Alcoholic Air Miles – Great Lakes Devil’s Pale Ale

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

Now this is what a craft beer should be.  Super unique taste and some branding that really sets it apart from its competitors.  Devil’s Pale ale has a big 666 on the can, is 6% alcohol by volume and plays on the 666 Devil’s number theme a number of times around the can.  It’s a pretty fun can to have around.  It definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Having said that, I don’t really like the beer.  Sure, it has a unique taste, but it’s just far too bitter in the wrong places for me.  I don’t know.  It wasn’t refreshing like a good lager is and it wasn’t full with flavour like a British ale.  And like too many things that try to be a stay neutral between two competing sides, it just doesn’t cut it.  I dunno, maybe Satan likes his brew tasting like puke.  My advice: Don’t bother with it.

Anyways, if you buy two cans of this stuff, you get 1 bonus air mile.  Not a great deal, but enough to make me give it a shot.  But word to the wise, the two need to be purchased together.  I was actually at the shop and brought two up to the cashier and paid when I noticed that he only charged me for 1 can.  I, being the good Samaritan, informed the employee of his mistake and ended up paying for the second can in a separate purchase.  So, I had to pay for the second can when I could have walked out with it for free and I didn’t even get the bonus air mile.  Sucks.

Oh, and I will send a yet-to-be-determined prize to the first person who can tell me what book the can is standing on in the picture at the top of this post.

Cost	$2.60
Bonus Air miles	0.5
ML	473
Alcohol %	6%
Airmiles/$	0.19
ML/$	181.92

Alcoholic Air Miles – Grolsch Premium Lager

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

So Grolsch tallboys come with one bonus air mile until the end of the month.  That’s pretty cool.  Grolsch is basically a more mainstream version of Bavaria.  They’re both not great beers, but their imports so you can look sophisticated while drinking them at not a huge cost.

They also come in these amazing resealable bottles. Those are great.

I haven’t seen them sold at the LCBO, but some bars around have them.  You must be able to get them from the LCBO, because I can remember someone blogging about getting one of the big bottles so that he could take it to a party, drink some, then take it home without feeling bad.  I mean, the “leave what you didn’t drink” rule can’t apply if you’ve put your lips on the source of the stuff, right?  I guess that’s logical.

Anyways.  Grolsch.  1 air mile.  Not bad.

Cost	$2.25
Bonus Air miles	1
ML	500
Alcohol %	5%
Airmiles/$	0.44
ML/$	222.22

Alcoholic Air Miles – Long Neck Shiraz

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

The Long Neck Shiraz bottle doesn’t actually have a long neck.  The bottle is of a standard size.  Too bad.  It’s a tasty shiraz if drinking alcoholic grape juice is your thing.  Don’t mind it.  The air miles deal could have been better.  4 for $9 is a bit weak, but oh well. I still bought it.

Give it a shot for the 4 bonus air miles. You’ve only got a bit of time before that offer is gone.

Cost	$8.95
Bonus Air miles	4
ML	750
Alcohol %	14%
Airmiles/$	0.45
ML/$	83.8

Alcoholic Air Miles – McClelland’s Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

“Islay, ‘the Island of dreams’ is a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of malt whisky lovers.  The quality of the air, deep peaty ground and cold salt winds combine to create the strongest flavour of all malt whisky.” -the case

Not quite as cool as the little 20cl bottle with the ancient lore story printed on it that my buddy brought back from Scotland, but its still poignant enough to get me really in the mood to enjoy some scotch.

I first started drinking scotch a few years ago.  After a brief foray into whiskey* and water (usually drunk out of a jar while listening to Thin Lizzy), I grew up and bought some of the good stuff.  Well, I guess it’s mostly been the mediocre stuff.  Teacher’s blended scotch just doesn’t hold a candle to some of the single malts.  Knowing this, I have been waiting for a good time to invest in a bottle for my cabinet.  This is that time.

*whisky is the Scottish spelling, whiskey is the non-scotch spelling.

Her had given me an LCBO gift card for Christmas with a purpose.  She wanted me to buy myself some scotch that I wanted and she was afraid that she’d buy a bad one and the gift would be ruined.  Very thoughtful of her.  So I took said gift card and went to the Mecca of all LCBO’s (summerhill) and picked up a bottle of the McClelland’s Islay.

