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Just add water - students invent alcohol powder

Wed Jun 6, 10:04 AM ET

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch students have developed powdered alcohol which they

say can be sold legally to minors.

The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gramme

packets that cost 1-1.5 euros ($1.35-$2).

Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink

with just 3 percent 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.

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,"

said project member Martyn van Nierop.

The legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking is 16 in the Netherlands.

In Germany, alcopops -- sweet drinks containing alcohol and in powder form --

caused quite a stir when launched on to the market. Alcohol powder, classified

as a flavoring, was sold in the United States three years ago.

The students said companies interested in making the product commercially could

avoid taxes because the alcohol was in powder form. A number of companies are

interested, they said.