Well Preserved

I was in Welland today for work – a far cry from my normal habitat.

Welland is close to Niagara, Niagara is close to Buffalo.  I have recently heard of a store in Buffalo named Premiere Gourmet.  Premiere has close to 1,200 bottles of beer at any given time – many are imported or obscure, difficult to find or simply not brought in to Canada.  Their website has a listing including relatively current inventory levels.  Stunning.

I had hear recently of a kind of loophole in customs.  If you stay in the US for 48 hours you can bring back 2 750 ml bottles of wine, 1.25 liters of booze or 24 cans of beer.  The loophole is fairly simple – beer has gotten far more crafty, specialized and, well, exciting.  It also comes in special sizes – many beers being 750ml and 12% alcohol or more and can sell for $10, $20 or $30 per bottle.  It far more resembles wine than a 2-4 of Bud and people are declaring that they have 24 beer without explaining that they actually have $400 of beer.

Two quick things to think about here:
1)  When you declare a bottle of Scotch, it does not matter if it is a $40 bottle or a $8,000 bottle.
2)  You are going to make up your own mind what is right for you.  Getting caught “cheating” is not something I want to put myself in position to do – I have no reason to and the pain it could cause in future is just not worth saving a few dollars to me.

Regardless, I decided that I was close enough that I went to Buffalo after work.  It was lovely.   I bought 12 beer (more on them to come in future - they are stunning, stunning, stunning) and include some I plan to cellar for 5 years.  I went with the full plan to declare these, pay duty and blog about how much it was, how it worked and all the rest after finding it very difficult to find the straight goods on this.  I loaded the beer in my truck, drove to the border and got ready to pay the piper.

I learned that you drive up to the customs officer and inform him or her that you have something to declare and they will ask you to pull over and pay at the office.  My chap was a very straightforward, serious dude.  It went something like this:

Joel (J):  Good evening!
Customs Officer (CO):  Hello.  How long were you in the US?
J:  About an hour and a half.
CO:  Purpose of trip?
J:  I bought 12 beer that I have to declare and pay duty on.
CO: (puzzled look).  I asked your purpose, not what you are declaring…
J:  I bought 12 beer that I have to declare and pay duty on.
[there was a few more pleasantries at this point]
CO:  You only have 12 beer – you sure you want to pay duty?  You can if you really want to but I’m not marking your car, go ahead…

Honesty is the best policy – that and not getting greedy!  I have plenty enough beer to try for some time and report back to you and didn’t have to go through the duty process – unfortunately this means I also have one less topic!  It was a great experience and I’m sure it won’t be like that all the time but I felt rewarded for being honest!  Some fantastic stuff to share soon!