The scotch is one of the cheaper ones as far as single malts go and that’s one of the reasons it was chosen.  I try to live by the philosophy that you start of with the least expensive of a given item and stick with it as long as it means your needs.  If it doesn’t then you move onto the next least expensive item.  This way you’re not spending more than you need to be.

Anyways, the scotch is okay.  Nothing special, but certainly enjoyable.  I might have to go up in price the next time I but a bottle, but that’s okay. I’m still going to enjoy the heck out of this one for the foreseeable future!

Cost	$31.75
Bonus Air miles	10
ML	750
Alcohol %	40%
Airmiles/$	0.31
ML/$	23.62

Alcoholic Air Miles – Citra Sangiovese Terre Di Chieti

Well well well.  Wine and a blog post.  Good night.

Here I am enoying this Citra Sangiovese on a comfortable April evening.  Music in the background, dinner digesting in my tumtum and Her using a semi dangerous looking head massager.  This is the life.

The sangiovese is a nicely priced red wine at $7.45 that comes with 3 bonus air miles.  It’s not anything super special.  Just a mild taste, but that’s probably a good thing for the price.  Usually the result isn’t a good one when someone who is underqualified tries getting too fancy.  So let’s just keep it simple, idiot.

I recommend having this wine with roasted whole chicken and then another glass with a foot massage.

Cost	$7.45
Bonus Air miles	3
ML	750
Alcohol %	13%
Airmiles/$	0.403
ML/$	100.7

Alcoholic Air Miles – Labatt Blue

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

Alright. Time to kick it into ludicrous speed…

So one of the beers that I picked up, along with the bonus air mile that came with it, a couple of weekends ago was one that I’m sure many in this country are familiar with.  Labatt Blue.  This is the quinetessential Canadian lager.  Not bad, not great. Just good. It’ll do.

I remember back at some point when blue really went down in price.  No longer was it priced the same as Sleeman or Alexander Keith’s, the price dropped.  First for 18 packs (down to about $23) then all sizes of cases fell too.  I thought this was great. cheaper decent beer was good for me.  I could get cheap beer without the risk of getting a splitting headache the next morning from one of the poorly brewed buck-a-beers.

I’ve already mentioned the time that a friend of mine switched from tallboys of Blue to an import that cost the same, so maybe it’s just the prices of bBlue that seem a little outrageous.

Anyways, I guess the moral of the story is that $2 for a tallboy of Blue is a bit steep.  But top it off with a bonus air mile and we’ll call it even.

Cost	$2.00
Bonus Air miles	1
ML	473
Alcohol %	5%
Airmiles/$	0.5
ML/$	236.5

Alcoholic Air Miles – Her Edition!

That’s right – He’s not the only one who gets drunk on a weeknight! Kidding. I’m not drunk. But I’m pretty sleepy.

Tonight I was on my way home from work when I passed by the LCBO. Now, the fact that it was still light out, I felt actual warmth on my legs while waiting for a stoplight, and that I was home alone tonight since He’s working late, all contributed to me popping in.

So I bought some wine!

Cono Sur wine from Chile to be exact. I bought it because it was only $9.95 and came with 5 Air Miles. Nice! I find there are a lot more red wines that come with Air Miles than white, which is a bitch, since I only drink white most of the time. But this time, I lucked out.

I got home and was all set to have a glass and blog about it – but lo and behold, I couldn’t get the cap open. And where was He to help out? At work. I got a knife – problem solved! I butchered that bad boy, but the sweet nectar of the Gods was still avail.

I took a drink – it tasted a little vomity. I took another drink. Still a bit vomity, but not enough that you don’t want more.

The label says “viognier” – I’m pretty sure that means I was drinking pure vinegar. I should have put some on my salad. Heyo! I’m eating a salad.

The best part about writing an Alcoholic Airmiles entry is that you have to go get the bottle out of the fridge to write the name of it. And I mean, by then you’ve done half the work, so you might as well have another glass.

Now, I don’t have the fancy chart that He makes, and I don’t feel like copy and pasting it in here. So I’ll make my own rating system:

Taste: 3/10 for the first glass, 6/10 for the second glass

Cost to Air Miles ratio: 10:5

All in all  –  I would only buy this vinegar wine again if I knew I was going to have a second glass. Or if it was dirt cheap and came with a lot of Airmiles (anything over 5).

