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Comment by akamaka | Hacker News Reader

Just to clarify, there are three categories of balsamic of varying standards, the highest of which is expensive, aged in multiple barrels, and definitely not widely available in supermarkets.

That being said, it’s a stretch to call the less expensive Balsamic of Modena “fake”, even though it is not made to the same strict standards and permits some additives.

The third category of balsamic condiments made from syrups would be fair to call “fake”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Balsamic_Vinegar#T...

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Which is the sort of market separation you see in Bourbon as well, to spin the analogy back. You can go to any cheap liquor store and find some Bourbon, but the expensive stuff is still hard to find for similar reasons (age, blends vs. single-barrel, etc). It's all still Bourbon, but there's still a quality differential between shelves.

There's also "Tennessee Whiskey" which trades age/maturity for charcoal, which should never rightly be confused with Bourbon, but you'll still see a lot of bars place Jack Daniel right next to real Bourbon or much worse consider it their well Bourbon.

This isn't quite accurate. Tennessee whiskey fully qualifies as bourbon whiskey. It's a marketing decision to call it otherwise. (Which is to say, Tennessee whiskey could be sold as bourbon, but not vice-versa. I believe the same can be said for Gin/Vodka btw.) Details:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_whiskey#Legal_requirem...

Also, in my experience, it's a lot easier to find top-grade bourbon than it is to find Traditional Balsamic Vinegar and I say that living somewhere with state-controlled ABC stores (NC).

Technically speaking gin is just flavored vodka, though the flavoring mechanism is different from what most people think of as "flavored vodka" (flavored via distillation rather than addition of artificial flavor).

It’s specifically flavored with Juniper berries though right? i.e. All gin is flavored vodka but not all flavored vodka is gin.

I think you can be called gin if you're flavored with any botanicals, doesn't specifically have to be Juniper.

Bruni Collin's is very citrusy Spanish gin, I don't think it has juniper in it. Tastes bloody amazing.

Traditionally it’s a mix of juniper and other botanicals, but I don’t think there’s any formal definition that it has to be juniper. I doubt any producer would label a non-juniper-based gin “gin”, though; so much of the flavor that customers think of as being what makes gin gin comes from juniper.

EDIT: scratch that, looks like in both the EU and US a spirit’s “predominant flavor” must be juniper in order for it to be labeled gin. I’m not sure how/who makes that judgment, though.

That's fighting words about Tennessee whiskey where I'm from. ;)

Also, yes, the legal qualifier I forgot (because I just assume it, given where I'm from) was the post-Rectifier term "straight Bourbon", which has:

1) Stricter Age requirements. Which most Tennessee whiskey likely doesn't meet, though without age statements who is to say, eh? Charcoal goes a long way to cover immaturity, which is why it was in the Rectifier playbook in the first place. None of the mass labels today are probably dumb enough to sell anything Rectifier bad like 6 weeks old charcoal vodka, don't get me wrong.

2) Straight Bourbon also has very strict additive rules, which Charcoal definitely doesn't meet.

Tennessee and Kentucky fighting over who makes the better whiskey is as silly as the Hatfield and McCoy war.

Just pour me a finger or two of Old Grand-Dad BiB neat, you drink what you want, and let’s call it a day. :-)

Well, a lot of the Hatfield and McCoy war did cross that border a few times, so might be related. ;)

Mmm, Bottled-in-Bond, an even stricter legal term than "Straight". I'm glad that Heaven Hill has been bringing that term back into vogue and it is getting some of its recognition and glamour back after having been demoted to the bottom shelf (only somewhat unfairly, and partly Heaven Hill's fault in the first place).

> Which most Tennessee whiskey likely doesn't meet

Actually, Tennessee whiskey is required by federal law to be straight Bourbon. The legal wording is "a straight Bourbon whisky produced in the State of Tennessee".

As of 2013, the Tennessee state legislature also requires that Tennessee whiskey be charcoal-filtered through the Lincoln County Process, with exactly one distillery grandfathered in. If charcoal didn't meet the requirements of straight Bourbon, then it would be illegal to sell anything as Tennessee whiskey because that would mean nothing could simultaneously meet the state and federal requirements, and that's obviously not the case.

Steaks from Mc Donalds burgers are not fake. They are pure beef.

What does that even mean?

These days, it tends to mean pink goo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanically_separated_meat

Your link says it has not been sold for human consumption for 15 years. And LFTB has not been used in fast food for five years: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/legal-separation/

dude it's "ground beef"

https://www.beefmagazine.com/beef-quality/dude-it-s-ground-b... https://newfoodeconomy.org/bpi-pink-slime-ground-beef-usda-r...

The USDA only approved that in December.

I strongly suspect McDonalds can't change their processes and supply chain quite that quickly, nor are they likely to take the PR hit now.

That page starts with "Not to be confused with Pink slime" and later goes on to say "mechanically separated beef is considered inedible and is prohibited for use as human food".

McDonalds doesn't use either one, and stopped using the "pink slime" stuff in 2011: https://www.cnet.com/news/pink-slime-in-burgers-mcdonalds-hi...

> "McDonald's does not use lean beef trimmings treated with ammonia, what some individuals call 'pink slime,' in our burgers, and hasn't since 2011," McDonald's website also stated.

They don't use ammonia anymore, sure. Thats hardly the only pink slime, or mear glue out there.

No one needs meat glue for hamburgers.

That analogy doesn't work on any level. Nobody buys a burger, let alone from McDonalds, expecting a steak. And they are indeed all beef, while cheaper balsamic isn't all grape must.

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