Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

From today's NYT piece about crazy new cocktails the kids are in to... The pair are currently perfecting two new drinks, a "dirty" martini and a carbonated mojito "espherication." For the martini, they blend olive juice, vermouth and gin with xanthan gum and calcium chloride and drop it into a sodium alginate and water solution to form stable olive-shaped blobs. It is served as a lone olive in an empty glass; it reverts to a liquid state when popped into the mouth. The mojito is made with rum, lime and mint and shaped into a sphere through the same process, then carbonated in a pressurized container filled with carbon dioxide to mimic the bubbly mouth-feel of a real mojito. Anyone else actually want liquid when they order a drink? Now, if they sold these little orbs of booze in vending machines or something, I might be into it... UPDATE: Waiter agrees: "I remember reading an article about avant garde bartenders making drinks into edible cocktails – pastes, beads, and candies that transform back to liquid in your mouth. Ugh. Give me whisky any day."