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or, The World's Second Self-Mixing, Vacuum-Packed Cocktail.
Ever wanted to know what the center of our galaxy tasted like? Well do we have the drink for you.
Not long ago a group of astronomers in Germany were searching for evidence of amino acids in a vast dust cloud called
Sagittarius B2 when they found evidence of a organic compound called ethyl formate. This compound is formed when ethanol reacts with a formic acid; which sounds terribly dull until you realize this means ethyl alcohol occurs naturally is space, which is awesome.
| Science. |
This story was broken to the world with the headline of
'Galaxy's Center Tastes of Raspberries, Smells Like Rum', which is both accurate and inaccurate in equal measures. Ethyl formate is partially responsible for the flavor of ripe raspberries (not to get into the mechanics of flavor perception), and it's odor is described as strongly rum-like; even the United Nations agree.
The problem is no-one can identify what sort of rum this particular corner of space smells like- is it a smooth, buttery Caribbean rum? A rich sugary number from Guyana? A rich and woody aged rum? A grassy, bright blanco? An unctuous, punchy over proof? Does space smell like a pot still or continuous distillation? There doesn't appear to be any consensus, and "rum-like" is a terrible descriptive.
Clearly astronomers need to drink more. That is where I come in, I suppose.
So armed with the knowledge of what the galaxy tasted like, I endeavored to make a drink that allows you to taste deep space from the comfort of your own home or bar.
First off, following the rules of cocktails suitable for space, we couldn't use any fresh ingredients, and have to recreate our rum flavour using artificial means.
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| On the left, fresh raspberries; the right, freeze-dried and powdered. |
To recreate the raspberry flavor I freeze-dried some fresh raspberries and powdered them. The freeze-drying process (called sublimation, which might sound familiar to regular readers) allowed to create a powdered substance with an extended shelf life that would recreate an authentic fresh raspberry flavor when reconstituted, ideal for the purposes of a long space journey. Dehydration risks 'cooking' the fruit, burning sugars and creating a bitter flavor, and there is no guarantee of all the water being dehydrated, the presence of water of course precipitating spoilage.
For the rum flavor I repeated the rum sugar method I had used earlier, this time using a strong French agricole rhum, for no reason other than that I love agricole rhum, the dirty stinky beast it is.
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| Finished rum sugar and the rhum in question |
Next up once again we are using our neutral space spirit, with vodka standing in once more, along with a mix of tartaric and ascorbic acids for our sour element.
Again we followed the self-mixing long-shelf life method of vacuum packing we used previously (hlink).
Recipe is as follows:
The Max Planck Cocktail
Named for the institute in Bonn, Germany, that made the discovery.
40ml Neutral spirit
1/8 tsp Tartaric Acid
2 tsp rum sugar
1 tsp freeze-dried raspberries
90ml Mineral water
Just chill the bag, cut it open and add to glass. Or just stick a straw through the bag and drink like a Capri-Sun.
Seen above in the highball version, and below in the zero-g friendly vac-pac-bag version.
Signing off for now, follow us on twitter @Zero_G_Drunk for more nonsense in this vein.
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