Slight relevance for pilots, astronauts, and backpackers alike wanting to save some weight...

A form of powdered alcohol called Palcohol was cleared for sale again in the US by the ATF. Supposed to be available sometime this summer.

So I guess I don't quite get it.
I have heard of this but have a couple of questions.

Is it somehow actual alcohol in a concentrated powder form or is it something that has the same effects as alcohol?

If you mixed some up and drank it then blew in a breathalyzer would it register???

Yes, it is actually alcohol according to the company. You'll be able to mix up a margarita or gin and tonic like making Kool-Aid.

Powdered Ethanol... New fuel source? I can see it now. "Stuck in the backcountry? Just add water!"

I had exactly the same thoughts..!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_powder

According to food chemist Udo Pollmer of the European Institute of Food and Nutrition Sciences in Munich, alcohol can be absorbed in cyclodextrins, a sugar derivate. In this way, encapsuled in small capsules, the fluid can be handled as a powder. The cyclodextrins can absorb an estimated 60 percent of their own weight in alcohol. A US patent was registered for the process as early as 1974

Just drinking plain alcohol never appealed to me. A good bourbon or scotch, that's different. But I guess there I'm tasting what the cops always testified to when they "smelled the odor of alcoholic beverage flavoring." But I did have a couple of friends in college who drank grain alcohol--it killed one of them.

Cary