Aged bottles of whiskey are quite expensive. That is a vague statement, don’t you think? Here’s some concrete information for you all. The aged bottles of whiskey can cost up to around $1.4 million. However, we believe this is about to change with the ‘Whiskey Element,’ which is raising funds on Kickstarter as of now.
This gadget claims to be able to transform cheap liquor into expensive whiskey. The gadget is made of wood, oak and is a ‘stick’ that has to be placed in the whiskey for 24 hours. The oak stick has been created in such a way that it ages the drink by managing to filter out any impurities and imparting a wood flavor to the whiskey that is similar to pricier tipples. It has grooves that have been cut into it for the purpose of increasing the surface area that comes in contact.
The idea is to place Whiskey Element into the bottle or decanter that contains cheap whiskey and let it sit there for 24 hours. The gadget works by making use of ‘accelerated transpiration through capillary action’. In simpler words, the liquid makes its way through tiny tubes present in the wood. The Oregon based company is named Time & Oak, and is busy in raising funds on Kickstarter to get this gadget into production. According to the inventors, the idea struck them while they were working in a liquor store. “We pondered over the question, ‘What’s the difference between top shelf and well, whiskey?’ And then it hit us. If the goal is for the whiskey to filter in and out of the wood to remove toxins, get infused with flavour, and pull out those rich colors, what if the barrel isn’t the best design to achieve this process?”
Tony Peniche was kind enough to explain that wood barrels don’t allow for capillaries to be exposed to the liquid since they are cut vertically. However, the stick has been cut horizontally thus allowing for a ‘shorter distance for whiskey to travel through its repetitive exposure to the capillaries, so it matures much faster and becomes of a much higher quality.’
The test phase of the product saw the inventors placing the stick in the lab. It was there that they compared the whiskey worth $100 (aged for over 10 years) and the cheap whiskey that had been treated with the gadget in question. The chemical analysis of both of them revealed that the cheap whiskey had high levels of Methoxy-phenyl-Oxime (found in Pig an Mouse feces) and Acetaldehyde (the reason for hangovers). The expensive whiskey didn’t have either one of them.
Whiskey Element was then placed in the cheap whiskey and left for 24 hours. The results, in the words of Mr. Peniche, “The results were amazing. They showed characteristics found in top-shelf aged whiskeys with notably higher levels of the chemicals responsible for good flavors and smells, as well as a significant reduction in Methoxy-phenyl-Oxime and Acetaldehyde.”
A single stick is to be used only once to make sure that effectiveness is maintained. A 2-pack can be pre-ordered for only $12 plus shipping costs.
