« June 6th, 1944 | Main | There's a Couple More Magnificent Military Moments »

June 06, 2007

I Take Back Everything Mean I've Ever Said

...about the Dutch

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- 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.

They should get the Nobel Prize for this.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at June 6, 2007 10:22 AM

Comments

An essential item for any survival kit.

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at June 6, 2007 10:41 AM

Not to suggest that this is actually impossible, but I call bullshit.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at June 6, 2007 11:19 AM

Conceivably, I suppose, they might have made a powder that contains a loosely bound ethyl moiety that is hydrolyzed by water to free up ethanol. But I have very serious doubts.

Besides, if the gummint doesn't want children to purchase alcohol, it will immediately ban sales of this to minors. And tax it.

Further besides, it's fucking LIME. Who'd want to drink it?

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at June 6, 2007 11:23 AM

Oh just dash my hope.

Go right ahead.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 6, 2007 11:41 AM

"Just add water". Works for me.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at June 6, 2007 11:47 AM

No doubt the Dutch create this "instant alcohol" using cold fusion, Ken.

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at June 6, 2007 01:28 PM

Leave it to Ken to be the killjoy by showing up with these "facts."

Posted by: Emily at June 6, 2007 02:43 PM

Drink enough and you can go on reality TV for a new liver...

Posted by: nightfly at June 6, 2007 03:21 PM

Call me when the come up with powdered Tequila.

Posted by: Gunslinger at June 6, 2007 05:57 PM

two things:

1. I'm not really a drinker, so I could be wrong on this, but it sounds icky as hell - alcoholic fizzy lime?

2. Even before reading Ken's comments, I was going, "Wait? Is this even chemically possible?" Wouldn't the dehydration process destroy the alcohol?

I mean, it's not like the Dutch media has the best track record for reporting stuff that's actually true this week...

Posted by: ricki at June 6, 2007 06:08 PM

"Just add water". Works for me.

I'm with Ricki; it's still not worth it.

I mean seriously, even if it were true, it would be quicker, cheaper, and better tasting to just pour Thunderbird into a lime Slurpee. Or pour bad vodka into a lime slurpee. Or just toss a lime into a can of sterno.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at June 6, 2007 10:05 PM

Or just toss a lime into a can of sterno.

Ken, I thought you put de lime in de coconut an' drink it all up?

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 6, 2007 10:32 PM

Look, just because Harry Nilsson once had the misfortune of purchasing some bad acid, that's no reason to keep bringing it up.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at June 7, 2007 08:38 AM

I found the method. It's not a chemical reaction like hydrolysis of an EtOH moiety, it's physical capture in a polymer colloid. It is done in a similar way to the method used to encapsulate low melting point drugs for oral formulation.

But it's not new - that German company did it long before the Dutch kids, and even have been selling it - the kids probably just came up with a minor tweak on the formulation. Plagiarism! Yank their diplomas!

Not to mention that if you really want to get sticky (pun intended), regulators could argue that the EtOH is still liquid, it's just in very, very, very tiny shot glasses.

Posted by: John at June 7, 2007 10:13 PM

it's physical capture in a polymer colloid

Why, that's cheating! NOT FAIR!

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at June 7, 2007 10:46 PM

physical capture in a polymer colloid.

Sounds like a plot for a romance novel...

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 8, 2007 08:02 AM