Turns Out Potatoes Might Be the Thing Keeping French People So Skinny - "A team of McGill University researchers published a paper this week that includes what is likely the most shocking thing about potatoes any of us will hear all week: In an experiment, potato consumption was shown to decrease body weight gain."
A Resolution For Foodies Who Want To Do Good: Pick A Campaign - "The biggest food companies in the world — think Nestle, PepsiCo, Mars, Smithfield, Cargill, General Mills, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Kellogg — are the major players in the food system. They control the supply chain from the raw materials to the packaging, and set the labor and environmental precedents of much of what we consume. There are now a wide range of campaigns aimed at pushing these global companies to respond more directly to consumers' concerns about everything from antibiotics to greenhouse gas emissions to labor abuses."
The little note I published yesterday predicting that vermouth would be one of the fashionable drinks in the UK this year sent me googling this morning and discovering that the phenomenon is well and truly under way in Spain.
Back in March The Washington Post posted In Barcelona, vermouth enjoys a spirited revivalgiving details of the renaissance in a country where, "though it never disappeared from the old-school spots, the tawny-colored liquor — which can be served up or on the rocks, with or without a squirt of soda, and garnished with a lemon twist, an orange slice, a green olive or nothing at all — has recently started turning up all over town."
Even the Adria brothers (of El Bulli and every trendy restaurant in Barcelona fame) have gotten in on the act with their recently opened vermutería, Bodega 1900.
The Life and Arts section of The Financial Times was on to the vermouth renaissance back in August 2013. In trend-obsessed Barcelona, it reported, vermut (the Catalan word for vermouth) has taken over from gin and tonic as the tipple of the moment, moving from the back of the drinks cabinet to the forefront of fashion.
Here, at least, there is more to vermouth than a mere drink. “Fer vermut” (“doing vermouth”) is a distinctive ritual with its own set of rules. Vermouth in Barcelona is taken at the end of the morning, or just possibly at the start of the evening. It is associated with snacks ranging from a plate of crunchy green olives and a basket of potato crisps to an anchovy cured in olive oil, a tin of mussels in spicy sauce or a bowl of crisp-friedcalamares.
By Eddie Oczkowski
Can a wine drinker judge the quality of a bottle by its price? The nature of this relationship has always been contested.
We expect that consumers are willing to pay more for higher quality wines, while higher quality wines typically cost much more to produce. Some studies have identified that better quality wines do in fact sell for higher prices, others have not.
Fundamentally, it is the subjective nature of wine quality assessment and the lack of quality information held by consumers which potentially drives a wedge between price and its quality.
Even though expert wine tasters are able to provide a sensory evaluation of a wine’s characteristics, evaluation is subjective and different tasters often maintain different opinions for the same wine.
Further, wine is often argued to be an “experience good” - which means that consumers need to purchase and consume the good first to evaluate it. This subjective nature of wine evaluation and the inability of consumers to know what’s in the bottle before consuming it means that the pricing of wines according to some measure of quality may prove particularly difficult.
To explain how wine prices differ statistical models have been developed to examine the relationship between wine price and its quality and a series of other factors thought to influence prices. These statistical models are called hedonic price functions. These hedonic functions recognise that price depends upon both demand and supply factors and are employed generally for differentiated goods, such as houses, personal computers and cars. For wine, hedonic price functions statistically estimate the relationship between prices and measures of a wine’s quality, reputation, variety, region, vintage, and other factors, (see Oczkowski (1994)) for one of the seminal wine studies.
In an attempt to shed light on the price-quality debate, Chris Doucouliagos and I have recently undertaken a meta analysis of the relation between wine prices and quality ratings. The purpose of a meta analysis is to summarise previously published results from studies and make general conclusions of the major findings of a body of literature.
The meta analysis examined more than 180 hedonic wine price models developed over 20 years covering many countries. The research identifies that the relation between the price of wine and its sensory quality rating is a moderate partial correlation of +0.30. This correlation is positive and statistically significant in approximately 90% of cases. In other words, approximately 90% of models estimated in the literature identified that the positive relation between prices and quality is not due to chance.
The findings from the meta-analysis indicate, however, that the correlation between price and its quality is not perfect. That is, some wines are over-priced compared to quality, others may be under-priced. This recognition suggests some important implications for both wine producers and consumers.
