help the legislature and the governor enact a back-door tax hike.
Now the agency has taken to reminding licensees of its legal ‘interpretation’ that beer is the only alcoholic beverage that may be served in a pitcher…
ABC claimed it was concerned with the tequila in margarita pitchers “settling” over time, which could lead to situations where the first few drinks poured from the pitcher had less alcohol than the ones from the bottom of the pitcher. As Smith pointed out, this amounted to an argument that a group of legal adults “can’t figure out how to handle a pitcher of margaritas shared among them.”
Smith’s column generated enough outcry among Alabama residents that Dean Argo, ABC’s government relations manager, took to AL.com to announce that the board would no longer target margarita pitchers. In short, ABC has backed off, at least for now. (The Associated Press also covered the reversal).
While this was a clear win for margarita lovers across the state, Argo ominously suggested that the state may still draw a line between which types of drinks can be served in pitchers and which cannot. The dividing line would appear to be if the drink in question is “customarily” served in pitchers. So, margaritas and beer would seem to be safe, but what about less clear cases like mojitos? Mojitos are certainly served in pitchers sometimes, but is it “customary” to serve them that way? And how about bottled cocktails, which have become all the rage in the cocktail world? Are they a “pitcher,” and if so, are they “customary”?
The ABC’s decision to draw the line at what types of drinks are “customarily” put into pitchers is the type of ambiguous legal phrase that only a government lawyer could love. Call it “pitcher ambiguity,” and suffice it to say R Street’s team will be the first to blow the whistle if more pitcher shenanigans go down in Alabama.
Note: Cameron Smith has also been tracking and writing about the Alabama ABC’s attempt to enact a stealth tax increase by increasing the state liquor mark-up. Read more about that here.
Image by Danny E Hooks
