Consumer Reports needs better beer

I have been subscribed to Consumer Reports for years. It comes in handy more than you would expect. I chose my last digital camera based on their recommendation. And I totally agree with their aggressive approach to consumer protection and safeguards.

But where Consumer Reports is weak is quality food and beverages. They occasionally will review good chocolate, but in general, they only talk about mass marketed, available everywhere food. And normally, I just skip over it. I ain’t gonna base my spaghetti sauce purchases on their opinion of Ragu. Be it a best buy or not recommended.

But when this article appeared in the latest issue, all I could do was shake my head. (click on the photos to enlarge)


A) I want to know who drew the short straw and had to drink these crappy beers. And yes, they are crappy. The one that I had most recently was the Name Tag lager from Trader Joe’s. And it was thin, with no taste other than some sugar and cereal notes that you really had to look for to find.
B) Is there no store in New York that they could get a representative sample of actual beer? They could do a tasting of Firestone, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Widmer and Stone at least.
C) How could they rate these as anything higher than adequate? And who thought they detected citrus in Coors?

Come on Consumer Reports! You can do better.