FDA, TTB and Caffeine...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is joining the regulatory movement against products marketed as "energy" alcohol drinks. "Espresso stouts" and other craft beers and spirits are not the intended target of these sorts of things...but this is a movement even those producers should keep an eye on. The U.S. Government's food regulators—FDA (and USDA, too)—often like to take a heavy-handed approach to their role in alcoholic beverage products (when asked by TTB or pushed by state attorney generals or interest groups), because unlike every other food/beverage category, alcohol is the one segment where they can have an up-front role in preventing products from getting to market—the TTB's Certificate of Label Approval process.