Create the Awesome Effect of Edible Cocktail Bubbles with Ease!
The Flavour Blaster is essentially a device that vaporises scented aromas that can be blasted into an edible bubble to rest on top of a cocktail. The bubble provides theatre for the guests as it pops into a puff of smoke. It's a sensory delight!
DIY options cost less than a Flavour Blaster, but they take more care to set up and can be pretty complex to execute. The cheapest option is to use dry ice in conjunction with a scented liquid. The Cocktail Chemistry YouTube channel suggests using grapefruit juice, for example. The dry ice reacts with the liquid. If you can keep that reaction in a safe, condensed space with a rubber tube attached, the reaction forces the Co2 through the hose. It's cheap but easy to get wrong and inconsistent in terms of the strength of the reaction and the quality of the aroma cloud. You can also use real smoke by using a culinary smoking gun with wood chips and a rubber hose attachment. By synching the hose, you can control when the smoke comes through it, allowing you to let the smoke fill a bubble slowly. Again, this relies on inexact techniques, changeable depending on the competence of staff members and quality of ingredients.
The Flavour Blaster was invented to create consistently excellent cocktail bubbles, with no variables in the execution. As Nick Fisher says at the end of the Cocktail Chemistry video, "It's by far the most convenient and effective way to get smoke bubbles...plus its just tonnes of fun!"
The thing all these techniques have in common is the necessity of a food-grade edible bubble solution.
Edible Bubble Solution
Flavour Blaster sells its own proprietary solution Bubble X. The ingredients are naturally allergen, and gluten-free, made from at least 98% water, with the remainder made up of plant extracts. Our edible bubble mixture was specially formulated for the hospitality industry.
It includes ingredients like Carboxymethylcellulose — a gum that provides the viscosity necessary to create the tension for the wall that forms the bubble. It's extracted from plant cellulose — the main substance in the walls of plant cells that stops them going limp; Citric Acid — a natural derivative from citrus fruits, this organic compound is used as an emulsifier and preserving agent; and Coco Betaine, a surfactant compound from coconut oil that lowers the surface tension between two liquids, in this case, edible bubble mixture ingredients and water, allowing for a bubble to form when you blow, or in our case, blast into it.
How to Create an Edible Cocktail Bubble?
1. Have the Right Kit
- You'll need a small bowl or jigger to pour out your bubble solution, ready for use.
- A small vessel for water large enough to dip a glass in (or a nearby sink).
- Pre-prepared glassware. For the best bubbles, use glasses with an open angle on the lip, like a martini glass.
- You'll need your cocktail ingredients prepped and ready.
- Your Flavour Blaster Cocktail Kit including the fully charged gun, edible bubble mixture, and your choice of aromatic.
2. Prepare Your Workspace
- Is your coil tank full and primed for use? If not, follow the easy steps in our video guide.
- Do you have enough bubble mixture for your experiment or a busy shift?
- Do you need to organise your workstation to suit high volumes of service? (if so, check out our space organising tools)
- Are you standing by a fan or near an open window? This may make your bubble float in a direction you don't want.
3. Ready to Serve
- Rim the lip of the glass with water to make sure it is wet all the way around.
- Make the cocktail and pour it into the serving glass.
- Activate the gun by pulling the trigger three times within two seconds.
- Choose your power setting (Simone, our co-creator suggests trying between 30-35 Watts to begin with).
- Dip your Flavour Blaster nozzle in the edible Bubble X and let any excess roll-off.
- Hold the nozzle about a centimetre away from the drink’s surface.
- Pull the trigger to release the aromatic vapour.
- Fill the bubble as much as necessary for your required effect.
- Draw the Flavour Blaster away to gently leave the bubble resting on the cocktail.
- Turn the gun off by pulling the trigger three times in two seconds.
4. Know Your Limitations
- The Flavour Blaster won't work on a glass rimmed with anything textured, like salt on a margarita, for example.
- It may not work if there's lots of ice or foam on the surface of the cocktail.
- Make sure the glassware is clean, as dirt may change the structure of the bubble.
- Keep your Bubble X at room temperature as heat can also change the structure of the mixture.
- Its best to serve your bubbles on cold or chilled cocktails as a warm glass may make your bubble pop.
5. Practice Makes Perfect!
- Keep at it!
- When you're ready, take a look at all the tricks people use worldwide, with floating bubbles, double bubbles, unusual serves and sophisticated aroma pairings.
https://youtu.be/C59OZyRtpZs
