Alcademics

At the Tales of the Cocktail convention in New Orleans this July I'm giving a talk called Prehistoric Cocktail Technology Demo (Saturday morning), and surprisingly there are still tickets available.

I say surprisingly because this seminar is going to be amaaaaaazing. Some things I'm researching to demonstrate in the seminar include:

• Making natural food coloring to use in drinks
• Early carbonation technology and can we make a drink that fizzes instantly like Alka-Seltzer? There is going to be a lot of carbonation stuff, including ways to get better carbonation out of cocktails
• Clarification and filtration techniques from milk punch to carbon filters to chill filtration, to remove color and/or flavor from spirits and other ingredients
• Cocktail foaming agents and alternatives to egg whites- everything from glycerine to gum arabic to Irish moss
• Early distillation techniques
• Cooling reactions without ice 
• Making cocktails without ice inside the shaker using the rock salt method like ice cream 
• Insulation using old ice house techniques

Basically, it's basic science meets arts-and-crafts meets awesome.

I'm not sure what form many of the demos will take yet, but think big. I already have two lab assistants lined up to help. 

So go buy your tickets, bring your camera, and maybe wear a raincoat.