I missed this story but according to a Reuters report on Wednesday a group of Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.
Called Booz2Go, it is available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5 Euros. All you need to do is top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-coloured and -flavoured 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," said 20-year-old Harm van Elderen "Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16," said project member Martyn van Nierop.
The students said companies interested in making the product commercially could avoid taxes because the alcohol was in powder form. A number of companies are interested, they said.
Shock horror! Perhaps this is the death knell for alcopops? It is not a new story by looks of it. In 2005 Deutsche Welle carried a report about a similar product called subyou which was sold for about 2 Euros and could be purchased at petrol stations and convenience stores. Subyou was alleged to be about 4.8 % alcohol by volume.
Subyou was said to be manufactured by a company in North Rhine-Westphalia and marketed squarely at teenagers with slogans like "taste for not much dough" and "gets a good buzz going."
So is any of this actually real? Alcohol powder sounds like a pretty dubious product to me. Apparently alcohol powder is feasible. Alcohol can be absorbed by cyclodextrines and powdered.
I daresay that the so called loophole allowing it to be sold to minors would be closed in nanoseconds by the Dutch government! As for the taste? I would imagine it compares unfavourably to shite, not that that would have stopped me drinking any old rubbish in my youth!
9 comments:
I think they really invented this product for the astronaut program. I mean, powdered TANG is great and all, but who the hell wants to be up in the middle of space with only TANG to drink? Yeah, powdered alcohol would make the stay much more tolerable.
At 3 percent, you'd have to drink an awful lot of it to feel any effect. But you're right, jams, as college students, we all drank, um, I mean, I drank just about anything.
If the government starts banning sale of anything that can be turned into alcohol, they'll have to take grapes off the grocers' shelves. Yes, I once made some wine... it was terrible.
That sounds just disgusting! But I suppose if the goal is to just get the buzz going, taste probably isn't the manufacturer's topmost concern. Blech!
A trip to BevMo revealed this
http://www.1877vodkausa.com/index-1.html
Apparently the 8y.o. vodka drinker market dried up and they came up with this to bring 'em back into the fold, er..bars. I know I want a bottle in every color just like my daughter when she saw them! SKOL!
I can see the adverts now EWBL.. Booze2go - the Official tipple of NASA; As drunk on the ISS. And then there's tv product placement possibilities with new Teen sci fi series "Drunk in Space"
I've never drunk Tang.. what's it actually like?
Steve, what I drank in my youth is a matter best left to history! I am concerned by the explosion in binge drinking here (although I was rather an exponent in my salad days - I was a happy drunk and no problem though.
Elizabeth, I can imagine what it tates ;ike - FOUL! I still drink but only occasionally these days. When I do I want quality over quantity!
the 8 yo vodka drinkers anonymous? .. that's the drinkers who are 8yo not the agge of the vodka I take it!
"Just add water!"
I wonder what happens if you add booze instead...
You ruin some perfectly good booze, Roger!
True.
Indeed!
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