In Iowa City on January 31, 2009, the constables went out and did compliance checks at local watering holes with a couple of underage volunteers. When they got to the Union Bar, a bartender sold them a Jello shot and was cited, according to this report.
But at a hearing in front of the administrative law judge in November, the bar's owner offered the novel argument that since the shot involved a liquid injected into a solid, that liquid was now part of that solid and not an offending liquid that could violate the law.
Since when did Jell-O become a solid? A freak of nature is what Jell-O is. It bounces, jiggles, moves seductively, enticing you to play with it before slurping it, just like Bluto did in Animal House.
"While there might be some debate in another context as to whether Jello is a food item or beverage," the judge recently ruled, "in this context, the Jell-O shots were alcoholic beverages."
Is Jell-O a food or beverage? You can decide when you're doing shots of it at your next soiree. Just make sure that you don't hold the party in Iowa City.
