The Treasury Department is compiling a list of all alcoholic beverages sold in stores and online, to determine which ones it needs to test. The department wants to ensure the products’ labels do not mislead consumers, according to The New York Times.
Employees may test gold-colored flecks in Goldschlager to see if they are made of real gold, or test snake wine to see if it has enough liquid to qualify as a drink, instead of a snack, the article notes. The United States is the only nation with an alcohol-regulating body located in its Treasury Department.
Daniel Wagner, in an article he wrote about the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for the Associated Press last year, noted, “Some of its decisions are open to negotiation. A tequila-like liquor with a scorpion floating in it made scientists balk until the producer convinced them that the scorpions are farm-raised and non-toxic. In other words, this may be the only federal agency that responds favorably to receiving scorpion candy in the mail.”