Food Week January 10, 2025

Welcome to Food Week January 10. 2025. Our thoughts with the people dealing with the fires in California. Lots on coffee this week, just as the price is about to spike. Also whiskey is about to join IPA in becoming de classe. An economic analysis of the $20 minimum wage increase in California showed it caused no job losses. And a lot more.

MACRO

• Financial markets continue to stumble.

• Will the Justice in the Trump Administration continue to resist corporate consolidation?

• Despite the wiling and gnashing of teeth, there were no job losses and almost all positive effects to the CA minimum wage increase.

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• Why the judges oppose the Kroger Albertson’s merger.

• The egg shortages which started in California has made it all the way to Maine.

• Perhaps the impact of GLP-1 drugs is not as great on food brands as was feared.

• Can you spot ultra=processed foods? An NYT quiz, How to eat less ultra=processed foods. Of course an expert in the field still lets his kids eat goldfish. No, the crackers.

• Why we don’t eat turkey eggs: Tl;DR they are just hard to commercially gather even though people tend to like them just fine.

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• Longhorn Steakhouse does a lot of things right. But, according to this sources, not salads.

• McDonald’s closes some of the larger CosMcs.

• After a vegan restaurant adds meat, activists hound it death.

• However, if you are up to paying about $500 per person for vegan food, you can do so at the second most beautiful restaurant in the world, 11 Madison Park.

• Vermont’s capital soldiers on without a single McDonald’s or a Starbuck’s.

• How to tell you walked into a bad restaurant.

• You have to love a sausage restaurant called Wurst Behavior.

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• Perhaps a breakthrough to prevent citrus greening.

• More info on the first death from Avian Influenza.

• Bayer settles the last of its lawsuits for Roundup in Australia. Litigation continues in the US.

• GMO corn forced on Mexico. And glyphosate resistant weeds evolve in UK.

• January means that the demand for ‘de-tox’ vegetables is high.

• WIll Xylitol be a replacement for Erythritol?

DRINKS

• Using coconut water with tequila to build cocktails.

• Just like beer, the whiskey boom is over. And the beer and whiskey companies are getting ready for a bleak future.

• Now that there is going to be glut of the stuff, what is the best age for that bourbon?

• The hot bar in London is for bartenders only (almost).

• The Godfather is an old cocktail that needs a lot of help. Have a Stinger instead. Or a Penicillin.

• The medieval Normans started a tradition of drinking Calvados (apple brandy) in the middle of a meal. And the Trou Normand is still around.

FOOD WEEK January 10 LAGNIAPPE

• Coffee in the morning, but only in the morning, can extend you life. The actual difference between coffee and espresso. Way too much information about coffee water. More usefully, what to do with the grounds in the winter.

• Healthy cinnamon overnight oats.

• Does candy cause hyper-activity and/or do doctors analyze higher levels of ADHD right after Halloween?

• Who knew? Mixing cukes and tomatoes in your salad can cause gastric distress.

• Hearts of palm as a meat substitute. Also, fluffier mashed potatoes.