How To Make Powdered Booze At Home

Some truths we rarely question. The sky is blue. The sun rises in the east. Cocktails are wet. But a new product, called Palcohol, aims to crumble our everyday expectations. It's an alcoholic beverage -- in powder form. Carry a convenient lightweight packet of powder with you anywhere, and reconstitute it with water whenever you want a drink.

Palcohol will be available in vodka and rum varieties, as well as mojito, margarita, and other premixed cocktail flavors. It was officially approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) earlier this month, and Mark Phillips, its creator, says we can expect to see it in stores this fall.

But how does one make powdered alcohol? I contacted the company, but "due to the proprietary nature of it" they were unwilling to provide any details. As an incorrigible culinary experimenter, though, I happen to have some firsthand experience in this realm, so I'll tell you how I make powdered booze.

How To Make Powdered Alcohol
The only way to make unadulterated alcohol into a powder would be to freeze it solid and serve it frozen. The temperature required to do that would destroy your tongue when you ate it though, not to mention certain other logistical concerns. The trick, therefore, is to start with a highly sorbent powder as a base, and add alcohol to it -- just enough so that the alcohol is fully soaked up, but the powder remains powdery.

The best easily obtainable powder I've found for this purpose is a specially modified starch, a maltodextrin made from tapioca and sold under the name N-Zorbit M. Each granule of this light, fluffy starch has a micro-fuzzy texture that gives it a great deal of surface area so it adsorbs liquids very well. It's popularly used in high-tech cooking to soak up fats, for instance in the "olive oil powder" recipe that appears in Modernist Cuisine. But it can also soak up alcohol pretty well.

Read More at:
https://www.popsci.com/article/technology/how-make-powdered-booze-home#page-2

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