The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has started publishing an amusing blog. Many of the posts consists of the author explaining how, contrary to popular opinion, the OLCC is not actually a totally archaic government agency that taxes bartenders for the right to work and annoys everyone with their petty regulations. For example:
Did you know that you can special order virtually any item that is not normally carried in the OLCC’s product line? As long as it is available from a source in the U.S., we can probably get it.
Oh, that’s nice. How do I place an order?
You can go to any liquor store to place your special order. The store will write up your request, and submit it to the OLCC for processing. Your order is then placed to the distillery. The distiller will ship your order to OLCC’s warehouse, where it will be transferred to the liquor store. The liquor store will notify you when your items arrive. Special orders generally take about six to eight weeks.
Six to eight weeks? Wow, that’s really fast! OK, anything else I should know?
One thing to note - you must buy this item by the case. This is necessary since suppliers will not ship in less than whole case quantities.
Fantastic! When I’m trying out new, obscure liquors, I need at least a dozen bottles to give them a fair assessment.
(As a point of contrast, my DC liquor store would deliver special orders in less than two weeks, set a bottle aside for me, and put the rest of the case on sale to the public. Even direct mail shipments from Europe arrive in just a few days.)
[Via Things About Portland that Suck, of which the OLCC is definitely one.]
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Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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Off topic here, and apologies for that, but trying out new obscure liquors reminded me. I was thinking there should be a unique liquor of the month club. Something like those wine of the month clubs but that provides a specialized liquor that most people are not likely to have tried. It probably exists already and I’m behind the times. And of course even if it did because of Massachusetts’ puritan shipping laws there would be no booze for me. Anyway…
On topic… that is absurd.