For wine producers specific pricing strategies to follow will depend on the quality of the wines produced and the nature of competition that producers face in the market. For example, some low quality producers may be able to charge higher prices than implied by quality, in the short term, as buyers may find it uneconomic to conduct the necessary search to identify quality.
In other words, some consumers may be fooled by higher prices inferring higher quality, and pay higher prices than they really should. This deception may only occur for a short period of time as consumers become more aware of the wine’s quality over time. Alternatively, high quality producers may seek to charge higher prices than suggested by the wine’s quality level given that low-quality producers cannot sustainably follow a similar strategy.
For consumers, the results imply that price may or may not infer quality. In other words, consumers should be wary of using price as a sole indicator of a wine’s quality. This implies that better informed buyers could potentially identify bargains in the short run. In this context expert wine guides potentially play an important role and I have developed a web-based tool called the Australian Wine Price Calculator to help identify under and over-priced wines.
The question naturally arises, if wine experts differ in their opinions of a wine, what does a consumer do? Wine expert Jancis Robinson suggests that individual consumers may wish to follow the “preferences and prejudices” of a specific wine critic in making wine purchase choices.
The moderate price-quality correlation identified across numerous studies occurs despite the lack of information held by consumers about a wine’s quality and the inconsistency of expert tasters when evaluating wines. Despite all this, it can be argued that quality still does matter.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Read the original article.
I have to confess.I have noticed that McDonald's has tried to give the menu a bit of an up-market tart-up with those Angus beef things and the rump steak version. But I didn't really know why until I read The Financial Times of London this afternoon. And there in the venerable pink lady was the explanation: "Rising disposable income, especially among the well paid and educated, has unleashed a challenge to McDonald’s and other “Quick Service Restaurants” from “fast casual” chains such as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Panera Bread and Noodles & Company. They offer lighter, healthier varieties of food (although a Chipotle burrito often has more calories than a Big Mac). The young are leaving McDonald’s and Taco Bell for such outlets, and for burger brands such as Shake Shack and Five Guys. They prefer the food, they can afford the prices and they regard McDonald’s as unhealthy, outdated, downmarket and not a nice place to be."
One of those new challengers is about to join McDonald's on the stock exchange and the prospectus tells the story
The hot dog cart was an instant hit, with lines forming daily throughout the summer months for the next three years. In response to this success, the city's Department of Parks and Recreation awarded Shake Shack a contract to create a kiosk to help fund the park's future. In 2004, Shake Shack officially opened and immediately became a community gathering place for New Yorkers and visitors from all over the world. Over the last decade, Shake Shack has become a beloved New York City institution that generates significant media attention, critical acclaim and a passionately devoted following. We have since grown rapidly, with 63 Shacks in nine countries and 34 cities.
Our vision is to Stand For Something Good in all aspects of Shake Shack's business, including the exceptional team we hire and train, the premium ingredients making up our menu, our community engagement and the design of our Shacks. Stand For Something Good is a call to action to all of our stakeholders—our team, guests, communities, suppliers and investors—and we actively invite them all to share in this philosophy with us. This commitment drives our integration into the local communities in which we operate and fosters a lasting connection with our guests.
We continually invest in our "Shack Team," as we believe that team members who are treated and trained well will deliver Enlightened Hospitality and a superior guest experience. Through our leadership development program, The Shacksperience, we teach our team members the principles of Enlightened Hospitality and how to live and breathe our Shack Pact, the agreement that encompasses our value system and brand ethos. Our people make all the difference, as they embody the sense of community necessary to create the complete Shake Shack experience. This vision reflects our goal to be the best burger company in the world, for the world and for our team.
Tastiest food trends for 2015 - Vermouth "Hugo Thurston, general manager of the newly opened Jago in East London, has put it at the top of the restaurant’s drinks list. “We’re fully championing it,” he says. “I’ve been expecting this to happen for a while.” Why? “The fact that drinks like Campari have suddenly become fashionable again, coupled with the amount of artisanal vermouth products being made. Plus, it’s delicious.” The Ethicurean in Bristol has gone a step further and created its own, The Collector, made from ingredients found in the restaurant’s walled garden. Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer has just upped its range, adding the bartender’s favourite red vermouth, Antica Formula, to its shelves. So, how should we be drinking it? “Straight up with no mixer, on the rocks,” says Thurston. “Or with the tiniest splash of soda to mitigate the sweetness.”
