# I'm Curious About "Wino" Liquors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701 "2009-12-10T05:30:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/21 "2009-12-10T16:39:28Z")
MD 20/20 was a popular beverage of choice when I was in high school and college. It came in many fine flavors. I had a friend who mixed it with Aristocrat Vodka and Mountain Dew. It went down well but guaranteed a crippling hangover the next day. Boones Farm wasn’t bad but it didn’t give you any bang for your buck. Judging from the refuse dropped in the alley overnight, the bums that hang around in my neck of the woods prefer tallboys of Steel Reserve, and Velikoff Vodka. Weirdly enough, these seem to be popular in the [District](http://goodspeedupdate.com/2007/2125). The link above contains a breakdown on the unit cost for Wild Irish Rose, Steel Reserve and the above mentioned Velikoff. I don’t think I’ve ever seen empties of any bum wines around here. ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/22 "2009-12-10T16:54:57Z")
Cheap vodka like Aristocrat and Popov is crap I remember people buying in high school and college. I always worked so I’d spring for Smirnoff or Absolut at least, but I did take a double shot of Popov once in college. Immediately ran to the bathroom to barf. And my bf told me he drank the majority of a bottle of Aristocrat when he was in college, he calls it “the night I almost died.” Harsh shit. Same with Boones Farm - high school and college junk. We called the blue kind Smurf Piss. It’s weak though, for novice drinkers. If I want cheap crap I go for some Natural Light or Pabst or a $5 bottle of Beringer white zinfandel. Don’t drink much booze and definitely don’t drink bottom-shelf booze anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Taenia\_spp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/23 "2009-12-10T18:25:39Z")
Doesn’t bum wine necessarily mean that this stuff is cheap? How cheap _are_ bum wines anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/24 "2009-12-10T18:29:26Z")
> [@Taenia\_spp](#): > > Doesn’t bum wine necessarily mean that this stuff is cheap? How cheap _are_ bum wines anyway? Since liquor taxes vary so much from one state to the next, that’s going to depend on where you are. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/25 "2009-12-10T18:30:34Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Since liquor taxes vary so much from one state to the next, that’s going to depend on where you are. Come on. Let’s get a ballpark figure. When I was a kid, I think a pint was like 1.25 at the bootlegger. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/26 "2009-12-10T19:51:54Z")
Night Train and Thunderbird are awful. I used to drink T-bird fairly regularly. It’s quite cheap, and will kick out the back of your skull. Cisco will sneak up and steal your wallet. MD 20/20 is OK, but not great. I sorta like Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill, but the alcohol % is too low. I go for rotgut spirits - the cheapest vodka around, usually Royal Gate. Joe ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/27 "2009-12-10T19:52:50Z")
I don’t know too much about bum wines, but I can vouch for the potency, nastiness and cheapness of Steel Reserve. Its .99 a 24oz can, and it’s 9% alcohol. Drinking two quickly gives you the alcohol of eight beers in a very rapid amount of time. Shit is lethal, and disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/28 "2009-12-10T22:24:55Z")
For a taste of the bubbly - Andre Cold Duck. One bottle and your skull would feel like it was hit by a fire axe. Two bottles - after the eruption, and it always came out again through the mouth and both nostrils, and you’d be looking for the fire axe yourself to end it all. Some other sweet red wine came out about this time period (Ripple, Boone’s Farm, Cold Duck were hot) but I can’t quite place it, around 1980 or so. A girl in our class was into it - she’d fall asleep on the nuke warheads the next day. Really piss the instructor off. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/29 "2009-12-10T22:43:46Z")
The real question is why does **Two Many Cats** need to make an educated buy? Bum wine costs, like, 3 bucks. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/30 "2009-12-10T23:14:20Z")
