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Posted on October 30, 2009 - by Greg Warwick

State of Maine Attorney General Bans Sale of Fentimans to Minors

Chances are that if you found your way to our blog today, it would be to read about our products and perhaps gain some additional insight into the “brew-haha” taking place in the state of Maine.  Just as likely, you’ve read some of the articles about this in The Bangor Daily News, Slashfood.com, Fark.com, in one of the hundreds of national (New York Times, NPR, SF Chronicle) and local newspapers that picked up the AP story that ran yesterday, an equal number of blogs that have picked up on it, or even (fresh off the press) our British brothers’ response to this all (including Fentimans, Ltd at their home office in Hexham, Northumberland, UK.)  And you may be asking yourself, it’s pretty clear how the Brits feel about this, but what about the folks at the North American office?  Well, let’s have a chat.

On Solid Ground – We’re a Soda (or “Soft Drink,” if you must)

First, we firmly stand on the ground that Fentimans is in the right by offering our Botanically Brewed Beverages (soft drinks, or as we prefer, sodas and mixers) to persons of all ages throughout North America.   In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows that soft drinks and other beverages under 0.5% alcohol by volume are considered “non-alcoholic” and may be served to persons of all ages.  Canada has similar guidelines.  Routinely, flavorings use ethyl alcohol as a carrier and these are used in almost all soft drinks, such as Coke, Pepsi, IBC root beer, and just about every other soft drink on the market.  Additionally, beverages that are made by a “natural fermentation” process that contain less than 0.5% alcohol also fall into this same category.  These would include other fermented soda brands such as Bundeberg Ginger Beer and Kombucha, which is a fermented tea with purported healthy effects (that I’ll leave up to their companies to prove/defend).

“Imitation Liquor?”

Second, the reason that the state of Maine Attorney’s General office banned Fentimans for minors (under 21), was that they determined that the Fentimans bottle gave the “appearance, taste and smell … designed to carry the impression to the purchaser that the beverage has an alcohol content” and it was therefore deemed an “imitation liquor.”  The reason that I specifically mentioned IBC Root Beer, above (or you could just as easily use Sprecher’s as an example, since the company also brews beer and puts their sodas in the same bottles) is that these sodas could easily be taken as a beer bottle from their shape.   Since they use extracts in their products and therefore contain trace amounts of alcohol, why shouldn’t they also be banned for sale to minors in Maine? And how about other little guys like us just trying to make ends meet, like Ed & Pete’s Old Fashioned Lemonade from Rhode Island?  Chances are, they are distributed in Maine as well.  Could their bottle be taken as a beer bottle?  The clear answer is that these products should not be taken as “imitation liquors,” and neither should Fentimans sodas.

A Little Common Sense and Perhaps a Teaching Moment, Too

Third, we’re asking for some plain old-fashioned (appropriate word for our time-honored, traditional sodas) common sense when it comes to the subject of alcohol.  Why not use Fentimans as a teaching moment to educate your children about alcohol?  Perhaps it would be good for them to know about fermentation and that minute amounts of alcohol are in any number of products that we consume.  Then get to real topic about true alcoholic beverages.  Of course, we support zero tolerence when it comes to minors consuming adult beverages (beer, wine, spirits, malternatives [like Mike's Hard Lemonade] and other fruit-based beverages over 0.5% alcohol).  But let companies such as Fentimans do what we have been doing for decades (104 years) and continue to make and offer all-natural, Botanically Brewed Sodas. (Ginger is our base in most of our products as a core botanical and does have some wonderful health characteristics, but we’ll leave that for another entry.)

What do you think?  We would love to have you weigh in, both in your responses below, and in your blogs, which you are welcome to include in your posts.  Thanks for your support & understanding.

Cheers!

Posted on October 29, 2009 - by Greg Warwick

The Fentimans story. You’ve got to start somewhere!

Life is a story. A third of the fun is living it, another third is in telling it and the final slice is enjoyed in hearing others give their spin on it.  First person is always best.  This is the living, telling and retelling of Fentimans and I hope that you will join us.  My name is Greg Warwick.  Welcome to our blog!