Alcoholic Air Miles – Trapiche Cabernet Sauvignon

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

Hold onto your butts, because it’s time for another…

This edition is chronicling the life of a very palatable bottle of Trapiche Cab-Sauv.  This is apparently a premium wine!  This wine is full flavoured and has a rich taste to it.  It does not taste like grape juice.  The last wine I had did taste a little Welchy.  This is grown up.  For grownups.

It’s Argentinian and has an amazing picture of the country on the back of the label.  Or is that a scared elephant in profile?

Regardless, good wine, good price, great bonus air mile amount (6 for a bottle that’s less than $8, that might be an alcoholic air miles record for air miles/$!) and good times.  I started this bottle a few days ago and it’s still going strong. One glass more and it’s onto the next one!

Cost	$7.95
Bonus Air miles	6
ML	750
Alcohol %	13%
Airmiles/$	0.75
ML/$	94.34

Alcoholic Air Miles – Aguila

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

Alcoholic Air Miles FTW!!!!!1!

Oh man, now this hits the spot.  It’s been over 2 full weeks since we left Cuba and the closest thing that I’ve felt to being back has been the sensation from drinking this beer.  Aguila, la cerveza de Colombia, reminds me so much of the beer that’s most common around Cuba: Cristal.  They’re both lightish beers that have a bit of skunkiness to them.  Not enough that you become turned off of it, but enough to make you really feel alive.

This one really caught my eye at the LCBO.  Not only did it have the bonus air mile, but it also has a very colourful bottle and had what looked to be masking tape over the cap.  On closer inspection, I found that the bottle is a screw top (as opposed to a pop top) and thus must conform to strict, tamper-proof security measures when sold individually.

Also, the label is entirely in Spanish except for a sticker over the back that has all of the information that is required for sale in Canada.  Take a look:

I don’t know what Aguila means, but I’m going to take a stab at it and say that it means “agility” in Spanish (edit: it actually means “eagle” which I probably could’ve deduced from the illustration on the label…).  Foiled again.

It’s amazing that this beer is available at a smallish LCBO in Toronto.  Kind of neat that it’s actually around.  Well, come to think of it, I think there’s a decently sized Colombian population around the area that I bought it.  I think there’s a Colombian festival every summer at a nearby park.

Anyways.  Good beer.  Unique beer.  1 bonus air mile.  Thumbs up.

Cost	$2.05
Bonus Air miles	1
ML	330
Alcohol %	4%
Airmiles/$	0.49
ML/$	160.98

Alcoholic Air Miles – Lowenbrau Original

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

Hold the phone, it’s time for another edition of…

Yesterday, I picked up a few tall boys from the second closest LCBO to HisHersandTheirs headquarters.  This was a nice change of pace for me as the location is a little bit larger than either of my two regular stores (PATH at RBC tower and St Clair West station).  I sometimes forget how amazing the selections are at the LCBO.  I picked up one refreshment in particular that was really out of the ordinary (see this blog in a few days time for a recap).  If Ontario ever opens up the right to sell alcohol in a retail fashion (aside from Ontario wine, which is already fine), the ability to go to a store down the street that sells more than just bland, domestic drink is probably the biggest downside.

Anyways, back on point.  Lowenbrau Original isn’t that unique of an import, but enough that it’s pretty cool to be seen holding one.  Although, just think of how inflated your social stock would get if it were called HIGHenbrau! Heyo! Wordplay, play on words.

It’s got a nice taste that has a hint of something stronger.  It’s German, but has “beer” in 7 different languages on the can.  I guess maybe that means they only manufacture one design of tall boy that is imported to different countries and, thus, must conform to all the countries’ beer label specifications.  Saves money I guess.

Another thing about buying imports from the LCBO is that it’s not a bad deal.  I have a friend that moved to Toronto and started buying 6 packs of Labatt Blue (or was it Canadian? I can’t remember…) tallboys.  A few weeks later he had switched to buying 6 packs for imported Bavaria tallboys instead.  His reasoning was that not only was it the same price per can, but the imported tallboy was bigger (500ml to 473ml) and he got to drink something other than the regular, mass produced brew that advertisers try to convince us is part of a balanced, Canadian diet.

1 tallboy and 1 air miles for $2.25 is pretty dece.  So you’ve got until the end of the month to pick up yours.  Don’t wait, buy today!  Thumbs up Lowenbrau!

Cost	$2.25
Bonus Air miles	1
ML	500
Alcohol &	5.2%
Airmiles/$	0.44
ML/$	222.22