Thunderbird for fish and chicken, MD 20-20 for red meat dishes. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/31 "2009-12-11T00:32:23Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Come on. Let’s get a ballpark figure. When I was a kid, I think a pint was like 1.25 at the bootlegger. In the mid-90’s, a college friend of mine bought a pint of Thunderbird for $1.25 as well. No idea what it’d run these days. Our vodka of choice was McCormick’s. It came in a big plastic jug for about $7.00. Delicious! ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/32 "2009-12-11T00:56:07Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > For a taste of the bubbly - Andre Cold Duck. Cold Duck! That’s the one I was trying to think of…never drank the stuff myself (not much of a drinker), but my dad was a heavy drinker in his youth, and I remember him talking about that being the cheap drunk of choice. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/33 "2009-12-11T00:56:43Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Come on. Let’s get a ballpark figure. When I was a kid, I think a pint was like 1.25 at the bootlegger. A 750ml bottle of is somewhere around $5, tax included, at the liquor store a mile from where I work. For comparison, a 40 of malt liquor is about half that. I don’t care much for the taste of alcohol, but I like the effect, so I go for strong but bearable, and cheap, meaning I drink bum wines not unoften. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/34 "2009-12-11T01:37:40Z")
I was looking for an old **Washington City Paper** (possibly from the 80s) article called “Booze You can Lose.” I couldn’t find it, but [this article](http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1990-10-31/news/booze-you-can-lose/1) covers a lot of the same ground. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/35 "2009-12-11T01:40:50Z")
I hear the Trader Joe’s wine is pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/36 "2009-12-11T01:52:56Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > The real question is why does **Two Many Cats** need to make an educated buy? Bum wine costs, like, 3 bucks. In this perilous economy, every nickel counts. That’s why you should invest in gold, just like G. Gordon Liddy says, and tell your Congressman to vote down this disastrous health care reform. Sorry, been stuck in a customer lounge with Fox News (New motto: “All the news that’s fit to spit!”) blaring at me for ten hours a day straight. It’s like I’ve been stuck in some variation of an Orwellian fascist state. Must…come…down. Ah…some Hitching Post St. Rita’s Earth Pinot Noir…not bum wine by any stretch, but it’ll mess you up good if you abuse it. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/37 "2009-12-11T02:28:46Z")
Oh, you kids and your high class $3 flavored wine. When I was a bum we put jellied sterno in a dirty sock and squeezed the alcohol out and sucked on the sock. Chateau la Feet. (I am just kidding, but people really do this and sometimes either die or go blind) ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/38 "2009-12-11T04:24:24Z")
I’ve had my fair share of MD 20/20. A friend of mine used to be very fond of it, back when we didn’t have a lot of money and were just out of college. I was working, but he was looking for a job. He liked it because he could get toasted three times for $5. I tried pretty much all the flavors except the plain fortified wine one. All of them pretty much tasted like boozy Kool-Aid with a side of vomit. My buddy was kind of like a pusher for it so I got a bottle every few times he did. I finally figured it wasn’t worth it when it tasted so dreadful, especially when I could get a bottle of Admiral Nelson rum for about $6.99 (or, hell, that shitty Paramount rum for $5.99), mix with Diet Coke, and have something that didn’t taste like puke. He gave up the MD 20/20 after awhile, when he got used to drinking beer, and didn’t want to get quite so intoxicated so fast. Up until very recently, even though he had plenty of money for the good stuff, he was drinking cheap beer (Natural Ice). ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/39 "2009-12-11T04:29:25Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I hear the Trader Joe’s wine is pretty good. It’s not the best wine ever but for $3 a glass it’s perfectly passable for everyday drinking, in my opinion. I bought several cases of it for parties and such. I don’t drink routinely anymore, mostly due to wanting to not have the calories, but if I wanted to drink wine every day, I’d probably stick to 3 buck chuck. Shiraz is my favorite but the Cab wasn’t bad either. Then again, I don’t really know if it’s ‘drink-to-get-drunk’ kinda stuff. MD 20/20 is pretty fast-acting stuff and you don’t need a corkscrew. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701/40 "2009-12-11T04:47:23Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#): > > It’s not the best wine ever but for $3 a glass it’s perfectly passable for everyday drinking, in my opinion. I bought several cases of it for parties and such. It’s way too tannic, as are a lot of wines nowadays. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-curious-about-wino-liquors/520701.md?page=3)