Palcohol
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About
Palcohol is a brand of powdered alcohol that turns into an alcoholic beverage when mixed with water. The product became the subject of controversy following its temporary approval by the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in April 2014.
Origin
On March 31st, 1972, the General Foods Corporation applied for a patent for an "alcohol-containing powder,"[4] which uses sugar-derived carbohydrate powder to encapsulate alcohol molecules. On September 14th, 2011, the Palcohol brand of alcohol powder launched its official website.[1] On April 8th, 2014, the TTB approved seven versions of the Palcohol brand of powdered alcohol,[2] including flavors in vodka, rum, kamikaze, cosmopolitan and lemon drop (shown below).
Precursor
In 2007, Dutch students invented the powdered alcohol named Booz2Go, announcing they aimed to sell the product to those under the legal age for alcohol since it was not in liquid form.[8]
Spread
On April 19th, The Telegraph[6] reported on the TTB's approval of Palcohol products. The same day, the article was submitted to the /r/news[7] subreddit, where it received over 740 upvotes and 260 comments in the first four days. On April 21st, Redditor HeyPrimeMinista submitted a George Zimmer image macro about people snorting powdered alcohol to the /r/AdviceAnimals[5] subreddit (shown below).
In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the approval controversy and the potential dangerous of alcohol powder, including Motherboard,[9] Gawker,[10] USA Today,[11] Time[12] and CBS News.[13]
Revocation of TTB Approval
On April 21st, TTB representative Tom Hogue told the Associated Press[3] that the Palcohol products had been approved by the bureau “in error” According to Palcohol’s parent company Lipsmark, there was a label discrepancy on how much powder was contained within the product bags and that they were resubmitting the labels for approval. The AP article also quoted beverage law expert Robert Lehrman, who speculated that the TTB had removed the approval due to pressure from lawmakers.
Search Interest
External References
[2] Bevlaw – Powdered Alcohol
[3] AP – Powdered alcohols dont have approvals
[4] Google – Alcohol-containing powder
[5] Reddit – To the inventor of Palchol
[6] The Telegraph – US Approves Palcohol
[7] Reddit – US approves palcohol
[8] Reuters – Just add water
[9] Motherboard – The science behind powdered alcohol
[10] Gawker – Powdered Alcohol Coming to a Liquor Store Near You
[11] USA Today – Powdered alcohol approval was an error
[12] Time – Powdered Alcohol Approved in Error
[13] CBS News – Palcohol powdered alcohol may present serious health risks
Top Comments
Gant47
Apr 23, 2014 at 05:03PM EDT
MIMU
Apr 23, 2014 at 08:19PM EDT