Did New York Bully an Alcoholic Slushie Business Out of Existence?
With the heat of summer quickly approaching, New Yorkers might want to quench their thirst with some "Phrosties," alcoholic slushie beverages sold by an eponymous delivery service. Too bad, because New York Sen. Charles Schumer (D) may have just scared the underground drink maker out of existence.
At a press conference on Monday he said it's time for a crackdown on Phrosties because "a 12-year-old can probably buy these 'sloshies' online, get it and enjoy it because it's filled with fruit juice and fruit punch and all the things that taste sweet and nice."
According to the New York Post, Phrosties is "already are under investigation by the State Liquor Authority because they are unregulated and unlicensed."
Vice's Grace Wyler says that's all it took to put the delivery service "out of business, or at least driven them deeper underground." She reports on Phrosties' quick fade into obscurity:
By Tuesday, the Phrostie Instagram account had been scrubbed clean, its delivery contact details replaced by the warning "WE DO NOT DELIVER." After that, my texts to the previously listed phone numbers went unanswered, until Wednesday night, when I got a reply from the Brooklyn delivery service saying that if I wanted any more Phrosties, I would have to order "ASAP."
Twenty minutes later, a delivery guy showed up and handed me a black grocery bag full of slushies. "That's it for the Phrosties," he sighed. The service, he explained, was selling the last of its inventory and closing up shop, thanks to "Schumer and the regulations, I guess."
"It's all just political propaganda bullshit," he added, with a wave that was both a farewell and a summary dismissal of the crushing regulatory burden of the nanny state.
Were these $10 drinks really so dangerous? Even at the food blog Grub Street where Alexis Swerdloff worried over the fact that Phrosties are unregulated, she bought some anyway and lived to tell the tasty tale. The same goes for International Business Times' Eric Brown who thinks Schumer "has a point" about Phrosties but slurped them down until his face went numb.
For those keeping score, Schumer is also leading the charge against powdered alcohol and in 2010 threw a fit about caffeinated malt liquor drink Four Loko because of its appeal to young people.