the Vaportini inhaler

This is the story behind the Vaportini, as presented by its inventor, at the official website. Restaurateur Julie Palmer, in Chicago, came up with the idea after visiting a friend. In her words : “A few years ago, I was visiting a friend in Helsinki. I was there during the Winter Solstice (the Season of Ghosts); he shared with me an unconfirmed tradition that happens on that date. We headed to his outdoor sauna with a group of friends and a bottle of vodka, he poured the vodka over the coals and we breathed in the vapors until we were sufficiently inebriated.”

When Palmer returned home, she wanted to re-create that experience at Red Kiva. By enlisting the help of her engineer father, she started experimenting with a few designs. until settling on a simple setup : a hand-blown glass globe with a candle underneath it. A shot of spirit sits in the globe, and as it heats up, the liquid evaporates and fills the sphere with flavorful and intoxicating vapors, which you can then inhale through a glass straw.

The inhaled alcohol together with the aromas and flavors, goes into your bloodstream, having more direct effects when compared to traditional drinking. It also does not last for the same duration, nor it has the same alcohol absorption cycle. You see, to describe it in a simple form, when consuming alcoholic drinks, the alcohol gets into you and basically generates its results via two ways, liquid and vapors. The vapors from the liquid in your stomach aim for your brain, while the liquid the rest of you. Since the liquid remains longer in you, until it is processed, the effects are more prolonged, and more widespread (in terms of organ utilization).

It only seems logical that this novel way of alcohol consumption, should not be as heavy on the stomach, liver and kidneys, as the traditional down-the-mouth way. My reservations of course are for the lungs. Since you are inhaling the stuff, I guess (plain common sense, and basic knowledge ; no science involved to prove or disprove) that more than half of its vapors, should end up in the lungs, and there absorbed into the bloodstream. Secondly, I do perceive that you need to inhale large quantities, in order to get even a mild buzz. That is not cost-effective, or efficient with regards to resources utilization (ie. the booze). Needless to mention of course, that for a drinker, consuming alcohol is a three-fold ritual which involves sight, smell and palate satisfaction (well four, if you count in the brain effects).

Read a first impressions article here. If you are interested to read more of the story behind the Vaportini, go here. For instructions of use, go here.