A regular Mouse Print* reader from Kansas told us about an experience she had after purchasing a four-pack of Jose Cuervo Sparkling Margarita cocktails in cans.
While the box indicated the drinks were 8-percent alcohol by volume the cans themselves inside told a different story.
*MOUSE PRINT:
The cans indicated the content was only 5-percent alcohol! And note that the cans are in English and French. This fact will play a part in our investigation.
What’s going on here? Is this a case of skimpflation where the company decided to cheapen the product? Is it a packaging mix-up? Is it just outright misrepresentation? Or is it something else?
We asked the company that distributes Jose Cuervo in the United States, Proximo Spirits, for an explanation. After multiple requests, they responded:
After investigating this matter, we identified the issue to a packaging error made by our co-packing partner in July 2022, during which the wrong 5% ABV can was inadvertently placed into a limited number of 8% ABV variety pack boxes. Once identified, we immediately placed all potentially affected cases on hold for quality inspection and destroyed what we believed to be the full inventory of impacted product.
We have had no indication over the last three years that any affected product reached the market, and we have not received a single similar consumer complaint since the issue was resolved in 2022. Given this absence, and that nearly all 2022 product will have already moved through the retail market, we believe this was an isolated incident with no ongoing risk of recurrence.
We take accurate labeling and consumer trust very seriously. We are happy to issue a full refund and can be placed in contact with the affected consumer to address this matter directly with them.
Their response to our initial and subsequent emails was troubling in a number of respects. They never inquired about where and when our consumer purchased the product, nor did they ask for the manufacturing codes on the carton and cans. How can you trace a possible problem without that information?
The company’s 2022 product mix-up involved a variety pack, while the present problem is about the regular lime margarita product. So this is seemingly not a package left over from that earlier incident.
Lastly, they said they hadn’t received a single complaint about this issue. Our consumer told me she complained three times on the Jose Cuervo Facebook page but never got a reply.
But there is a twist in the story. While trying to figure out why the cans inside the box were in French as well as English, we learned this product along with others was banned in Canada back in March at least in some provinces in retaliation for the tariffs the U.S. placed on Canadian goods.
*MOUSE PRINT:
This official Ontario government liquor store’s website still says the product is banned there. This means that Proximo might be stuck with a lot of French language cans of Margarita cocktails that they needed to liquidate.
Over a month and a half, we made over a dozen inquiries of the product’s distributor trying to understand what happened here and asking for help in understanding how to decode the manufacturing code printed on their boxes. With that information, if provided, we could figure out if the box our consumer bought was manufactured recently or back in 2022 when they acknowledged a mixup. We never got a straight answer nor the technique to decode their box codes. So the mystery continues.
If you spot a discrepancy in the alcohol content of this product in your locale, please send us the details.
And we invite you to comment below about this story.
It’s unclear from your story if you were able to decode the manufacturer code and determine when the product was produced. Is a “not” missing from your story?
Alana… they would not disclose how to decode their manufacturing codes on the box. They first said a sample code I provided was non-existent. I provided them a picture with that very code on it demonstrating it came from a real box, and they went radio silent.
I guess Jose Cuervo is NOT always a friend of mine…
Based on what I’m reading here, I think you might be on to the answer Edgar.
I did some digging of my own and it looks like beverages considered “coolers or ciders” have a fairly unique tax structure in Canada that causes the excise taxes on them to be significantly more expensive if they’re sold at or above 7% alcohol by volume.
This is, I think, the most likely answer for why they’d make a lower ABV version that sold in Canada. Combine that with your sleuthing of them being overstocked on the Canadian version and what you end up with is:
They know they’re packaging them wrong. They have a glut of 5% ABV that they can’t sell in Canada, but don’t want to redo the package to sell them in the US, so they’re knowingly selling them in the US in the 8% ABV packages and hoping they can stonewall anyone who asks questions or placate the consumers who raise the question by offering them a refund and saying it was a mistake.
I’m sure you’ve seen my comments over the years, I’m not one to jump to class action, but this looks like a likely candidate to me if this issue gains traction.
Thanks, Joel, as always, for your thoughtful comments and extra sleuthing. I certainly cannot say this was a deliberate switch without seeming more examples of actual packages that say 8% on the outside and 5% on the inside.
And as a side note, I am disappointed that other readers have not taken the time to express an opinion about this story which took over a month and a half to put together. But again, thank YOU for doing so.
Thank you for investigating this, Edgar. I think the people who went “radio silent” passed out from “liquidating” too much of their product! As the parent of an alcoholic, it is upsetting that alcoholic beverages are allowed to be marketed and sold with very little warning. Cigarettes were/are banned from advertising because they’re bad for us; are alcoholic beverages good for us?
Thank you for the research. I will now be checking the contents inside box’s to make sure they match the outside. One more thing in life that can’t be trusted.
Thanks for all the time you spent researching this. I don’t drink alcohol so this doesn’t affect me personally but I did find the sleuthing rather interesting.
Tom… Thanks for the thanks!