Fifteen years ago, this paragraph might have actually convinced me to go out and buy some of this stuff.
In 1991, Cisco’s tendency to cause a temporary form of inebriated insanity led the Federal Trade Commission to require its bottlers to print a warning on the label (above right). The FTC also forced them to drop their marketing slogan, “Takes You by Surprise,” even though it was entirely accurate. Read the FTC’s full investigation on their own web page at this link. Since those days, Cisco is harder to find outside the slums, although the FTC’s demonizing of the drink only bolstered its reputation for getting people trashed. Anyone who overlooks the warning and confuses this with a casual wine cooler is going to get more than they bargained for. Cisco will make a new man out of you. And he wants some too.
This is why I am not really upset that I am not fifteen years younger. I’m going to need every brain cell left that I’ve got.
Moe Lane
*Apparently the only thing not in it.
A number of my friends in the IT business have bottles of Cisco wine lying around for obvious reasons, but I think they keep them more as conversation pieces than as actual drinking supplies.