VERBAL ABUSE IN PRODUCT NAMES

There was a time when Democratic Republics were anything but Democratic. In food products, the words ‘fresh’ and ‘natural’ have often been open to widely differing interpretations. But verbal abuse in product names has become rife. Since returning from my summer holiday, I have noted four such examples. In The Grocer on 16th August there was mention of a brand called Vodkat Smoothies. This highly alcoholic drink seems a very long way away from pure fruit smoothies to me. The article was next to a piece about a Chilean wine producer developing a blueberry functional wine drink, described as “the Red Bull of wine”. Yes, word for word. The summer edition of Italy’s Il Mondo della Birra reported on Aqua 21 – a new grape liqueur with 21% alcohol by volume. Not so much aqua, but I took it all in good spirit. This was beaten by a nose, however, when France’s LSA on 4th September provided an update on the geographic expansion of the US energy drink Cocaine, which contains 3.5 times the caffeine of most other energy drinks and fortunately none of what it says on the tin. I suspect anyone reading this will have other examples and look forward to sharing them.