Watching Orville gives you a lot of wild and wonderful ideas. Xelayan drinks definitely spark one or two. Who would not drink an excellent xelayan whiskey decorated with a mysterious mist hanging above it? Well, excellent whiskey can be found relatively easily, but the mist part is more tricky. But not impossible, so let’s make our own Xelayan whiskey. It is definitely superhard to make a solid looking mist which sneaks away when the glasses are banged together. I guess this is left for the future food scientist. Or until Xelayans show us how it’s done. But a simple, free flowing mist is a bit more easy and equally mesmerizing.
Lab brewed Xelean whiskey
Every decent laboratory has access to liquid nitrogen or dry ice. It is a frequent stuff used for a wide range of modern processes. Dry ice is also used extensively for shipments which need to be kept cold the whole time. Just drop a few drops of liquid nitrogen or a small piece of dry ice in the whiskey and – voila. Just be certain that everything has evaporated before you drink the whiskey. Otherwise you can suffer a nasty burn. And don’t use too much, otherwise your whiskey will freeze!
Home brewed Xelayan whiskey
Not everybody has liquid nitrogen in the kitchen. So forming the mist with everyday kitchen tools can be challenging.
One way is to add some cold smoke on the whiskey. Sadly it is not as simple as igniting the sugar in the whiskey glass and covering the glass. The smoke should be cold to stay above the whisker and not float away. And there can be a strong influence on the taste, if you burn something directly in the glass. A quick inspirational search on the internet gave me some good ideas. You have to burn the sugar somewhere else and transfer the smoke to a cooled glass. A tube of aluminium foil is perfect for such a job. Easy to make, flexible and thin enough to transfer the heat quickly. Just roll aluminum foil in a tube, tightly close it at one end, fill it, heat it where the sugar is located and you have a perfect smoke. You can pour the smoke directly into the glass through the opened end of the tube. Just be sure that the tube is long enough so the smoke can cool and that you do not get burned while holding it. Check the video below to get a better idea of how it is done. Or you can collect the smoke in chilled glass and pour it from there – even to multiple whiskey glasses. Just before you serve it and make a spectacle of pouring the smoke! Be sure to blow off the smoke before you drink the whiskey. If there are hints of smoke left, they will influence the smell and partially also the taste of the drink. Or maybe you prefer a hint of caramel in the beginning, which comes from burnt sugar. Besides sugar you can burn sawdust. Different wood types should give different smells and experience – do play around and drop me a line about your experience.
