Category: projects
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Building Better Mineral Water: Deconstructing Mineral Waters
In the Water Project here on Alcademics, I'm looking at what is in commercial brands of sparkling mineral waters and reconstructing them. To do so, first I looked at how to get all the dissolved solids out of tap water. Then I measured properties of commercial mineral waters – pH and dissolved solids- and compared…
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Making Mineral Water: Starting from Scratch
In the Water Project I'm studying water in spirits in cocktails, from the source water for fermentation through to the sparkling water we use to dilute drinks. As part of the latter research, I'm looking into deconstructing and reconstructing mineral water. Much of the work on this has been done by other people and I'll…
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When Did Grenadine Become an Artificial Ingredient?
We all know that grenadine is supposed to be a syrup made of pomegranate juice and sugar, often with orange flower water added in. But most commercial grenadines are little more than red food coloring and sweetener. We might think that artificially-flavored cocktail ingredients like grenadine all came to be in the post-war 1940s and…
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The History of Grenadine Use in Cocktails: Literature Review
When was grenadine first used in cocktails? I thought this would be a simple question to answer, but not so much. Along the way to figuring this out, I've had to split up this one blog post into several. First we'll look at the cocktail books from 1862 – 1930 and see where grenadine is…
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Dehydrated Liqueur Flavor Pills and Champagne Cocktails
As an ongoing part of my Solid Liquids Project, I have dehydrated various liqueurs into flavored powders and am now experimenting with new ways to use them. In yesterday's post I described how I bought a pill press to make tablets out of the liqueurs. I started with Angostura bitters, but then made additional "flavor…
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The Bitter Pill: Dehydrated Angostura Bitters Tablets
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I wanted to find some more uses for the dehydrated liqueurs I spent a few months developing. The index to that experimentation is here. Yesterday I tried putting dehydrated liqueurs into pill capsules, but these did not readily dissolve in any of the drinks I put them in. So…
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A Brilliant Idea That Didn’t Quite Work
You'll remember I spent a few months figuring out the best way to dehydrate liqueurs into flavored sugars. Now I'm finding new ways to use those liqueur-flavored sugars. Typically bartenders who use these dehydrated liqueurs sprinkle some on top of an egg white foam or use them as a rimming sugar on a cocktail glass.…
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Solid Liquids: The Missing Link Aviation
I haven't created cocktails yet with the dehydrated liqueurs I've been making for the Solid Liquids project, mostly because I figure y'all are don't lack imagination and will find good uses for them. But here's a drink I've been hankering to create since the beginning. The Aviation cocktail was originally made with gin, maraschino liqueur,…
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Solid Liquids: The Deconstructed Midori Sour
Just for fun in the Solid Liquids Project I put some dehydrated Midori to good use. I made a Deconstructed Midori Sour. You dip the lemon in dehydrated Midori, bite into the Midori-coated lemon, and then do the shot of vodka. With people who do the lime-salt-tequila shot, they use the lime to and salt…
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A Note About Dehydrating Honey-Based Liqueurs
In the Solid Liquids Project I found that liqueurs sweetened with honey do not crystallize. (At least the honey-sweetened liqueurs that I tried.) I theorized on why and how we might over come this in this post. However, in reading an unrelated book, I think I found the real reason these liqueurs are not crystallizing. I was…