Alcademics

Many months ago now, I was sent a product called the Vaportini, which vaporizes alcohol into a mist that you suck through a straw. 

The product is surprisingly simple: A pint glass with a votive candle as the base, and a round glass container to hold the liquor/vapor on top. Light the candle, wait a few minutes, and suck out the vapor with the straw. 

In the time since I was sent the product, they added several different more visually appealing models now up on the website. 

I tested it out on a scotch whisky and a Negroni cocktail. In both cases, my concern was not whether I could get drunk with less calories or feel tipsy more quickly or anything like that - and for the record I didn't hover around it long enough to even try. 

I love molecular mixology and abstract cocktails and things like that, but to me they're more an accompaniment and tribute to the cocktail experience than a replacement for it.

I just wanted to know: Is vaping a cocktail a valid way of experiencing the flavors of alcohol in a spirit/cocktail, or do they just fizz off leaving you with raw alcohol?

I found that the scotch whisky tasted just like it does when you drink it, and that the Negroni was noticeably a Negroni. So, success! 

If anything, the Negroni brought out more of the gin flavor, and it wasn't syrupy-tasting. The scotch whisky had the flavor but again, minus the texture that's important to cocktails that you actually drink.

Future experiments could include how this does affect how fast you feel the effects of alcohol and whether it burns/ruins citrus/fresh ingredient cocktails.

I think there could be a few different fun uses for this in a bar setting, perhaps as a unique presentation for a walk-around tasting of several cocktails (minus glassware and ice - just bring your own straw), or as a way to serve cocktails/spirits with dinner without them deadening your taste buds.

You take it from here, people.