A 40-Day Vegan Fast, Then At Last, A January Christmas Feast - The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, one of the world's oldest, observes Christmas on Jan. 7, following a calendar similar to the Coptic church. The 40 days prior to Christmas (including Dec. 25) are observed with a vegan fast. ... The traditional dish for Ethiopians on Christmas Day is doro wat, which features pieces of meat swimming in a rich red sauce. Unlike the doro wat eaten the rest of the year, the Christmas dish is prepared with a slaughtered rooster rather than a hen, and carved into exactly 12 pieces, representing the 12 disciples
Are some diets “mass murder”? – Richard Smith ploughed his way through five books on diet and some of the key studies to write this article for the Beitish Medical Journal – “By far the best of the books I’ve read to write this article is Nina Teicholz’s The Big Fat Surprise, whose subtitle is “Why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet.”3 The title, the subtitle, and the cover of the book are all demeaning, but the forensic demolition of the hypothesis that saturated fat is the cause of cardiovascular disease is impressive. Indeed, the book is deeply disturbing in showing how overenthusiastic scientists, poor science, massive conflicts of interest, and politically driven policy makers can make deeply damaging mistakes. Over 40 years I’ve come to recognise what I might have known from the beginning that science is a human activity with the error, self deception, grandiosity, bias, self interest, cruelty, fraud, and theft that is inherent in all human activities (together with some saintliness), but this book shook me.”
Will 2015 Be a Rosy Year for Wine? Wall Street Journal wine columnist Will Lyons takes a look at the year ahead in wine and what it means for some of Europe’s best and brightest regions - "Alexander McCall Smith tells a wonderfully funny story about a fictitious trip to Italy’s Montalcino. While there, he meets a wine producer whose land is rather unfortunately situated just outside the famous Brunello di Montalcino DOCG boundary, in the less valuable Rosso di Montalcino, amid the picturesque hills near Siena. Without going into too much detail, by the end of “My Italian Holiday” all is rectified (with the help of a bulldozer) and the happy producer now finds his vineyards safely within the zone of one of Italy’s great wines. As we enter 2015 and look ahead at what it will mean for the world of wine, I’m reminded of this story. If it weren’t fiction, 2009 would have been just the year to set it in—in time to catch the 2010 growing season, the results of which, by all accounts, are very good. This month, the fine wine year will kick off with the release of these 2010 Brunello di Montalcino wines."
Luck Be A Lentil Tonight! What The World Eats To Welcome The New Year - "When you're finished with your plate, you can throw it at the neighbor's house. No, really. It's Danish custom to shatter old dishes against the front doors of friends and neighbors, and it's actually a sign of friendship."
If You're Toasting To Health, Reach For Beer, Not (Sparkling) Wine - "What's the healthiest libation for ringing in the New Year? Beer, says Charlie Bamforth, a professor of brewing sciences at the University of California, Davis. Though it's been blamed for many a paunch, Bamforth says it's more nutritious than most other alcoholic drinks. "There's a reason people call it liquid bread," says Bamforth. Beer, he says, has more selenium, B vitamins, phosphorus, folate and niacin than wine. Beer also has significant protein and some fiber. And it is one of a few significant dietary sources of silicon, which research has shown can help thwart the effects of osteoporosis."
By Karl Storchmann, New York University
Investing in fine wines has become increasingly popular over the past few decades as many in the viticulture industry have promoted fermented grapes as a way to boost returns and diversify a portfolio. The rapid rise in public interest has been accompanied by a growing body of economic literature. The evidence suggests it may not be wise to buy wine as investment instead of for drinking. Investing in common stocks yield higher returns in the long run – and is less risky.
As you might expect, the wine trade considers its product the ultimate asset. Industry insiders have argued that wine generates above-average returns, helps to diversify an investor’s portfolio (thus lowering its risk) and – if all fails – the owner can still drink it.
Zachy’s, a major New York wine retailer and wine auction house, for example, claims that auction prices of top Bordeaux wines have increased 25% to 50% annually in the past few years. And back in 1998, Peter Meltzer of the Wine Spectator, the world’s largest wine magazine, wrote that the wine market outpaced the Dow Jones Industrial Average throughout the 1990s.
