To all those nanny states — and at last count there were 38 of them — the inventor of a powdered alcohol product is pushing back with a worldwide auction of the secret manufacturing process to the highest bidder in each country.
Phoenix entrepreneur Mark Phillips, inventor of “Palcohol,” won approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for sale of the powdered alcohol in the United States in early 2015, and his company, Lipsmark LLC, planned to have production and sales up and running by summer that year.
But, rather than allow its sale as another regulated alcohol product, Palcohol went from being banned in just two states as recently as 2014 to 38 today. Phillips did not respond to inquiries by Food Safety News about his manufacturing plans for almost a year.
Now, however, in a recently received “Hi from Palcohol” email, came the announcement that instead of manufacturing itself, country-by-country rights to the powdered alcohol product will be auctioned off on Jan. 1, 2017.
The auction announcement calls Palcohol “a revolutionary new product that is in high demand worldwide because of its many innovative uses (for) both the consumer and in manufacturing, food science, the military, pharmaceuticals, medicine and much more.”
Previously Phillips said powdered alcohol was a “niche” product for use by campers and kayakers who might want a cocktail without packing the weight of bottled or canned beverages.
“Instead of manufacturing and distributing Palcohol ourselves, we have decided to auction off the secret manufacturing process to the highest bidder for each country,” says the auction notice. “We are doing this because individuals/companies in each country have a much better understanding of the liquor laws and distribution channels for that country.”
The notice also says the company was the first to develop a cost effecive way to manufacture powdered alcohol and get it approved by the U.S. government. No one else has been able to duplicate that, according to Palcohol.
“Our manufacturing process can produce the equivalent of one mixed drink for pennies without using any costly custom equipment,” it adds. “In fact, you could spend under $10,000 USD for equipment and be able to produce 500,000 drinks month.”
The auction will be for both consumer and industrial rights for each country with the winning bidder responsible for obtaining all permits and licenses required by the country.
Auction bidders must prove they are financially qualified and both minimum and “buy now” bid amounts have been established based on the the number of alcohol drinkers per country. At the high end, with $70,000 minimum bids, are the United States, United Kingdom and Russian Federation.
The “buy now” amounts are $15 million for the U.S., $12 million for the U.K. and $12 million for Russia. “Buy now” amounts for numerous small countries are set at $100,000 with minimum bids of $10,000.
No mention is made of the state-by-state bans on powdered alcohol in 38 U.S. states. Fear that the powdered alcohol product would be more likely to get into the hands of minors was cited by many states in adopting bans. Phillips expected Palcohol would be regulated by state liquor control authorities just like other many new alcohol products that come on line each year.
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