In the beginning…

The Fentimans story began in 1905 when Thomas Fentiman, an iron puddler from Cleckheaton in Northern England, was approached by a fellow tradesman and asked to make him a loan.  A deal was struck and, as was the custom in those times, an Englishman’s word was his bond.  All that was required was a handshake and some security – in this case a recipe for Botanically Brewed Ginger Beer and Shandy.   However, the loan was never repaid and Mr. Fentiman became the owner of a rather unique and ultimately delicious recipe for success.

And what was the recipe?  Well, it’s a secret, but what I can tell you is that the ginger beer was made by adding bruised ginger to water and boiling it.  After a period of time, the temperature was reduced and sugar and brewer’s yeast were added and the mixture began to ferment in huge vats.

Toward the end of the 7 day process, most of the larger ginger was removed and the yeast crust was scraped off the surface of the vats.  Then other natural flavourings, juice and water were added.  In those days, fermentation wasn’t regulated as it is today and the product wasn’t pasteurized, so the fermentation might continue in the reusable stoneware jugs, called ‘gray hens,’

and the level of alcohol could fluctuate slightly, but was generally less than 1 percent.  Today, the product is pasteurized in glass bottles and the percentage of alcohol is fixed below 1/2%, so the products are legally classified as “non-alcoholic” sodas and may be consumed by anyone of any age.

By the 1950’s, Fentimans employed 250 people  spread across five northern factories, and its soda wagons (horse drawn and later trucks) were criss-crossing the region, doling out ginger beer in the ‘grey hens.’   But life is about change and like so many family-run companies, the family’s members aged and withdrew money from the business, while the market for Fentimans declined as demand for door-to-door delivery was replaced by customers shopping in a new kind of store called a “supermarket” that stocked mass-produced soft drinks from major companies.  By the late 60’s, the last factory had closed and Fentimans went completely into mothballs by the mid-70’s.

Life is not linear.  A flashback…

In the 1960’s, a young boy played with equipment that crushed the ginger and listened to stories his grandfather told about grey hens exploding in the back of Fentimans’ horse-drawn wagons when it was hot and the fermented ginger beer couldn’t be contained in the jugs any longer.  Later as a teen, he would use the stoneware jugs as target practice, only to see them sell for over £50 (about $85) today.

The boy, Eldon Robson – great-great grandson of Thomas Fentiman – retained all these memories and stories until the late 1980’s when talks with relatives and friends encouraged him to bring back his family’s beverages.  After years of planning and development, Fentimans was re-born as Fentimans, Ltd in 1994 with a retro-style bottle and label that reflected the brand’s Victorian past.

Fitful growth & distribution expansion into the global markets

Thanks to consumers’ increasing desire for real food produced in the artisan way, Fentimans began to grow in popularity once again in the UK, gaining distribution with Waitrose and Tesco .  Before long, countries like Russia and Japan had discovered Fentimans and in 1996, so had the US furnishings chain, Restoration Hardware, which ordered containers for their sophisticated stores.  As a result of a 1999 article in the UK about retailer Waitrose, Dean & DeLuca approached Fentimans to carry the sodas in the US and distributors began to carry the line in 2000.  In 2001, Bread & Circus, later acquired by Whole Foods, in New England purchased the line through distributor British Aisles.  A West Coast US distributor was added in 2003 and more specialty stores began to carry the nostalgic line. In 2004, Whole Foods in New York began to purchase Fentimans and distribution expanded into Chicago through European Imports.

In 2006, Canadian Craig James met Eldon Robson and began to import Fentimans into Canada.  With the increasing costs of importing from the UK, Mr. James discussed the potential of producing Fentimans in North America.  After plans were completed, Fentimans North America, Inc. (FNA) was established in April 2008 and production began at The Lion Brewery in November of 2008 with imported raw materials (“faithful to the originals”).  Here’s a photo from the Fentimans North America’s first booth at the Fancy Food Show in New York, in June 2008.

Of course, there hundreds of stories yet to be told in this brief history, above, and many more to follow.  But the juiciest part of life is in the here and now, so let’s get on with it.  Here is the current product range for Fentimans: Traditional Ginger Beer, Curiosity Cola, Victorian Lemonade, Mandarin & Seville Orange Jigger, Dandelion & Burdock, Shandy and Tonic Water.  Full descriptions of the products and more can be found on the Fentimans North America website or for a uniquely British perspective, check out the UK site.  Cheers!