A would-be investor should know that the majority of wines are not “investment-grade” – a financial term signifying relatively low risk – and will not benefit from being stored for more than two or three years. Experienced wine investors concentrate on only the finest growths from Bordeaux and Burgundy and selected wines from California.
It may be worth letting a bottle get dusty to improve the taste, but not your ROI – return on investment.Shutterstock
Wine: barely better than Treasurys
Even among fine wines, the data on investing aren’t favorable. One of the first economic analyses that looked at the rate of return for storing wine over a period of time was conducted in the late 1970s by William Krasker. Drawing on 137 observations of red Bordeaux and California Cabernet Sauvignon from 1973 to 1977, he found that the return for holding such wine was not much better than that of risk-free US Treasury bills – which typically offer the lowest yields in the market.
To explain some of that difference it’s worth noting that stocks often yield dividends, while wine only offers capital appreciation. In addition, investing in wine incurs storage and other costs.
The Liv-Ex Fine Wine 50 – comprised of the last ten vintages of the five Bordeaux first growths – performed better than stocks listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the financial crisis but since then wine has slumped.Liv-Ex, Quandl
Elizabeth Jaeger of the University of Virginia, appeared to counter that poor performance with her own study, published in 1981. She reported that a wine portfolio similar to Krasker’s outperformed Treasury bills by 16.6%. This large difference, however, mainly comes down to sampling different periods of time (1969-1977 in Jaeger’s study) and her use of substantially lower annual storage costs than Krasker’s $16.60 a case.
The ‘Bordeaux equation’
In a seminal study that focused on a single year, Princeton economist Orley Ashenfelter developed the “Bordeaux equation,” which enabled him to predict the quality of a wine vintage based on winter rainfall and growing-season temperatures in the famous French wine region of that name. He found that the real return on holding a range of Bordeaux wines in 1991 was 2.4%, a pittance compared with a 30% gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. A similar study by Gregory Jones and me in 2001 on Bordeaux wines for specific chateaux were significantly below those for common stock. Another study from that year, this one by Benjamin Burton and Joyce Jacobsen, analyzed the semi-annual returns from storing Bordeaux wines from 1986 to 1996, focusing on repeat sales of the same wine and comparing them with various financial assets.
They discovered that a portfolio of first growths – a designation considered among the best – returned 6.8% over the period, barely better than the 5.8% gain on Treasury bills but about half that of the Dow Jones benchmark index. Even a portfolio of William Sokolin’s first investment-grade wines didn’t do much better, returning an average of 9.4% at auction. And that’s before including sales commissions, insurance and storage costs, which would make them even worse.
Not only does wine generally perform worse than equities, it’s also riskier. The standard deviation – a measure of variation when analyzing a variety of data points – of a wine portfolio consisting of grand cru selections is more than twice as high as that of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Portfolios focused on first growths or the 1961 vintage exhibit an even larger degree of variability between the highs and the lows.
Wine as a hedge
This table shows the annualized nominal rates of return for various wine portfolios over the period from 1986 to 1996.Burton and Jacobson
While wine may not be a great investment on its own, it can work as a sort of hedge, or way to diversify a portfolio of assets and provide some protection during market downturns. Researchers analyzed Bordeaux auction prices before the financial crisis hit in 2008 and found that the changes in the two assets, wine and equities, bore little or no correlation to one another and moved independently, suggesting wine would be a good way to hedge or offset stock market risks.
In fact, Philippe Masset and Jean-Philippe Weisskopf of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne studied the profitability of wine investments during the financial crisis, finding that adding them to a portfolio boosted returns – as well as risk. The study didn’t clarify whether this recent positive outlook on wine is a permanent phenomenon or was merely due to a bubble in prices, as suggested by NYU economist Boyan Jovanovic.
The latter explanation, though, has proven to be more accurate. Since June 2011, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has jumped more than 50%, while fine wine prices have slumped more than 40%, according to the London International Vintners Exchange Fine Wine 50 Index.
So this New Year’s might be a good time to dust off that Bordeaux you’ve been holding onto and enjoy it with your loved ones. Don’t buy another one in order to make money on it.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Read the original article.
