Houlton featured on national ‘Colbert Report’ cable show

HOULTON, Maine — The town of Houlton was thrust into the national spotlight last week when it was featured April 7 on the Comedy Central cable TV show “The Colbert Report.”
In the tongue-in-cheek comedy report titled “Nailed ‘em,” host Stephen Colbert told the tale of Houlton High School student Aaron Anderson, who purchased a bottle of Fentiman’s Victorian Lemonade and brought the bottle to school, not knowing the organic lemonade contained a trace amount of alcohol.
Upon noticing the label, Anderson took the bottle to school officials, who consulted with the Houlton Police Department. The HPD, in turn, contacted the Maine Attorney General’s Office, and after an investigation, that office ruled it was illegal to sell the product to minors in the state.
“Instead of buying raspberry seltzer, I look at the lemonade and say ‘I’m just going to change things,” Anderson said in the segment.
After noticing on the label that the beverage contained alcohol, Anderson said he “sort of panicked.”
“Maine has zero tolerance for consumption of alcohol if you are under age,” HPD chief Butch Asselin said on the show.
Fentiman’s Vicotrian Lemonade is manufactured in Canada and features 0.5 percent alcohol. To match the alcohol content found in one 12-ounce beer, a person would need to drink 200 ounces of the lemonade.
Craig James, president of Fentiman’s North Amercia, said in the report that the intention of creating the organic lemonade was to provide an alternative to sugar and caffeine-laced soda products.
“The alcohol in the lemonade comes from the brewing process,” he said. “We are not the only soda product in America with trace amounts of alcohol.”
James said the sodas 7-up, Sprite and Ginger Ale all contain trace amounts of alcohol and added the entire case was “ridiculous.”
Chief Asselin is shown at the end of the segment pouring a bottle of the lemonade over a railing at the Houlton border crossing.
The segment can be found at www.colbertnation.com, by typing the words Houlton into the search window.