On beer and other beverages

The Americans have a come up with the strange idea of light beers, which seem to be immensely popular in here. Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Light are ones of the most sold beers, partly because they are the also the ones that are most affordable. Light beer has approximately 80% of the calories and 80% of the alcohol of normal beer. Taste-wise they are the worst you can find, so if you appreciate a decent beer, steer away from these.

It is to be noted that in most stores, beer is sold only in sixpacks. Some stores let you mix and match, picking the six beers you want, but you always have to buy at least six. I have been trying a lot of different ones and my favourite of the American beers has so far been Miller High Life. You also have a decent choice of import beers to choose from, depending on the store. Note that several European beers, such as Heineken, are manufactured here in the States and are usually worse than the stuff you get in Europe. The case is the same with a lot of Mexican beers. 

The Virginia alcohol legislation bans alcohol sale after midnight, unlike for example Louisiana, where it can be sold all around the clock. Wine is sold in grocery stores here but to get liquor one has to go to a Alcohol Beverage Control, ABC, similar to the Finnish Alko.

Alcohol is cheap, you can pick up a sixpack for a little over four dollars (about three euros) and a twelve for eight. Liquor prices in ABC seem to be rather high, for example in the prices of Scotch whiskeys I saw no great difference to Finnish prices. Finally, in a bar I went to a big pint cost about three dollars tip included, which equals to €2,20. All in all I'd say that drinking in the United States (or at least Wise, Virginia) is 25-30% cheaper than in Finland.