Powder Keg

Powdered Alcohol Is Back, Baby, and It’s Got Full Federal Approval

Can you mix this into Phrosties?
Can you mix this into Phrosties?

It is the day Chuck Schumer warned us about: Powdered alcohol is back, this time with FDA approval and something to prove. Palcohol, you might recall, enjoyed one glorious day of federal approval last April after the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau gave it the green light, before realizing “a discrepancy” and reversing itself. But yesterday, bureau spokesperson Tom Hogue told the AP that whatever issues Palcohol previously had — it never listed them — have been resolved, which was good enough for the TTB to approve four flavors (vodka, rum, Cosmopolitan, and Kamikaze, a.k.a. margarita). Alas, that doesn’t mean everyone can just go running out to their nearest store to pick some up. This approval is just on the federal level, of course. Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan, and Vermont already banned Palcohol preemptively, probably as fearful of tax losses as drunken Kamikaze hordes. Nearly half a dozen others are trying, including New York, where the Senate has already passed a bill.

Apparently anticipating some confusion over their product, creator Mark Phillips and the Palcohol team converted the company’s homepage into a place to debunk “inaccurate statements” point by point — people with brains won’t snort it, kids can’t buy it, it’s too big to sneak into sports arenas, etc. (“Remember, no one has ever tried Palcohol, so all the criticisms are just speculation” is one of the less-than-reassuring points.)

They drop one other bomb as well — as in Lemon Drop, a fifth flavor in the works. They say they expect it to be “approved shortly.”

[AP]

Powdered Alcohol Is Back, Baby, and It’s Got Full Federal Approval