The all-American beer: a case of inferior standard (taste) prevailing?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681304001004

It seems counterintuitive that America’s most popular beers would be “homogeneous, bland-tasting beer,” as the author puts. The case may be that it isn’t a result of Americans having bad taste, but instead a collection of historical events that influenced today’s standards. Events such as prohibition and the explosion of consumerism significantly opened the doorway for generic name-brand beers to dominate the market making them the only choice for most Americans for decades.

Whiskey’s Resurgence: Distributed Distilling in the Post-Prohibition Era

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-49852-2_10

It seems counterintuitive that a decade ago amidst an economic recession, America’s whiskey industry would spring to life. Despite that, there has been unprecedented growth in distillery tourism and the number of craft distilleries across the country.

This growth is most likely a result of legislative changes in several states allowing special licenses for craft distilleries being easier to obtain as well as the increased focus on distillery tourism such as the growth and development of the “Kentucky Bourbon Trail” among other factors.

The curse of the Michelin-star restaurant rating

http://fortune.com/2014/12/11/michelin-star-restaurants-down-side/

It seems counterintuitive that many chefs around the globe would voluntarily give up their Michelin Star status, the most prestigious honor a restaurant could receive and one that many chefs dedicate their lives to, yet in recent years that has been the case.

While it is true that earning a Michelin Star can put a restaurant on the map bringing in a huge amount of customers, many chefs complain that having a star becomes restrictive, almost as if they’re wearing a straight jacket. Once they have a star, the expected standard of their dishes becomes so high that chefs feel like they’re unable to try new dishes for fear of losing their star. This fear and stress is so great because academic studies have found that losing a star can cut sales as much as 50%, potentially ruining and bankrupting the restaurant.

For these reasons many chefs are returning their stars and removing themselves from the list. In the words of Pisano, “if you quit, you can no longer be fired.”