The Daily Valet. - 11/18/19, Monday

✔️ You Know What's Better Than Coffee?

November 18, 2019

Monday, November 18th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

We’re kicking off the week with something pretty cool.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

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Today’s Big Story

You Know What’s Better Than Coffee?

Alcoholic coffee is the next big drink trend apparently

Late last year, executives from big brewer MillerCoors met with small batch coffee roasters at La Colombe Coffee to discuss a potential partnership. The idea that was on the table: Could cold brew’s buzzy popularity be mixed with a shot of the boozy spiked seltzer trend dominating the beer aisle?

The hope was that they could add a jolt to the already robust ready-made coffee industry, which is a $3 billion dollar business alone—up nearly 20% from last year.

And it was a way for savvy alcoholic brands to expand and diversify. "Beer sales have been flat for a few years now," Pabst Blue Ribbon’s John Newhouse told Fortune. "Remaining in the beer space just wasn’t a great business plan long term."

By September, two flavors of Hard Cold Brew from La Colombe were testing in select markets, joining other alcoholic cold brews along with several new coffee liqueurs and spirits.

So how do they taste? The Washington Post recently assembled a few cans to try and were ultimately confused. "The sugar and dairy bombs are hardly light, session-able tipples. And they don’t pair very well with food, except maybe brunch, as one taster suggested."

Do I really need alcohol in my coffee? No, of course not. But I wouldn't be against trying one. And I would certainly advocate these high-minded hard coffees over the dreaded vodka-Red Bull craze of the early aughts or the now-banned Four Loko.

↦ Want to Try it? La Colombe has a locator so you can see if cans are being sold near you.

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The Protests in Hong Kong Intensify

As police try storming a university, they were met by fire and bows-and-arrows

Protesters inside the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University hurled Molotov cocktails at police early Monday. Riot police briefly stormed the campus, making arrests and threatening to meet further resistance with live rounds before retreating in the face of a growing fire. The images show an intense escalation in the six-month-long struggle for democracy that has recently moved to this area's campuses.

In some of the fiercest clashes since protests began, police used water-cannon blasts, tear gas and beanbag rounds against students who started a massive fire on a bridge, shot a police officer in the leg with an arrow and set fire to an armored car, reports the Washington Post.

This latest confrontation capped a week of increasing violence, marking a shift in the struggle. It is college- and high school-aged activists driving the unrest now, stockpiling makeshift weapons and constructing walls and barricades from bricks.

By early Monday, police had not used live ammunition. And university President Jin-Guang Teng said the university had negotiated a temporary cease-fire to allow protesters to leave peacefully. Also making people nervous? Unarmed Chinese soldiers began clearing some of the road debris left by protesters over the weekend. It's a symbolic gesture that is sparking fears of a military intervention.

FedEx Paid No Taxes Last Year

How the company managed to cut its massive tax bill down to zero

In the 2017 fiscal year, FedEx owed more than $1.5 billion in taxes. The next year, it owed nothing thanks to the Trump administration’s tax cut—for which the company had lobbied hard (spending more than $10 million), reports the New York Times.

FedEx’s founder and chief executive, Frederick Smith, repeatedly took to the airwaves to champion the power of tax cuts. “If you make the United States a better place to invest, there is no question in my mind that we would see a renaissance of capital investment,” he said in August on a radio show hosted by Larry Kudlow (who is now chairman of the National Economic Council).

After Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, FedEx said they'd invest more than $3 billion in new equipment and other assets. But the company has actually spent less than what they once projected in each year since the law has gone into effect than before. Much of the money that the company ended up saving though has gone to ... yep, you guessed it ... reward shareholders.

It has now been two years since the corporate tax cuts have gone into effect and overall business investment during President Trump’s tenure has grown more slowly than before the tax cuts.

↦ FYI: Nearly three dozen other companies saw their tax rates fall to zero or reported that tax authorities owed them money after the tax cuts.

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

The best gifts to give travelers

So the bubble gum vapes aren’t going away after all?

All the clothes worn in “Fight Club”

Colin Kaepernick’s NFL Workout Disinigrated

Issues over a liability waiver and the event’s transparency doomed it before it even started

Colin Kaepernick’s NFL-sanctioned bid to return to the league after three years in exile unraveled before it even began, reports the Wall Street Journal. Kaepernick arrived in Atlanta on Friday to feature his abilities at a league-organized workout Saturday that had an unlikely goal: landing him an NFL contract.

But the former 49ers quarterback and league officials could not agree on the paperwork he would have to sign to participate nor who would be allowed to tape the session, so the free agent instead invited teams and reporters to watch him throw at a nearby high school.

Kaepernick worked out for 40 minutes in Atlanta for representatives from just eight NFL teams. "I’ve been ready for three years. I’ve been denied for three years," he told reporters after his workout. "So we're waiting for the 32 owners, 32 teams, Roger Goodell, all of them to stop running."

↦ On the bright side: He was able to show off his reported new collaboration with Nike.