Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Alcohol, native peoples, and missionaries in early colonial Brazil (article)

Joao Azevedo Fernandes, "Feast and Sin: Catholic Missionaries and Native Celebrations in Early Colonial Brazil," Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 23/2 (Spring 2009): 111-127.

Latin American theme for Social History of Alcohol and Drugs (Spring 2009)

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 23/2 (Spring 2009) focuses on Latin America with articles on Brazil, the Andean countries, and Mexico.  The book reviews cover many parts of the world. Details later.

7 New Emerging Wine Regions

Global warming is partly responsible for emerging grape growing regions according to an article by Simon Majumdar at AskMen.com - here is the link.

Ecstasy and Brazilian teenagers

Brazilian police have reacted harshly against a new kind of drug-dealer, middle and upper-class youths peddling ecstasy.  For the New York Times story, see here.

Brazil's 2009 coffee crop to decline up to 20%

Bad weather and limited investment may reduce Brazil's coffee crop in 2009 to fall by up to 20%.  For details, see here.

Brazilians drinking more coffee

Brazil is known as a coffee producer.  It also is a major coffee consumer.  It is estimated that by 2010 Brazil will consume as much coffee as the USA (now the world's largest coffee market).  For more, see here.  Brazilian per capita consumption is much larger than that in the USA.  Brazil's population is less than two-thirds that of the United States.

Beer-loving Brazilians adapt to strict drunk-driving laws

In June 2008 Brazil adopted strict drunk-driving laws, but it is unclear whether they have changed the behavior of beer-loving Brazilians.  For more, see here.

Chinese beer brand called Snow now the world's second largest by volume

The leading beer brands by volume are:

Bud Light (USA/InBev)

Snow (China)

Budweiser (USA/InBev)

Skol (Brazil)

Corona (Mexico)

Heineken (Netherlands)

Brahma (Brazil/InBev)

Coors Light (USA/owned by a Canadianfirm)

Miller Lite (USA/owned by SABMiller, based in London)

Tsingtao (China)

The largest beer markets are China, USA, Russia, Brazil, and Germany.

For more, see here.

Mexico's Modelo challenges InBev takeover of Anheuser-Busch

Mexico's Modelo argues that its partnership with Anheuser-Busch allows it to block the InBev takeover of the St. Louis-based company. (A-B owns half of Modelo's shares.) Many observers believe that Modelo really hopes to negotiate to improve its autonomy after the Brazilian-Belgian InBev acquires Anheuser-Busch. For details, see the Wall Street Journal story here.

Anheuser-Busch moves toward acceptance of InBev take over bid

After InBev increased its financial offer, Anheuser-Busch appears to accept the take over by the Belgium based (and largely Brazilian-run) company. For details, see here.