3
AMSTERDAM — Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol that they say could be sold legally to minors.
The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is being sold in 20-gram packets that cost €1 to €1.5 ($1.40-$2.15 Canadian).
Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-coloured and -flavoured drink with 3-per-cent alcohol content.
"We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks," 20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters.
Mr. van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational Institute, about an hour's drive from Amsterdam, came up with the idea as part of their final-year project.
"Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16," project member Martyn van Nierop said.
The legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking is 16 in the Netherlands.
The students said companies interested in making the product commercially could also avoid taxes because the alcohol was in powder form. A number of companies are interested, they said.
In Pictures:
