Wine buff Mark Phillips developed Palcohol with the help of scientists
WILL PAVIA THE TIMES APRIL 21, 2014 2:03PM
Print
Save for later
POWDERED alcohol that may be smuggled into sports stadiums, snorted like cocaine or sprinkled over cornflakes has been approved for sale by the US government.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau — a branch of the Treasury — has approved seven alcoholic powders produced by a company from Arizona which are to be marketed under the brand name Palcohol.
Among them is Powderita, a powdered margarita, variants for making mojitos and cosmopolitans and powders distilled from rum and vodka which require merely the addition of 150mL of water.
"Palochol is powder and very light, you can take it just about anywhere to enjoy a cocktail," say the producers, a company called Lipsmark, in a statement posted on their website.
The powders are the creations of Mark Phillips, an author and broadcaster who has spent a good deal of his career seeking to bring wine to new audiences with no-nonsense presentations on subjects such as "microwaving wine", "freezing wine" and "what wine to have while walking the dog". If wine snobs were troubled by these segments on his television show, Enjoying Wine With Mark Phillips, they will surely be horrified to learn of his next act.
His applications to market Palcohol were approved earlier this month.
They were spotted on the government bureau's database of approved products by John Messinger, a lawyer at Lehrman Beverage Law, a Washington DC firm which specialises in federal regulation of alcohol products, and posted to the firm's blog, prompting general astonishment.
"Take Palcohol into the (concert or sporting) venue and enjoy a mixed drink for a fraction of the cost," the product’s website says.
"So many stadiums don't even serve alcohol ... That's almost criminal. Bring Palcohol in and enjoy the game."
It goes on: "We have found adding Palcohol to food is so much fun. Sprinkle Palcohol on almost any dish and give it an extra kick."
The site then tackled "the elephant in the room ... snorting Palcohol. Yes, you can snort it. And you'll get drunk almost instantly because the alcohol will be absorbed so quickly in your nose," before adding that this will "mess you up. Use Palcohol responsibly."
After news of the product broke, the website was taken down and heavily rewritten.
Patents for the powdered alcohol are said to be pending. At Lehrman Beverage Law, lawyers noted that it was not the first time that alcohol had been turned into a powder. It has long been approved in the US as a flavouring.
Daniel Christopherson who specialises in patenting and trademark law, noted on the firm's blog that powdered alcohol is already the subject of several earlier patents and that other, similar products, are already on sale in Japan, the Netherlands and Germany.
I've found me new joint. Better than that old place I complained about a couple of weeks ago!
