Our hiking lives are perhaps now perfect--at last

My fellow derelicts will relate to having inventedthis product during countless trips. Here's hoping it hits the market while the knees are still functional.

Cheers, seriously,

I think it's been out for a little while now, I thought it would be like bringing the pleasures of car camping a little farther into the wilderness. Pleasures like listening to whooping and hollering at 3 am., and watching fat old men skinny dip.

I don't drink much, but I was still interested in this at one point for the sake of friends. I read up on it a bit, and I came to the conclusion that you're much better off, weight-wise, just bringing everclear in a light flask.

This made the big time - NPR gave it about 5 minutes on All Things Considered; I heard it on my way home. They tied it in to backpacking, and interviewed an opponent of Palcohol who said that he thought it was better to just take a small flask of Everclear: "I can cook with it, and sterilize wounds...if I was laying there with a broken femur, I'd probably want some of it to ease the pain."

I read somewhere (sorry, didn't bookmark the source) that the alcohol is "dehydrated" by being absorbed into a dry material. The dry material plus the alcohol supposedly weigh more than the alcohol absorbed. If that's correct, there are no weight savings over just bringing a bottle of your favorite beverage. Well, maybe the weight of the bottle, but with a plastic flask, that is reduced. No mention of what the absorbent is made of, either.

That is really interesting OM, and it makes perfect sense too.

There are probably some organic substances, like baking soda for example, that could hold a lot of moisture and still feel pretty dry to the touch. So the point you bring up about this still adding weight is spot on.

I made some flavored liqueurs a few years back using Everyclear as a base. I made Lemoncello and "Lime-oncello" and I even made a Rosolio. I took some of that with me a few times backpacking. The first two were really good, but the Rosolio was barely ok, nothing like they make in Italy and thereabouts.

I've only got to taste real Rosolio once, and it was amazing. I've never found anyplace that sells it here, and I've looked a lot.

Ever had Italian limoncello? I tried it in Sorrento, Italy, and it was really good, wjem quaffed while sitting in the shade of lemon trees overlooking the blue Mediterranean! Packs a punch, though--I was glad I wasn't driving!

No, OM, I haven't. I'd never even heard of it until I looked into making the Rosolio. I am really jealous of your experience though, I can tell you that.

The limoncello I made was authentic and it really did come out great. I took the time and did it right.

It's easy to make. As I recall lemon zest and sugar were the main ingredients. As I recall you have to let it set for a few months before you drink it. That was by far the hardest part of the process.

If I made it again I'd use organic honey instead of sugar though, and it would be great to get organic lemons. The pesticides were the one thing that bothered me about it. I washed those lemons good, but I was never convinced I could get rid of the pesticide in the zest and that kind of stuck in my mind whenever I sipped some.

The lime liqueur I made had cream or milk in it. I don't recall the exact recipe for it but it was thick and creamy, kind of like Kalula is. It was also an old Italian recipe I used for that, and it too was delicious.

A slightly more technical explanation:

http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i21/Powdered-Booze-Washing-Machine-Lego.html