Food & Drink

Washington – September 20, 2026 -- The U.S. Postal Service released its Christmas Cookies Forever stamps today at a family-friendly event at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

The stamps come in booklets of 20 and are sold as Forever stamps, meaning their value always matches the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce rate. They are available at Post Office locations nationwide and on usps.com.

Four cookie designs anchor the new booklet

The set features a Christmas tree cookie decorated with red ribbons, yellow stars and silver ornaments on a blue background; a Santa Claus face cookie with a white beard, rosy cheeks and red cap on a red background; a blue present cookie with holly and a red ribbon; and a red stocking cookie with light blue and green stripes and white trim. The booklet's cover shows three of the four cookies -- the tree, Santa's face and the stocking -- above the text "Christmas Cookies" and "Twenty First-Class Forever Stamps."

Seattle – September 20, 2026 -- Jones Soda Co. is releasing a club-exclusive 12-pack that turns fictional Nuka-Cola flavors from the Fallout video game universe into real, drinkable sodas ahead of Fallout Day on October 23, 2026.

The "Vault-Dweller Variety" pack marks the fourth Fallout-themed collaboration between Jones Soda and Bethesda Softworks. It is expected to begin shipping September 11, 2026, and will be sold exclusively at participating club retail locations across the United States and Canada.

The pack bottles two Nuka-Cola flavors that have never existed outside the game before

The 12-pack contains four glass bottles each of three flavors: Nuka-Cola Quartz, Nuka-Cola Cranberry and Nuka-Cola Quantum. Quartz and Cranberry are being produced in reality for the first time, while Quantum, the glowing blue variety familiar to longtime Fallout fans, returns as the collection's centerpiece.

Columbus, Ohio – September 19, 2026 -- Garage Beer has launched "Terrors of the Tailgate," a Halloween-themed trading card campaign with Kingsford that turns football fan rituals into collectible monster characters, with packs selling for $5.99 at drinkgaragebeer.com.

The limited-time-offer cards draw on '90s-style sports marketing and monster collectibles, casting everyday tailgate behavior as legendary creatures. Jason Kelce, billed as the "King of the Tailgate," leads the lineup as the campaign's central figure.

Five monster characters represent classic tailgate archetypes

The set includes The Table Smasher, The Face Paint Fanatic, The Cooler Raider, The Parking Lot Prophet, and Kingsford's The Flamekeeper, described as the fan who "controls the meat, controls the fire and controls the vibe."

Bellingham, Wash. – September 19, 2026 -- The Non-UPF Verified certification program has grown to 304 verified products across 23 brands since opening for enrollment on January 21, 2026, and shoppers can now check that status instantly through a new smartphone app.

A new app lets shoppers scan barcodes for processing details

The Non-UPF Verified app, available for iOS and Android, allows users to scan a packaged food's barcode to see whether it carries Non-UPF Verified status. If a product isn't verified, users can tap to request verification directly, a feature designed to send food brands a clear signal of consumer demand.

Nashville, Tenn. – September 19, 2026 -- A Scottsboro, Alabama, woman who has eaten at Captain D's since her local restaurant opened in the late 1970s has won a seven-night Alaska cruise for her family through a national sweepstakes tied to the chain's Alaska-sourced fish.

Sandra Elmore scanned a QR code after a routine fish dinner

Sandra Elmore noticed a promotional sign for the "Captain D's and PepsiCo Alaska Family Cruise Sweepstakes" while eating at her local restaurant this summer. She scanned the code, submitted her receipt, and did not think about it again until an email arrived weeks later naming her the winner.

Confirmation came in the form of a 32-pound box of cruise-themed merchandise, including six sets of spa robes and slippers, binoculars, beach towels, and Captain D's gift cards.

West Hollywood – September 19, 2026 -- Dialog Café, the West Hollywood breakfast spot known for its pasture-raised egg burritos, will reopen October 3, 2026, inside The Sun Rose West Hollywood hotel on Sunset Blvd, offering its full menu to longtime customers whose original café has been closed since a water main incident in July.

The café's original location sustained substantial damage during the July 16, 2026, water main incident and remains closed, with no reopening date set. Founders Narbeh and Tadeh Ghazalian say restoration could take approximately one year or longer, though the timeline remains an estimate.

LAS VEGAS – September 19, 2026 -- WAN AICHEF ULTRA, an AI-powered cooking system, has been named a Professional Category Finalist in the 2026 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America.

The appliance lets users load food, pick a program and walk away

Ultra is built around what the company calls a "Load and Go" experience: users place food inside, select a cooking goal, confirm the suggested program, and the system handles adjustments as cooking proceeds. For supported ingredients, an AI vision system can identify the food and recommend a program before the user confirms it.

"We began by asking which decisions people repeat every night and which of those the appliance could responsibly take on," said Stanley Huo, CEO of WAN AICHEF. "The change is not simply what the appliance can do, but what the user no longer has to do."

Montepulciano – September 19, 2026 -- Avignonesi, an organic and biodynamic producer of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, is launching a three-wine project called 300% Sangiovese in the U.S. this September, built on more than 15 years of parcel-by-parcel vineyard research.

The collection brings back two wines that had been absent from the market for several years -- In Grandi Annate Toscana IGT 2021 and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Late Release 2016 -- alongside a newer release, Poggetto di Sopra Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2022.

Each wine represents a distinct lens on the same grape

Since 2010, Avignonesi has harvested and vinified more than 100 hectares of Sangiovese separately every year, producing over 60 individual micro-lots to study how the grape reacts to different soils, sites, and vintages around Montepulciano.

Miami – September 19, 2026 -- Early-bird tickets are now on sale for Vinous Icons: Miami, presented by Capital One, returning for its third edition on November 12–14, 2026.

The three-day program brings together more than 100 leading estates from Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, South Africa, Spain and the United States for two walk-around tastings, five masterclasses and two collector's events.

Two tastings anchor the weekend at Bloom at Jungle Island.

The Icons Tastings take place November 13 and 14, beginning at 4:30 pm, where guests can sample hundreds of highly acclaimed wines and meet the winemakers behind them.

Myrtle Beach, S.C. – September 18, 2026 -- The Grand Strand Chef's Table returns Friday, Oct. 16, at the International Culinary Institute of Myrtle Beach, spotlighting the region's chefs as national accolades pile up for the local dining scene. Gullah Geechee chef BJ Dennis headlines the event, hosted by The Local Palate magazine in partnership with Visit Myrtle Beach, the James Beard Foundation and the Culinary Institute.

The evening will feature tasting plates, beverage stations, live cooking demonstrations and interactive culinary experiences, with students from the Culinary Institute working alongside participating chefs. A portion of proceeds will support the institute's study abroad program and the James Beard Foundation's Good Food for Good mission.