What's in your RTD? Part 2: Looking for answers
Is it possible vodka isn't vegan friendly? And I ask Pals the hard questions
Last week I shared my conversation with gin boss Mark Neal where we talked about the booming market for RTDs. Do the cheaper ones all contain ethanol rather than “real” spirits, and would be people care either way?
It turns out vegans might. Student media tsar Fox Meyer writes: “Jesse, we tried to look into this exact issue at Critic a few years ago, but with a slightly different angle. We were curious if the fact that the ethanol byproduct is from Fonterra may mean that some of these RTDs are not vegan. We didn't get far - the contacts I had at Fonterra really didn't seem to understand my questions so it didn't go further than that. Not really a critical issue, but I was always curious to know more.”
I was curious too. I put Fox’s question to a food scientist, whose answer was predictably technical and surprisingly non-definitive. On the one hand “While the whey is extracted from milk the lactose is converted by yeast into ethanol. It could be argued that it is vegan as it is the yeast that produces the ethanol as part of its metabolic processes” but on the other hand “If the protein was extracted from an animal originally then no end of tinkering can change its origin.”
As with most philosophical questions (a lot arguments around eating or avoiding animal products end up being exercises in philosophy, and I mean that in a good way) there’s probably no one correct answer, but a range of answers from which you pick the most convincing to live your life by.
The big question is whether brands should get to make the decision for you. If they aren’t explicit about how their RTD is alcoholised, how do vegans make an informed choice?
Spirits writer Tash McGill thinks our liquor laws are the problem: “RTDs are a confusing and even dangerous world. Up and down the country, people are selling poor quality "spirits" ... poor quality because they are not made from what people think they are made of. Most consumers don't realise that there's no legal requirement for an RTD to be made from actual vodka or gin - it just has to taste like it.”
So perhaps there’s nothing we can do to find out what’s in our RTDs, but might this vegan thing be a way of getting some transparency?
“Weirdly, our label and packaging laws are stricter than our actual ingredient requirements, so the label has to be a verifiable and truthful claim.”
I will be honest and say that a lot of the people I talked to for this piece (not the ones quoted by name) talked about Pals. Pals, the great success story. Pals, the drink that made up two thirds of sales at a recent winery concert. Pals, the “category-changing monster” that perhaps inevitably attracts a bit of negativity to go with the overwhelming positivity.
Does Pals use whey-ethanol in their drinks and label it as something else? “There’s no way of knowing without asking them” said someone. “And they’ll never talk to you.”
I took my chances and sent an interview request via the Pals website.
“You're one of the only RTDs listed as "vegan-friendly", so can I tell vegans Pals is guaranteed not to use ethanol (i think "lactanol" is the local brand name) as an ingredient, or should I tell them it's because the ethanol you use contains no traces of animal products by the time it's in the can, and let them decide whether they're comfortable with that?” I wrote (I might have put this a little less verbosely if I thought I was going to have to use it in print).
Would it be possible to interview somebody from Pals on this and related topics?
“Sure,” the founder Nick replied after approximately one minute and a half. “How is 4pm?”
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“We categorically don’t use whey ethanol in any of our drinks” he said, over a wide ranging conversation which outlined the various choices RTD makers have when it comes to alcohol. He told me Pals is made from "high-quality, triple distilled spirits", rather than a whey- or sugar-based ethanol, and that the brand made the (then more expensive) choice early not to use the local Lactanol. He was reluctant to speculate who might be using it, or criticise them if they were.
To be honest, he just generally came across like a nice, transparent guy who didn’t want to speak ill of anyone else - "we are all in many ways doing similar things, just in different ways", is his take on the varying approaches, and that seems a pretty good place to conclude this mini-investigation, too.
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It’s a good opportunity to reflect on the stories we’re willing to believe. As someone keen to write an exciting, subscriber-attracting newsletter, I found the appeal of an inside scoop about a darling brand pretty irresistible. If Pals had (understandably) been too busy or too focused to do an interview I would probably have just assumed what the truth was. As a media story, the actual truth is possibly less delicious, but sometimes the boring stories can ultimately feel more nourishing.
God bless the collab dinner
I was at the first of two sittings for Inca Ponsonby’s second birthday celebration, featuring owner Nic Watt and guest chef Giulio Sturla from Mapu. What does it take to seat and serve 85 people a five course meal with matching wine then get them out the door two hours later so that another 85 people can enjoy the same experience? Skill, courage and probably a bit of luck. Fortunately Nic Watt had all three - it was a brilliant meal and everyone arrived and left happy.
The next hot Auckland collab will be Regnar Christensen at Lillius. Ex Ortega Fish Shack in Wellington, Regnar had a brief and great Auckland run before settling at the beautiful Black Barn Bistro in Hawkes Bay. He and Lillius chef Fraser McCarthy will be designing a degustation menu of snack items: a "Snackastation" of 20 courses in total for $200pp. Sunday 24 March from 12pm and last booking at 4.30pm.
There’s a great party vibe at one-off events like this and who doesn’t love a Sunday session? Bookings available via website or phone.