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Comment by catalogia | Hacker News Reader

I believe when a 'bottle' is made out of paper, it's properly called a 'carton'. e.g. a 'carton of milk'

I remember buying cartons of red wine in Italy in the mid '90s for a few hundred lire a go. It was diabolically bad. Great days!

My boating friends tell me "boxed wine" is making a comeback- especially on boats.

Has it ever been away? It’s usually the cheapest option for 1€/l in supermarkets.

Twenty years or so ago, I recall procuring very large quantities of extremely-mediocre table wine (in France) that came in large, rigid plastic cubes. I don't remember how much these stored, but it was "many litres" and they were dirt cheap.

I think they mean you are finding better wine in boxes. Like canned beer (also good for boats). It used to be a sign of cheap stuff, now you can find craft beer in cans.

And that's really bagged wine. Inside a cardboard box. So basically a bottle, but floppy, inside a carton.

They've started putting decent wines in boxes. There's nothing inherently wrong with boxes, or screw tops, or plastic corks. They prevent further aging, but that's just fine: the vast majority of wines are as good as they'll ever get when they go into the bottle.

The mystique of ultra high-end wines aging for years requires careful conditions, specific wine properties, and is still pretty hit-and miss. For everything else, there's no reason not to package it for convenience rather than tradition.

Boxes used to be used only for bad wines, and there's still plenty of bad wine in boxes, but they've gotten good at making decent reliable wines for cheap. Putting them in a box lowers costs, and it's very nice to be able to take out one glass at a time.

I'll get ridiculed for this, but there's actually decent wine to be had in cans now too. I wouldn't really drink it out of a can directly, but it's pretty convenient sometimes to have a half bottle of wine, and not worry about how to save the rest.

Doesn't that impart an aluminum flavor? I've had seltzer water from cans and it seems to have a noticeably metallic flavor compared to bottled seltzer water (I don't notice a difference between plastic or glass bottles.)

I think most cans have a plastic liner

Resin*, but yeah

It's not just tradition... especially with alcoholic beverages, there's also the "I don't buy the cheapest wine/beer/spirits because I want to demonstrate (to myself and others) that I actually enjoy them and don't just drink to get drunk" factor.

At least here in Spain very bad red or white wine which is used exclusively for cooking comes in cartons.

Carton is a french word and it means cardboard or box. I've never heard is used for something that has a round shape.

That's a fair point. I can't think of any examples of round containers called cartons. On the other hand, an 'egg carton' has a specialized rather irregular albeit broadly rectangular shape, so I don't think a carton is necessarily a rectangular prism. I think they tend to be that way since the material lends itself to it. Cardboard tubes are definitely a thing and I haven't heard them referred to as cartons though.

Milk "cartons" have a lot of plastic in them, and are neither biodegradeable, nor recyclable.

I believe they were originally made with waxed paper. I'm not sure if wax is much better in those regards.

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