• From The Guardian, the UK newspaper:A campaign has been launched in Greece by tourism officials against bars serving "bombes," cocktails of spirits that are being blamed for increasingly bad behaviour in holiday resorts.
The campaign, which will see police officers and scientists conducting random checks of nightclubs and bars, comes amid mounting evidence that unsuspecting holidaymakers are being sold drinks laced with lethal doses of industrial spirit.
Adulterated alcohol is believed to be behind the death of a British teenager who collapsed after a binge-drinking session outside a nightclub in the resort of Laganas on the island of Zakynthos last month.
"In certain areas, like Malia on Crete, bombes are a real problem," said Sophia Nova, a tourism ministry official. "We may talk a lot about the attitude of tourists and their excessive drinking but often it's the alcohol that's at fault. If we don't solve this problem and get rid of bombes, Greece's image will be tainted."
Mixing alcohol with industrial spirit to make beverages go further is an old ruse long employed by some unscrupulous bar-owners in Greece. In recent years, however, the bombe appears to have grown in popularity with proprietors eager to attract customers with cheap drinks. Doctors have likened the cocktails to "a small bomb that goes off in the brain."
(You can get the rest of the story here.)
ON THE WEB
• Food & Drinks: The Greek Portal
• Food & Drink In Ancient Greece
• Dowd's Guides
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