Powdered Booze

For camping, maybe? How about survivalist gear.

Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.

The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gram packets that cost €1-1.5 ($1.35-$2).

Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.

“We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks,” 20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters.

Van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational Institute, about an hour’s drive from Amsterdam, came up with the idea as part of their final-year project.

“Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16,” said project member Martyn van Nierop.

The legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking is 16 in the Netherlands.

Ethyl alcohol is a liquid, so they must be creating it chemically through a reaction with the water.  I’m not sure I’d like to drink such a “chemistry experiment in a glass,” but hey....
I wonder what the chemical reaction is?  I can think of a couple but nothing you’d want to drink afterwards.

Posted by  on  06/30  at  12:34 AM

Old technology.  Tried and marketed in the70’s and 80’s.  Microencapsulated alcohol in powder form. Sold in single serving cocktail flavored packets which when added to water dissolved making an instant cocktail with about 3-4% alcohol content.  It didn’t last long on the market as it was very expensive, and tasted astoundingly bad.

Posted by  on  06/30  at  10:23 AM

Oh, yeah! I remember those. A blast from the past. Never tried them because I rarely drink, but I guess they are hoping kids will buy it to get drunk.

Posted by James Hudnall  on  06/30  at  01:30 PM

Hmm...even if it’s microencapsulated, it’s still liquid.  Must be a loophole in the law.
And I wouldn’t underestimated the ability of people to drink bad alcohol.  In Japan they make this sort of “near beer” called happoshu that skirts the tax regulations by being made of really cheesy ingredients.  It’s unspeakably horrible, but has over 30% of the beer market now because it’s so cheap.

Posted by  on  06/30  at  03:14 PM

When I was in the Army we were served near beer on occasion. Roughly 3.2% if memory serves correct. Tasted like water and impossible to even get a buzz. Only tried it once.

Posted by  on  06/30  at  06:12 PM
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