Vodka Caviar

Last week I decided to show some people the awesomeness that is alcoholic "caviar."

Now this is not some fish caviar, rather little liquid balls that are made with the help of two chemicals, sodium alginate and calcium chloride. For some reason when they react, they harden. when you drop a sodium alginate solution into a calcium chloride bath, you are left with balls that have a fish roe like shell on the outside, but remaining liquid on the inside.

To make it we took some vodka and added berry juice. In past attempts we found out that alcohol alone is too strong to allow the reaction to occur, so it needs to be diluted.

We then dissolved the sodium alginate in the mixture, and added calcium chloride to a second bowl filled with water. Unfortunately we were not sober enough to calculate the correct amounts of each chemical, and went with more of a guess and check method.


Here you can see the three bowls, the one on the left with vodka and sodium alginate, the one in front with the calium chloride solution, and the one in back with plain water to wash the balls after the process is complete. (calcium chloride doesn't taste so good)



In the end they turned out pretty delicious, though I think we added a bit to much sodium alginate because the vodka mixture was very thick.



Here's a video of the caviar creation in action - its also a great party trick!



If you want to try this on your own you can buy the necessary chemicals here
http://www.willpowder.net/products.html