America’s Liqueur!

During the fondue party Saturday, we had much fun revisiting an old friend, the truly awful Redcliff, stunningly advertised as “America’s Liqueur” (only if you want American to come off as harsh, cheap, bad-tasting and the butt of many jokes).

We did determine that:

1. Cream does not make the horrid bouquet, taste, or after-taste go away, or even substantially mellow it.
2. Mixing it with Red Bull, however, does make something that is marginally palatable (despite which the person who most defended the mix refused to take the bottle home with her).

I did a bit of searching online for Redcliff, since I’d not heard much of it lately — and, indeed, most of the info about it (including its home web site) dates back to 2005 through 2006 (it went into nationwide distribution in late 2006).  Since then, nada, which makes me wonder if the stuff is still being made.

I was amused to find this fluff article lamenting how the ostensibly-cola-flavored drink was struggling to find an audience.

At The Thin Man bar in Denver, owner Eric Alstad said he’s not sure what to do with his growing supply of Redcliff. His distributor has thrown in a bottle or two for every large order of vodka. But his patrons seemed to dislike the spirit’s lingering aftertaste.

“I’ve tried getting rid of it at a buck a shot, but nobody buys it,” he said.

Maybe if you paid a buck a shot …

The article talks about how hard it is to break into the drink biz without a big distributor/producer behind you, and about “flavor fatigue.”  To my mind, a better reason is that it’s just nasty stuff.

(Actually, I find it more root beer/sarsaparilla-flavored than cola.  The actual 15 ingredients include “cinnamon, lime, eight-year-old Virgin Islands rum, vermouth, vodka, bourbon bean vanilla, anise and hazelnut” — not to mention “burning.”)

I was even more amused to find that my earlier blog post on the subject was actually included in a serious review on SlashFood:

If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard of Redcliff, it’s because it isn’t very popular. New liqueurs have traditionally been slow to catch on in the US, but this one doesn’t sound that good, so it’s not surprising that it hasn’t been a hit with consumers yet. The biggest problem is that it is reported to have a strong “lingering aftertaste” that can’t be hidden with other mixers and really puts people off.

So … anyone have any 2007 news about Redcliff out there?