January 10, 2012

‘A webshop run from home deemed technically illegal’

Filed under: Food & Drink,Online,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:02 pm

Some judge in Den Bosch ruled that a webshop that sells alcohol from an industrial building was illegal because they should operate from a building marked as a retail shop or proper warehouse. The city is reviewing this decision, as it would also imply that any webshop run from a home would be illegal because a home is not location for this purpose. Imagine a physical liquour store taking a competing webshop to court and the latter losing because they aren’t run from an actual shop.

In the case of alcohol, the webshop cannot properly check how old someone is (an easy argument), but if this applies to all webshops — it probably won’t but imagine — some rules are going to have to change because they’ll give people a bigger headache than any booze could. Most webshops in the Netherlands are run from homes and the entire idea of having to be in a physical shop is preposterous.

(Link: www.z24)

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August 4, 2011

Dutch limoncello, one of the world’s best

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 4:24 pm

Two Dutch brothers with Italian blood started producing limoncello according to an old family recipe. Limoncello Di Fiorito was born, a hand made exclusive limoncello made with premium organic lemons. Apparently, it is “the authentic production method that gives this exclusive limoncello its refined and original flavour.”

For people living outside the Netherlands, you can even order Di Fiorito Limoncello from a Dutch jeweler (!).

(Link: nu.nl, Photo of Limoncello by Shamballah, some rights reserved.

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April 8, 2011

Urk looking into getting drug sniffing dogs

Filed under: Animals,Food & Drink,Religion,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:01 am

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Every country in the world has that one town that people make fun of and in the Netherlands, that town is Urk, Flevoland.

The former island (that could explain some weirdness) seems to attract attention by making decisions based on its strong religious beliefs that are akin to fighting windmills because nothing they do seems to work, it just seems to get worse.

After banning strippers, attempting beer confiscation and littering the rest of the country with creationist folders, it’s now time to score some drug sniffing dogs to enforce the town-wide marijuana ban, which ironically is illegal. Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten warned Urk’s city council that it cannot declare the entire village a drug-free zone because that’s illegal. But hey, when you do things based on your religious beliefs the law goes out the window pretty fast and you can get away with murder.

The word on the Internet is that the kids in Urk are some of the most messed up youth in the area not because of some sort of preponderance of drugs and booze, but because of the very religious city council constantly making them the object of their problems. We’ll save the hard drug use and unwanted pregnancies stories for later.

Slightly unrelated, but I had to.

Lard – I want to be a drug sniffing dog

(Link: dutchnews.nl)

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March 28, 2010

Rescue of a drowning tourist in Amsterdam

Filed under: Health,Photography by Branko Collin @ 12:24 pm

Marien van Os was walking with his camera through Amsterdam when he heard a big splash. Turned out a drunken tourist had jumped into a canal. Van Os photographed the ensuing rescue by Erik Blom and other bystanders.

(Via Making Light. See also: interviews at AT5. Source photo: Flickr / Marien van Os.)

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March 7, 2010

Dutch brewer makes world’s strongest beer

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 3:32 pm

The beer arms race is still on. Brewers Het Koelschip from Almere have come up with Obilix, a 45% alcohol beer that will surely attract the attention of both beer aficionados and comics trademark holders.

Last month previous champ BrewDog ousted Germany’s Schorschbock with 41 percenter Sink the Bismarck. Pussies!

Het Koelschip suggests you drink their beer like a gin, sipping it from a nice cognac or whiskey glass.

(Link: Food Holland.)

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October 12, 2009

Alcoholics wanted as tour guides

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 11:51 am

A tour company in Amsterdam claims it wants to hire alcoholics as guides, writes Z24 (Dutch).

Amsterdam Excursions believes that habitual drunks know where to find the bars for its tour of Amsterdam watering holes. In order to test suitability the company lets applicants fill out a questionnaire, open a beer bottle without an opener, and do a breathalyser test.

So far it appears only people who drink in the street or quietly at home have shown up, not the ‘kroegtijgers’ (bar flies) the tour company was hoping for.

This is the same company that organized an economic crisis themed tour.

