Imagine a bar completely devoid of bottles, instead stacked high with little powdered filled pouches – each one featuring a different type of liquor or drink. A vodka pouch, a rum pouch, even a margarita pouch can transform from a basic white powder into a refreshing adult beverage when you mix in 6 ounces of water.
That’s the idea of a man from Phoenix, Arizona who wants to completely change the way we consume alcohol. These little powdered alcohol packets aren’t just a dream anymore, though. They were recently approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the US and will likely be on store shelves (or maybe even at your local bar) by the time summer rolls around. But let’s back up for a minute.
What exactly is Powered Alcohol?
Powdered alcohol is a powder that – when mixed with water – becomes a liquid with an alcohol content. In more scientific terms, it’s ethanol that’s been molecularly encapsulated.
Powdered alcohol isn’t actually a new idea. It was whipped up in some crazy laboratory decades ago.
In fact, the process for turning alcohol into a liquid was patented in the US in 1974 and has already been sold in some places in Europe. In 2007, a group of enterprising Dutch food technology students decided to turn this mystical powdered alcohol idea into reality and Booz2Go was born. And even though it only had a 3% alcohol content by volume, it was marketed to the under 18 crowd in the Netherlands as a sort of entry-level segue into adult beverages.
Doesn’t it look sort of like a Capri Sun?
Fast forward to today and powdered alcohol is trying to make a comeback. Only this time, it doesn’t look like a pack of Koolaid. The entire idea behind Palcohol (powdered alcohol, get it?) is that it’s a standard mix drink and carries the same alcoholic content as a shot of liquor would. Because it’s a powder and in a flat package, it can be more easily transported – whether you’re hiking and want a celebratory drink at the top of the peak (like the founder of Palcohol did) or you’re a bar shipping 20,000 individual powdered alcohol shots instead of 500 heavy glass bottles.
Is Powdered Alcohol the Future?
I like to think of the future as a world filled with flying cars and 3D printed snacks, and in that world, powdered alcohol fits right in. It’s futuristic, innovative, and just overall pretty cool. But what’s even more interesting is that given economic concerns with shipping and increasing carbon footprints, powdered alcohol actually makes a lot of sense. Forget hiking and drinking for a second and think about the possibilities for shipping, stocking, and storing alcohol – or really any type of beverage for that matter. Smaller and more lightweight products mean less packaging and less overall shipments.
The same could even be said with a lot of foods, though that would be pushing us in the direction of consuming even more processed foods, which probably isn’t for the best. And there’s a lot of flavor lost in using processed or powdered foods versus the real thing (think boxed mashed potato flakes compared to actual potatoes), while alcohol might not lose its flavor in the process of being turned into powder.
What do you think? Have you ever tasted powdered alcohol? Would you ever consider replacing your bottles of liquor with packets of alcohol powder? Share with us in the comments!
