Abstract
The company Palcohol recently made headlines when labels for its powdered alcohol products were approved by the U.S. Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB). But just as we were pondering the possibility of toting drink powders into Kiss reunion concerts or sprinkling it on Frosted Flakes cereal, TTB retracted its approval, leaving the Newscripts gang to wonder how you convert alcohol into powder anyway. The process isn’t so mysterious, it turns out. Chemists have known for decades that alcohol can be absorbed by short chains of glucose called dextrins, or even better, by cyclodextrins. One chemist even patented the idea in the 1970s. Popular Science editor Paul Adams recently posted his own recipe online for making powdered alcohol from maltodextrin. Newscripts wanted to test it out for ourselves, so C&EN staffers Sophia Cai and Jeff Huber recently visited Matt Hartings, a food chemistry expert and professor at American ...
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