Beware: Food & Drink April Fools Pranksters Striking Early

When I was a kid, I remember one of our local TV news reporters filing an April Fools story where he interviewed a farmer on the progress of the season's spaghetti crop, complete with shots of limp noodles hanging from the limbs of some sort of green plant.  To my 8 year old sensibilities, it was a total riot.(And, as it turns out, totally ripped off from the BBC, who originated the gag).

Fast forward three decades and the wacky April Fools food story--fueled by the quick tweet and Facebook link--is so rife that I'm surprised anyone even bothers to even to login on the first day of April.

Now, it appears, some crafty wags are getting the jump on all the rest of the pranksters, releasing their stories several days in advance.

Like this one about a ludicrously expensive brand of flavored vodka infused with . . . rum.    Notice the date it's scheduled for release?  (But, it is a brilliant send up of artisan distilling trends.)

The ultimate ending to the bacon fad?  How about a bacon coffin?

I'm now officially on high alert.  If you see a food or drink story anytime over the next week that seems too nutty to be true . . . well, it probably is.

---

UPDATE: March 30, 2010 7:30 AM: The good people at J&D Foods have insisted in a Huffington Post interview (probably doing everything they can not to break into a giggle) that the bacon coffin is not a hoax. Read their explanation and decide for yourselves.