New alcohol cloud bar opening in Brisbane
A new alcoholic vapour bar will open in Brisbane that allows patrons to consume their 'drinks' as a gas that bypasses the liver.
Patrons stand in a cloud of gin and tonic for 40 minutes as a cloud of alcohol is absorbed through the eyes, lungs and mucus membranes.
The bar will operate until September 21 as part of Brisbane's Fear & Delight Festival.
The festival's director Scott Maidment suggested it was about an experience rather than a new way for people to get drunk.
“It’s also about tasting the juniper berries and things like that that are in gin and tonic,” Mr Maidment told AAP.
“It’s actually healthier for you they say, because it’s not affecting your liver” said Mr Maidment, pointing out that the mist’s creator, UK-based culinary architects Bompas and Parr, had biochemists and respiratory experts from the Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine work on developing the alcohol-mixer ratio.
The experience is said to be the equivalent to having one large drink and cuts down on calories but it has health experts sounding warning bells.
Professor Jake Najman, director of Queensland’s Drug Research and Education Centre, said there are few facts about the long-term effects of breathing alcohol.
“It’s not a good idea because what you’re doing is you’re inhaling and rapidly absorbing a toxic chemical, which is carcinogenic,” he said.
But Mr Maidment dismissed the cries, pointing out the method had been used at the London vapour bar Alcoholic Architecture for some time.
“This is extremely safe,” he said. “Chemists and biotechnicians have been working on this for the last couple of years.”
National news break – September 2
