“We believe Palcohol is not likely to be abused more than liquid alcohol.” Several states, including Alaska, Louisiana, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia want to prohibit the sale of powdered alcohol. Due to flaws in the powdered alcohol produced by this method, this form of powdered alcohol was said to be unsuitable for drinking, carrying, or preserving. First, there is no “diabetic research” supporting the claim that the body treats alcohol as a poison (whatever that means). It metabolizes it just like it metabolizes any other nutrient.

  1. So a completed drink’s calories depend on the mixers added to it.
  2. Legislation prohibiting the manufacture, sale, use, and possession of powdered alcohol has also been defeated in certain jurisdictions.
  3. Now, even if cyclodextrin dissolves three times faster, you’re still looking at way too much stirring for this to be in any way practical.
  4. The Texas-based manufacturer led the charge for its home state to allow taxation and regulation of powdered alcohol but those efforts did not move forward in the state legislature.

Phillips created Palcohol so he could have a lighter, more convenient way to carry and enjoy an alcoholic beverage while he was out hiking, camping, and backpacking. The powdered alcohol may also be appealing for people who want to easily pack and use alcohol while traveling. In short, the novelty of Palcohol simply revolves around its convenience and ease of use.

Simply adding a shot of liquid alcohol takes all of five seconds. For starters, when you turn alcohol into powdered alcohol, you are increasing the volume at least two times over. This makes it trickier to conceal, and also means you have to add more stuff to a drink in order to spike it. The original liquid is just much more compact and is clearly the better choice. It was mildly sweet, almost like powdered milk, but it had this bready flavor coupled with the unmistakable flavor of Everclear, which was our high-proof spirit of choice.

He says he is skeptical that the powdered substance would be snorted or used to surreptitiously spike others’ drinks because the amount of powder equivalent to six ounces of liquid alcohol is sizable and not practical. Concerns over safety have already led several states, including South Carolina, Louisiana and Vermont, to ban powdered alcohol and other states are considering legislation, KPNX-TV in Phoenix reported. Some critics are concerned people may try to snort the powder or mix it with alcohol to make it even stronger or spike a drink. However, a number of states are taking steps to ban the product, including Colorado, New York and Rhode Island. It is already banned in South Carolina, Louisiana and Vermont, according to the Wall Street Journal. And powered alcohol cannot be sold in Massachusetts, because the state defines an alcoholic beverage as a liquid, according to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Alcohol Beverages Control Commission.

We Experimented With Powdered Alcohol So You Don’t Have To

Processing of metabolites is NOT under direct neural control. Name one other “poison” animals have evolved to actively seek out. When opening up the food processor, whether to add more maltodextrin or when finished grinding, take care; my first time, I got a healthy whiff of 151 that almost made me gag. You’ll end up with varying-sized clumps of the powdered booze.

What you need to know about powdered alcohol

It burned like crazy, as you might expect when putting alcohol into your nose. And bear in mind that the commercial version is more than 40 percent more potent than the one we made, which means it would be even more painful. Even doing the tiniest little bit (roughly 1/580th of a drink’s worth) caused my nose to start clogging and led to no less than two dozen strong sneezes. The worry that powdered alcohol makes it easier to spike a drink is utterly baseless.

Even for users who knowingly consume Palcohol, it may be difficult to track the amount ingested, especially if Palcohol is added to traditional alcoholic drinks; this combination could lead to overconsumption. Powdered alcohol – it just sounds like a bad idea, doesn’t it? After all, one could pour a packet of the stuff into his or her favorite beverage and get drunk off a Coke – no rum necessary.

Breaking this ban may be punished with jail time, a fine, or both depending on the state. The 2014 temporary Palcohol approval started a wave of concern among lawmakers at every level of government. United States Senator Charles Schumer called on the Food and Drug Administration to investigate Palcohol. When they would not investigate, Senator Schumer announced he would introduce legislation to ban the product. This legislation was introduced in 2014 and again in 2015 but was never considered by the Senate. “Palcohol is not some super-concentrated version of alcohol; it’s simply one shot of alcohol in powdered form,” Phillips says in this video demonstration.

Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. Tuan C. Nguyen is a Silicon Valley-based journalist specializing in technology, health, design and innovation. His work has appeared in ABCNews.com, NBCNews.com, FoxNews.com, CBS’ SmartPlanet and LiveScience.

What Are the Dangers of Powdered Alcohol?

Not only are there public health and safety consequences to this, but also economic ones for restaurants and bars. Palcohol’s creator, meanwhile, is attempting to quell concerns by explaining why Palcohol was conceived and dispel predictions of how it could be abused, especially by teenagers and young adults. Mark Phillips of Arizona-based Lipsmark said he envisioned Palcohol as a convenient way to pack alcohol on backpacking or kayaking trips, and is fielding interest from the airline and other industries eyeing it for cost savings.

“Youths are going to be very vulnerable to this,” said Dr. Scott Krakower, assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York. The flavored powders may appeal to young people, Krakower said. A 10-year overview of search prevalence for powdered alcohol tells more. What’s interesting here is that outside of major events surrounding the creation and legalization of powdered alcohol in 2007, 2014, and 2015, there doesn’t seem to be much interest in the substance.

Production process

Because we had 42.6 percent more volume than the commercial version—which recommends mixing it with 200ml of water—we used 286.2ml of water. This definitely results in a more watery-tasting drink than the commercial version will be (we assume). We also tried the same amount of powder with the recommended 200ml of water, how to stop drinking out of boredom just to get a sense of proportion. That makes it an obvious choice for a company like Palcohol, but right now food-grade cyclodextrin is difficult to find for consumers and it’s quite expensive, so we went with PopSci’s maltodextrin recipe. Naturally we will re-test this when (if) Palcohol becomes available this summer.

In fact, as of today, twenty-four states have already banned Palcohol outright. The other seventeen are taking a decidedly more open-minded approach, either taking no action to impede its legalization or opting to impose regulations. Powdered alcohol is found in some mass production foods, used in small amounts (as are other additives). Any production of powdered alcohol without a license is illegal in Japan, even if it is only for personal use, according to the Liquor Tax Act of Japan. Alcohol is a toxin, whether you choose to believe it or not; it is recognized as such by every reputable medical establishment on this planet. Ingest enough of it at a time, and it will most assuredly kill you (about a fifth and a half of bourbon will do the job for most people).

“It’s very easy to put a couple packets into a glass and have super-concentrated alcohol,” Lovecchio said. In addition to having a drink on a camping trip, there’s also other applications for the product. So I made myself a double, added in a heaping spoonful of Kool-Aid, and pounded it as fast as I could, the three stages of alcoholism mostly to minimize the amount of time it spent on my palate. Chunks that refused to dissolve would get stuck in my teeth. I bit into them and all that gasoline-like Everclear flavor went and bit me right in the face. My stomach was now both full of liquid, but also of what felt like an adhesive.

But Brandon Korman, chief of neuropsychology at Miami Children’s Hospital, said that at this point, there is not enough evidence to say that powered alcohol is any more of a concern than liquid alcohol. If a young child got a hold of a packet of powered alcohol, he or she might consume as much as a shot of alcohol, Spiller said. However, the child would likely not consume more than that, because the experience would not be pleasant. “We see a million children poisoned a year just from stuff around the house,” Spiller told Live Science. However, if critics can already think of dangerous ways to misuse Palcohol before its release, the general public might do worse once it’s in their hands – worse than what’s possible with liquid alcohol, that is.

The capsule of powdered alcohol can be put into water to make a liquid alcoholic beverage but may also be taken orally as a pill. According to food research and flavor designers Bompas & intermittent explosive disorder symptoms and causes Parr, the scientific process is similar to creating flavor release in chewing gum. After this approval, states began enacting legislation to regulate or ban the sale of powdered alcohol.