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10/4/08
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22 comments
Allen's brandy hits 1M mark in 2007 sales
For the first time in its complicated history in Maine, Allen’s Coffee Brandy has become the first brand of alcohol to sell more than 1 million bottles in the state in a year. According to 2007 sales figures released by the state Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations, 1,024,282 bottles of various sizes of Allen’s Coffee Brandy were sold in Maine last year, or about 30,000 more bottles than in 2006. The total value of the bottles sold in 2007 was $12.2 million. In 2006, there were nearly 994,000 bottles of Allen’s Coffee Brandy worth a total of $11.8 million sold in the state. The year before that 992,000 bottles worth $11.6 million were sold in Maine. Because the state tracks the sales of different sizes of alcohol brands separately, Allen’s Coffee Brandy holds four of the state’s top 10 selling liquor units in 2007 — one of the reasons it often is referred to as “the champagne of Maine.” Allen’s largest unit size, a 1.75-liter bottle or half-gallon, held the top spot with 321,712 units sold in 2007 for a total value of $5.7 million. The brandy’s 1-liter bottle size ranked third, the 750 ml size ranked sixth and the 375 ml size ranked ninth. No other brand of liquor appears more than once on the top 10. Allen’s Coffee Brandy has been the top-selling liquor in Maine for at least the past decade, state officials have said. Michael Boardman, assistant director of the state’s alcohol bureau, said Friday that officials do not know why the brand of alcohol sells so well in the state. “We’re not really sure. A lot of people ask that question,” he said. “It’s very unique to Maine. It doesn’t do well in most other locations.” Orloff Vodka, Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum and Bacardi Light made up the usual group of brands competing for second place. Orloff, Maine’s fourth-most-popular brand in 2006, was the second-most-popular brand last year, selling 302,862 bottles worth a total of $2.9 million. Captain Morgan’s sold more than $5 million worth of rum in Maine but came in third in quantity with 263,040 bottles sold. Bacardi Light was fourth with 245,491 bottles sold. Half-gallon bottle sizes of vodka brands Smirnoff, Absolut and Five O’Clock rounded out the top 10. Sales of alcohol in Maine do not always increase from year to year. Captain Morgan’s sold about 10,000 more bottles in the state last year than it did in 2006, according to the state’s list of last year’s top 25 selling brands. The same list indicates that sales of Bacardi Light decreased by about 8,000 bottles from 253,000 sold the year before. The national economic downturn may be forcing Mainers to spend less money on things such as building supplies and gasoline, but Boardman said he was not qualified to explain why Allen’s Coffee Brandy sales in the state have increased. He said it is likely that Allen’s revenues will continue to rise in Maine. “I have no reason to believe that it won’t, based on the trends,” Boardman said. Perhaps because of its dominant sales position in Maine, Allen’s Coffee Brandy also has been associated with Maine’s substance abuse troubles. Members of the state’s criminal justice community have said the brand name frequently appears in police incident logs, along with Budweiser beer and Twisted Tea, a blended brand of tea and alcohol. These other brands are not classified as liquor and therefore are not included on the state’s list of top-selling units of hard alcohol. In the 1990s, state Superior Court Judge Robert Crowley was quoted as saying coffee brandy “is very prevalent in the criminals who come before me. I don’t know whether brandy is more bang for your buck but it runs the gamut.” “I see it in bar fights, domestic assaults, [drunken driving] and worse crimes,” the judge said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Comments
"champagne of Maine" indeed!!! When your too poor to drink Kahlua, Allens coffee brandy is the next best thing. Mainers need to get buzzed out since Maine's economy is in the tank. No money for heating oil? Allens coffee brandy will keep Mainers warm through the long Maine Winter. Maine's favorite drink "fat ass in a glass". Don't see much pot in bar fights, domestic assaults, drunken driving and worse crimes, do ya? I want to know how much revenue the state made on liquor in 2007. HAHAHA go figure...Allen's Liquid Panty Remover....way to go.... HAHAHAHAHAHA Alcohol would be considered a controlled substance if it was invented today. That much in Allens bought in a year in the State and no one has money for heating oil. Makes you wonder were peoples priorities are!! and this is our news in maine. the reason so many mainers drinks good old goofy brandy is because they can get the mixer with WIC STAMPS!!!! I know this is true my best freind did it her kids were young and it was the only reason she drank ALLENs!!! That has got to be one of the most obtuse statements I've ever read!! I find it hard to believe that anyone with an ounce of common sense would believe that this is why Allens is so popular in Maine...and remember this goes back much farther then the WIC program. Oh well, you know what the say about the company a person keeps!!! By the way, I would've thought that after 25 years of calling it "panty remover" and "fat ass in a glass" that Mainers would've come up with some better catch phrases. Christ they've been calling it that since I graduated....in 1979!!! Hey if we could get question 1 passed, just think how much more money this would give the State of Maine...we maybe able to make it. to Pal shadows: I'm far from obtuse...and I nerve would have done that myself...never was much of a drinker...and I didn't approve of my friends doing it,but I know for a fact that it was done then and it's still done today...another reason Allens is the drink of joice it's cheap most of my freind were poor and could scape up money for a bottle of goofy and get a gallon of milk free with the stamps they were young and young folks don't always do what they should...I graduated in 1977... and they had WIC.. at the time half the girls in my class had kids before graduation It's maine you know us poor dumb folks don't know any better coffee brandy equates to brain dead and fat bodies'''''''''puffed up, over weight people as the guzzle down the old brown juice with milk and ice cubes. I wonder how they feel the morning after drinking that rot gut YUCK?! this stuffs better then Viagra
katofbangor, my answer is "hungover". It's gross and so are the people who like it. it was my first thought..cheaper than kahlua, but i never drank allens...yuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.. ps..its hot chocolate weather here in maine..just add a little coconut rum, topped off with whipped cream mmmmmmm..i'll be warm :) Exactly, confusedmainer! The fact that we live in a cold climate plays a significant part in the grand scheme of things. And remember not everyone drinks this repulsive brand. I'd be willing to wager that Gold Crown comes in a close second. IMO, the difference being one bitter, like instant coffee and one is smoother, like fresh brewed. Although personally I'd take Absolute over either any day!! If this were really about cheap mix and food stamps, well hell, you can buy a 7 dollar bottle of vodka and mix it with Kool-Aid, for a whopping twenty cents. Actually, simple economics tells us that milk would be the most expensive mix, especially if one were buying it with food stamps or WIC...and by the way, WIC also gives huge amounts of various juices as well. I've bartended my way from Maine to Florida before finishing college. While bartending in Maine I served far more brandy then beer, with brandy being twice the price of a beer. Your obtuse, yes imperceptive and ridiculous assumption was nothing more than a weak attempt to bash those one welfare, a program, which I agree does need revamping, but scarcely plays in to the dynamics of Mainers and their drink of choice. A closer look reveals family tradition’s, an extreme climate, and of course jolts from the large amounts of caffeine (hence the large number of bar-room brawls and domestic violence) to be the top factor’s.
I do believe I heard once on BIl Green's Maine (WLBZ channel 2) that the reason that Allen's has sold so well for so many years is because Maine's fisherman use it to perserve their bait up and down the coast. This certainly would have some impact on the facts reported in this story. The poor dumb folks of Maine DO know better, they just don't give a damn. It's for sure most of them never learned to spell while they were in school! Must have been mixed up with the Allen's and all that free milk from the WIC program! Do you all know there are actually other drinks you can mix with milk? People drink coffee brandy because they Like it, so what is the problem? As lalainbangor said, this is our Maine news?? |
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