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July 7, 2009

Coca leaf liqueur causes a buzz abroad

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 8:46 am

According to Dutch television program Editie NL, this new coca leaf liqueur made in Amsterdam has caused quite a stir in Taiwan and even Germany. Since it is made from coca leaf extract, it has trace amounts of cocaine in it, although the company claims it does not, much like Coca Cola.

Agwa de Bolivia, a kryptonite green, 30% alcohol drink, gives you an uppity kick and is apparently all the rage in the Dutch party scene as an alternative to energy drinks which usually contain caffeine or guarana, the latter containing twice the amount of caffeine usually found in coffee. Agwa de Bolivia was confiscated in Taiwan because it contains cocaine, as if the bottle was full of it and if their Taiwanese television report was properly subtitled. An expert on television said you’d have to drink 100 bottles to get the minimum effect of 10 mg of cocaine and of course nobody can drink that. Germany is trying to ban the drink ‘because it contains cocaine’, which is again not quite true, another odd response for a drink that is perfectly legal throughout the EU and even the US. I say ‘even’ because the war on drugs in the US is a total and utter failure and cocaine is all the rage.

I plan to go out and try it one of these days. So far it’s been said to be refreshing and have a kick much like coffee does. I can’t say drinking green drinks is my thing, but life is short and I do live in Amsterdam.

UPDATE: Since you’re all asking where you can buy this stuff in Amsterdam, the address is Warmoesstraat 32 at the Coca Leaf Experience, the first-ever and only Coca Leaf museum in Amsterdam, not far from Central Station.

(Photo: Bevmo)

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January 22, 2009

Dousing a hangover with drinks

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Branko Collin @ 9:53 am

National Geographic made this handy interactive chart that shows how different cultures deal with hangovers. According to the chart, only one people kills its “brackish” feeling, as they say here, by pouring alcohol on top of alcohol, and that’s the Dutch. Visit the site and hover the images for more illumination about inebriation.

Via Sargasso (Dutch).

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November 9, 2008

Sunday quickies November 9, 2008

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 12:31 pm

Stolen credit card data for sale in user-friendly web shop

Zembla, the news show of Labour broadcaster VARA, bought stolen credit card data from a Russian website and used those data to purchase goods. Director Ton van der Ham told Webwereld: “The site is hidden behind a login. You can search credit cards by country and card type, and then you select a data package which you can pay for online. It’s almost unreal.”

The program got permission from the credit card holders before making the what Webwereld calls “fraudulent” purchases. Either Webwereld knows something about fraud that I don’t, or it’s trying hard to become the Telegraaf of Dutch tech news sites.

In 2006 investigative news show Zembla took claims of 9/11 conspiracy theorists serious by testing them. It concluded most of the claims were unfounded. The show is also famous for “exposing” (the news was not news to a limited circle) that politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali had lied in her asylum claim, which led to her resignation from parliament.

Serious satire

Perik is a copywriter who, when he noticed that he could write 2000 words about anything, decided to quit and become a bartender. The writing bug has never left him though, and now he is blogging satirical pieces at Sargasso. And darn it, he is good! Today he caught me unawares with his (fake) report about a banned ad in which fathers are encouraged to spend more quality time with their children. The ad is titled: “Who is this whiny broad anyway?” and in Perik’s world raised a storm of protest from the child protection board, which, as everybody knows, “has been campaigning for a radical feminization of the child rearing domain for almost a century.”

Disclaimer: the entire 24 Oranges editorial team has shared alcoholic beverages with Perik, so our conclusion that he’s a good egg might be somewhat clouded by the aforementioned beverages.

What Dutch space travel would look like

(From a 1983 ad for pot plants.)

Via Trendbeheer. Disclaimer: we’ve also shared alcoholic beverages with Trendbeheer contributor Jaap Verhoeven. At the same parties! What can I say? We like our drinks, and we go to the right parties.

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July 11, 2007

Once, twice, three times a drunkard

Filed under: Automobiles,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:12 am

Monday night, the police in Renesse, Zeeland arrested people in the same car three times. The first time because the driver had too much to drink. Then, the second passenger took over the wheel, but also had too much too drink and no driving licence. For an encore, dumb and dumber called up a friend, who took over the wheel but – you saw this coming, right? – also had too much to drink and had to hand over his driving licence. How they all got home is a mystery.

(Link: Omroep Brabant)

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