this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2025
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BoycottUnitedStates
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France: Cognac, Armagnac, wine, ...
Italy, Germany: fine wines, amaretto, jäger, lots of fine stuff
USA: ... Soda Alcohol anyone?
The US has some amazing alcoholic drinks, and a craft beer industry that anyone else would be jealous of. We also have shit, but so does everywhere else. Yeah, if you compare Jack Daniels to fine wine then you're going to be disappointed. If you compare high quality whiskey to some shitty drink in Europe though then it'll look bad too.
JD is absolute trash tier. It's made for alcoholics and kids to get drunk off of. Everywhere you go this type of drink exists, and they aren't held up as a sign of quality.
There's good whisky in Europe (the UK says hi + cognac)
You really think Belgium/Germany/etc would be jealous of US beer? That's... interesting
Not the original commenter, but American breweries make some very top tier beer.
I feel like a lot of the difference is that American breweries are more willing to experiment and have a deeper variety of beer within breweries.
Yes. I've met some that are. Germany has great classic styles, but that's literally all they can make legally. America is first class for beer evolution. Yeah, we probably don't have the best hefeweizen or Belgian triple (though we do have good ones), but if you want other styles then the US is almost certainly the best.
Yep, Ireland and scotland with long histories of whiskey/whisky also have buckfast sold everywhere, for teens and uni students to get drunk.
There is good and bad quality everywhere. I think the difference from the USA perspective is that you have to be in the know to get the good stuff. Standard fare is usually mass produced and low quality. Probably due to the size of the potential market meaning price points are even more important for a national brand and cost cuttings and economy of scale both make cheaper brands successful. In smaller countries with less economy of scale, the price difference between mediocre and good is minimal so people often choose good which becomes the standard fare.
I don't think it's purely an age thing, as although there is more tradition in places like Japan or Europe due to hundreds of years of the current dominant culture, in Australia or similar co in ntires with a similar age to the USA, it's more quality based than cost based. Again economy of scale is not there and transport increases the cost, meaning the price for mediocre or good is often similar.
Yeah, the US in general usually prioritizes price over quality, for almost everything. You can get quality, but the default is low quality and cheap. That's for just about everything, from alcohol, to furnature, and everything in between. Americans are generally cheap bastards. It sucks.
With how large the US is though, yeah, we also have some of the highest quality of a lot of things if you know what you're looking for. Like you said though, it isn't the default.
Yep, the default is low quality but there is a greater range of everything at all quality levels than anywhere else due to the size of the market.
The EU opens most of Europe to a single market too, but it's not as frictionless to order, for instance, German soda from Finland. Most companies focus on their local national market.
In the USA, there are regional favourites and differences but it's usually easier to order them and buy them due to the market being one for longer.