SEATTLE — Ever trekked a six-pack to the top of a Northwest peak, plopped the brews into a nearby river and enjoyed the spoils of your heavy toil around a crackling campfire?
A new product called Palcohol, approved Wednesday by the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, aims to lighten the load on your next trip.
Among other uses the company touts on its website, Palcohol could be used by travelers to “carry their favorites cocktails in powder format” and at resorts that want to lower their shipping costs.
The company plans to sell five flavors, beginning this spring at the earliest: V, a vodka equivalent; R, a rum powder; Cosmopolitan; Powderita; and Lemon Drop.
The website also lists nonintoxicating industrial uses for Palcohol — as camp-stove fuel, as antiseptic or in products like windshield-wiper fluid.
Federal regulators have their concerns about the product, but “potential for abuse isn’t grounds for us to deny a label,” said bureau spokesman Tom Hogue.
Lawmakers in at least eight states have banned powdered alcohol, according to Governing Magazine.
Washington is not one of them — yet. The state Senate unanimously passed a bill to treat Palcohol as a spirit. But Brian Smith, a spokesman for the Liquor Control Board, said in an email that the agency is worried that powdered alcohol might be particularly attractive to minors.
“The Liquor Control Board is concerned about the safety of powdered alcohol because it is easily concealable,” said agency spokesman Brian Smith in an email. “We are vetting options with legislators and the Governor’s Office as to next steps.”
He said the agency could draft new rules for powered alcohol, a process that takes about 90 days.
One thing lawmakers in other states have discussed, but probably don’t need to worry about: snorting Palcohol.
To test how easy it was to snort powdered alcohol, a Vice writer tried it: “Somehow, the powder turned straight into glue when it hit my sinuses. I was immediately plugged up. The fumes burned inside my nose, but only for the first minute or so. After that came an uneasy numbness. Maybe all the nerve endings were dead.”
His night ended like this:
“I woke up at 4 AM, with my face caked with blood from my nose. At least I could breathe again. The headache had dulled to a manageable form.”
The idea of a lighter, more portable alcoholic beverage isn’t new. Gizmodo reviewed concentrated “Go-Gurt-style beer gel” available from Pat’s Backcountry Beverages.
Not quite a microbrew, but tolerable, apparently, if you’re willing to bring along a $40 carbonator.
