objective product testing - by Darcy O'Neil

There is a lot of marketing and anti-marketing out there, about products.

Sometimes you just have to use your common sense [as well as your technical expertise] to confirm or bust these "myths".

One outstanding personality in mixology is Darcy O'Neil who happens to be working in a lab.

Not only, that he has the gear, to do one or the other great experiment - but he also has the knowledge.

Today, I just found a super interesting article, I haven't read yet on his blog - and it is surprisingly opinionated...

Please join me, to read the article about glycerol in vodka - which is already older, but I guess, if I just found the article, you might not even heard of it... Does Grey Goose Contain Glycerine?

And here is the link of the result post: Glycerol in Vodka Results

The Art of Drink, is one of my favorite blogs, and most reliable and objective resources of bar, spirit and mixology related content.

Comments

How to use citric acid - and why you might not want to use it anyway!

To be honest, I shied away of this topic, because I think, people can misinterpret this - big time. I don't want to be part of the problem - I want to be part of the solution! But when Chris, over at A Bar Above discussed this subject- I literally could not resist to join into "the discussion". Here is the video: I - however take a bit slower approach than Chris. What is citric acid? Chemical Compound Citric acid is a weak organic acid with the formula C6H8O7. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic or sour taste to foods and drinks. Wikipedia Formula: C6H8O7 Molar Mass: 192.124 g/mol Melting Point: 153C Density: 1.66 g/cm3 Boiling point: 175C Soluble in: Water Why is it controversial? In my "mixology world" it is controversial, as citric acid is the stuff, which makes the nightmarish sour mix [ preferably in powder form ] sour. Yeah - citric acid is the main ingredient in one of the most ...

Fanta Pineapple

After the agave nectar scandal , nothing seems to be big enough to post about. At it seems odd, that I am coming here to review a commercial and mass produced product. But hey- I do admit, that I love coke and really like some other commercial sodas. I only try to stay away of artificial ingredients. This said, Fanta Pineapple doesn't start a nice relationship with me. While the front states "Pineapple flavored soda with other natural flavors" - the ingredient list looks like a witches brew: carbonated water, HFCS, citric acid, natural flavors, modified food starch, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate [to protect taste], sodium citrate, coconut oil, salt, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, yellow 5, yellow 6 Well - that doesn't really look like my homemade sodas. Yes citric acid, sodium citrate [a simple product, when you let citric acid and bicarbonate of soda react], carbonated water… this is understandable. HFCS is obviously far cheaper than sugar - this is...

Agar-Agar Clarification

Not often, I am posting here things, which are clearly not my ideas... However Dave Arnold is clearly a mad scientist [no, he really is!] - and he posted amazing stuff on his website www.cookingissues.com - no - don't click now - just follow the link later. One of the most impressive posts about mixology, besides of demystifying the mechanics of shaking, were clarification techniques. Look, after him, you could use a centrifuge [which would set you back a couple thousand bucks] and a chemical compound, which solidifies sediments. I am not a fan of that. Then there is gelatine clarification; this works quite well [I tried it several times my self] - you gelatinize a liquid [with little gelatine only], freeze it, thaw it [in the fridge] over a colander and a muslin cloth. Thats it. Unfortunately this has several problems: Gelatine is made out of animal bones - hence it is neither vegetarian nor vegan, which you won't usually expect of a beverage. You have to freez...

opinionated alchemist

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