The Corn Refiners Association Responds?

I received an interesting response via email today from the president of the Corn Refiners Association in regards to the bar review I wrote on Rickhouse a couple of days ago. Here is the email I received:

Dear Ms. Neves:

We read the September 12 article “Bar review: Rickhouse,” with interest. There has been a lot of confusion about high fructose corn syrup. We would like to provide you with science-based information on this safe sweetener and be a reference for you for future articles.

High fructose corn syrup contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives and meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) requirements for use of the term “natural.” The FDA stated, referring to a process commonly used by the high fructose corn syrup industry, that it “would not object to the use of the term ‘natural’ on a product containing HFCS produced by [that] manufacturing process....” (June, GA. (Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition) Letter to: Erickson, A. (Corn Refiners Association) July 3, 2008.) Please see the attached letter from the FDA dated July 3, 2008.

According to the American Dietetic Association (ADA), “high fructose corn syrup…is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. Once absorbed into the blood stream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable.” The ADA also noted that “Both sweeteners contain the same number of calories (4 per gram) and consist of about equal parts of fructose and glucose.” (Hot Topics, “High Fructose Corn Syrup.” December 2008.) http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/nutrition_19399_ENU_HTML.htm)

To read the latest research and learn more about high fructose corn syrup, please visit www.SweetSurprise.com. Please feel free to contact me if you would like additional information about the products made from corn.

Thank you for your consideration

I'm not quite sure what to think of this. Why are the corn people contacting me, defending high fructose corn syrup? Especially when the only mention I made in my review was quoted directly from Rickhouse's menu, which states:

In preparation of cocktails we use fresh juices, natural sugars and local produce. We do not use high-fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors. A city with such a wonderful cocktail history and imbibing culture as San Francisco is entitled to great libations. That is what we are prepared to offer.

At the very least, I am very flattered that there are higher ups from organizations such as the Corn Refiners Association reading my articles.

Touchy, Touchy

So I get this snippy comment from a reader on Examiner.com in reference to my article on Angostura Bitters:

"I'm sorry? Caribbean attitude? Do you know how insulting this is? Here's a third option for you. Whether or not it was an accident, someone looked at the label, thought it was unique and exciting and went with it. Our attitude in the Caribbean is to embrace creativity. Lose the stereotype please and take note of the fact that the world' best bitters are made by us in Trinidad and Tobago. Maybe we have the RIGHT attitude?"

What this reader didn't realize is that the "Caribbean attitude" comment actually came directly from the Angostura Bitters website, which I clearly linked throughout my article.

According to the Angostura Bitters website:

""4. Many stories surround why the label ended up being too large for the bottle but probably the most well known is that it was simply a result of the laid back Caribbean attitude. When someone ordered the wrong size of label and the mistake was spotted, everyone thought someone else would correct it. When no one did, they decided to stick with the oversized label rather than change it and so it became the trade mark of the brand."

So it wasn't me who was doing the stereotyping like the reader accused me of doing, but it was actually the product from Trinidad and Tobago themselves claiming the stereotype and quite openly I might add. If the reader had only glanced at the website, they would have noticed that. But no, people nowadays are so damn touchy and quick to jump down anyone's throat over the piddliest shit. Seriously.

Instead of telling her to take a hike (which I would never do by the way), I kindly pointed her in the direction of the Angostura Bitters website and re quoted the website directly for her.

People. people, people. Some people are just too easily offended and in this case, for no good reason.

**Update**

So I am not out on left field here because I received this comment on my actual article today:

Giselle Laronde-West says:
"Hi Kathleen. Thanks for featuring Angostura aromatic bitters. I am the PR manager at the place where it is made in Trinidad. Sorry to hear that someone was irate about something that you wrote about the bitters and the label. To me the article was very much to the point, accurate and interesting for someone who may not know about our product. As you know, every bartender should know the product and have it as part of their staples in the bar."

That comment was totally unsolicited. I used the product's website as a source and now I have a member of the product's PR department backing my article up.