Your daily dose of news and happenings from around the drink-o-sphere:
– Cheech Marin maintains the smoky reputation of his stoner movies with Tres Papalote, the actor’s new line of mezcal.
– According to a Bon Appetit survey, 55 percent of viewers intend to drink while watching the Super Bowl, with spirits and cocktails taking the largest share of the market.
– As a result of its weakening currency, wine tourism in South Africa could double by 2025.
– Food & Wine has launched Firstleaf, an interactive wine club with a focus on small-production wines.
– Using a process called “microfluidics,” three students at the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to brew beer nine times faster than traditional methods.
– Scotland’s only winery opened in 2011 in the hope that global warming could eventually provide the country with ideal conditions for wine; unfortunately, it produced just ten undrinkable bottles in 2014 and none in 2015.
– This spring, Pepsi will open Kola House, a restaurant and bar in New York City focused on the Kola nut.
– Financial police in the Italian province of Padua found 9,200 bottles of fake Moët & Chandon Imperial Brut, worth about $380,000 at retail.
[Photo: Flickr/Simon Cocks]