Save Our Cider

[Sibling DavidH]

In yesterday's Budget the Chancellor increased the tax on cider by 10%. This hurts the H family personally, of course, but it's nastier than that.
Here in Herefordshire and also in Somerset, cider-making is a big industry and this will most likely cost jobs.
Now, what a surprise! - these two counties elect Conservative and Lib-Dem MPs.  In neither area does Labour ever get a look-in.  Well, well....
BTW the Wurzels are angry, too!

[Aggie]

Isn't this a bit of a bid to stop overconsumption of very cheap, nasty ciders?

I wish these blaggarts (including the AB & BC governments here) would quit trying to tax things across the board to prevent overconsumption , and instead institute a minimum price at the counter (I have issues with minimum prices at the bar, but not on purchases from a vendor). Putting a % tax on the stuff means that the premium brands get noticeably more expensive while the cheap stuff is still cheap.  Putting in a minimum price, OTOH, makes premium brands more competitive and should drive the minimum quality upwards.

Canadian booze prices would blow your mind, I'm sure, and it's mostly taxes. I don't think I've been to a country with more expensive alcohol than here.

[Swatopluk]

Canadian booze prices would blow your mind, I'm sure, and it's mostly taxes. I don't think I've been to a country with more expensive alcohol than here.

Never been to Scandinavia, I presume.

[Sibling DavidH]

Isn't this a bit of a bid to stop overconsumption of very cheap, nasty ciders?

That's what they claim, though everyone here thinks precisely what you just said.  It won't be the cheap'n'nasty stuff that goes out of production, but the quality ciders made by small firms.
The political point has been widely commented on in the national press.  Whatever the motives, the government would not do this if these areas voted Labour.  Since they came in in 1997 they have consistently hacked away at the economic base of country areas, which they see as full of posh "toffs" who ride horses and elect Conservative MPs.

[Aggie]

Shoddy politics, that...  aren't you supposed to try to gain votes, not reinforce voting preferences that work against you?

It's also totally bogus as a control technique - like putting a tax on orange juice to control consumption of Sunny Delight.    If the cheap-glog manufacturers do feel the pinch, they can simply reformulate to evade the definition of cider.  The people drinking that glog aren't much concerned about what it's called or flavoured with, just that it's sweet enough to cover the alcohol taste and cheap enough to get blotto for a few pounds (equivalent beverages are generally consumed by teenage girls here; proper drunks stick to cheap, nasty extra-strength beer).

Never been to Scandinavia, I presume.

Nope, but I'm curious to compare.

[Darlica]

Umm OK.

Let's take a product and a brand I know you can find in Canada because you where the one recommending it to me.

Appleton Estate, Rum, 700 ml, 249.00 Skr (Swedish krowns)
that would be 35.26 CAD or 25.58 €

[Griffin NoName]

They should put on an inverse tax: the cheaper the product, the higher the tax.

[Aggie]

Ayuh, Sweden is worse, but we are closer to Jamaica - how about Absolut or Finlandia vodka (can't think of any other Scandinavian exports offhand)?

Rule-of-thumb here is about $20-$25 CAD for a 750 ml bottle of a standard or domestic brand of spirits, if you are shopping at a cheap liquor store, and about $30-$35 CAD for premium spirits or liqueurs. There's tax and deposit on top of those, so it works out closer to the upper end of those ranges, generally, and most liquor stores charge the top end of the range.

Beer is generally around $10 - 12 per six pack for domestic mass market lagers, and more like $13-15 for microbrews or mainstream imports (some superpremiums are up to $20/6 and single imports can be any price).

No point pricing wine, but we rarely see anything remotely drinkable under $8, whereas the US gets $2 table wines that aren't completely terrible, or so I've heard (ask Zono).

*rumble* to Griffin.  BC proposed taxing by alcohol content, which upset me because I like high-alcohol premium beers (which are sometimes better liver-killing value than cheap standard lagers).  I say let's subsidize small premium domestic products and to hell with the multinational production lines.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

US$2 is possible but rare, $4 is more possible and you can definitively find a drinkable wine for $6 - $8 (even imported, thank the gods!). Sometimes you can find some decent cheap stuff on 1.5 lt bottles, the problem being that ideally you should drink the bottle the day you opened it or at least the next day, so a double bottle of drinkable California wine may not be as drinkable two days after.

Somebody should make big decent wine boxes with a bag and a dispenser so that it doesn't get oxygen while served allowing you to conserve it a bit more. Or something to prevent damage to your liver...  

[The Meromorph]

Haven't looked recently, but I used (a few years ago) to buy a Romanian Pinot Noir for under $2 a bottle. And I would have not felt it overpriced at $15 - $20. As evidence that it's not just poor judgement on my part, my wife likde it a lot, and the only red wines she's ever liked was a couple of Clarets that sold for $40 and $54 a bottle in 1980.

[Swatopluk]

No great fan of alcoholic beverages in general (although I don't always say no to a good red Krimskoje sparkling wine. That will be half a bottle a year).

I think for Europe Iceland will take the crown for most expensive alcoholic drinks.

[Lindorm]

Absolut Vodka retails for SEK 239:- in a 700ml bottle here in Sweden. That translates to about €23,50. This price does contain a brand premium -a good domestic brand, Kronvodka sells for about €2 less, at the same alchoholic content.

A good single malt scotch whisky, such as Bowmore 12 years, retails for SEK 399:- or roughly € 39.

By the way, isn't there a proposition to change the taxation of whisky in the UK, too? I remember reading some news items about scottish distillers protesting the proposed changes, claiming that it would lead to loss of jobs and distillery closures.