Photo via ibtimes.com
Last week, we reported on the story of Maker’s Mark, the bourbon that got so popular that production couldn’t keep up with demand and the company made the decision to add water in order to extend production.
Yeah… that isn’t happening anymore.
Unsurprisingly, bourbon fans are really serious about their bourbon. When you tell them you plan to water down their liquor — reducing the alcohol content by a reported three percent (from 45 to 42) — they don’t take it too well.
Thousands of Maker’s Mark fans made their displeasure known across social media channels and, to their credit, the people at Maker’s Mark heard the backlash and responded accordingly.
On Sunday, the official Maker’s Mark Twitter account posted this message:
You spoke. We listened. ow.ly/hN3kC
— Maker’s Mark (@MakersMark) February 17, 2013
The link takes you to a full statement, in which the COO and Chairman Emeritus of Maker’s Mark apologize for upsetting customers and announce that they’re “reversing [their] decision to lower the ABV of Maker’s Mark, and resuming production at 45% alcohol by volume (90 proof).”
They added: “Just like we’ve made it since the very beginning.”
There are certainly worse problems to have than a demand for your product that’s so high you can’t meet it. There are also solutions to such a problem that don’t involve watering down — literally — the product that created such a high demand. Like, you know, just making more bourbon.
Here’s hoping the people at Maker’s Mark figure out how to produce and bottle more of the same stuff that got them into this situation in the first place.
I don’t know if you know how whiskey/bourbon is made…
“There are also solutions to such a problem that don’t involve watering down — literally — the product that created such a high demand. Like, you know, just making more bourbon.”
Well, there’s the 6 year aging process. So if you respond to today’s increased demand by increasing production, you won’t see an increased output until 2019… The watering down decision was made to meet the current, not future, demand.
I do know how bourbon is made. I intended to suggest that it’s possible to ramp up your production in the past to meet anticipated future growth. That clearly can’t be done retroactively and can’t account for unanticipated spikes in growth. Apologies if my wording was unclear.