blamed for hangovers is removed as well as

Whiskey Element claims to make cheap alcohol taste like expensive whiskey by infusing it with a woody flavour when placed in a decanter (pictured)

Rare, vintage bottles of whiskey can cost anywhere up to $1.4 million (£874,150) and can be aged in oak barrels stored in cellars for years.

Now, there’s a wooden tool that saves time and money called ‘Whiskey Element,’ which claims to be able to make cheap liquor taste expensive in just 24 hours.

The oak sticks are specially designed to ‘age’ the drink by filtering out impurities and infusing the whiskey with a more woody flavour similar to pricier tipples.

The sticks have lots of grooves cut in them to increase the overall-surface area touching the liquid.

They are intended to be placed in a bottle or decanter of cheap whiskey to replicate the taste of a more expensive tipple.

They do this via ‘accelerated transpiration through capillary action,’ according to the Portland, Oregon-based company’s Kickstarter page, which means the liquid travels through tiny tubes in the wood.

Time & Oak is raising money to the Whiskey Elements into production.

The inventors say they got their idea while working in a liquor store when they asked themselves: ‘What’s the difference between top shelf and well, whiskey?’

‘And then it hit us. If the goal is for the whiskey to filter in and out of the wood to remove toxins, get infused with flavour, and pull out those rich colours, what if the barrel isn’t the best design to achieve this process?,’ they wrote.

Tony Peniche explained that wood barrels are used for containing whiskey because the wood is cut vertically so that capillaries are not exposed to the liquid, meaning that it doesn't slowly seep out of the sides of the wood.

The sticks (pictured) have lots of grooves cut in them to increase the overall-surface area touching the liquid.They are intended to be placed in a bottle or decanter of cheap whiskey to replicate the taste of a more expensive bottle. The oak is cut horizontally to allow ‘accelerated transpiration through capillary action'

HOW DO THE WHISKEY ELEMENTS WORK? The Elements are made from oak - like the barrels used for ageing expensive whiskey. The idea is that they mimic the ageing process to re-create the taste of pricey liquor after being placed in a bottle of cheap whisky for just 24 hours. They do this via transpiration through capillary action. The sticks are cut horizontally from a large piece of wood, so the grain runs down their length. This so there is a shorter distance for whiskey to travel through its capilaries, and 'age' the alcohol. It also has grooves to increase the surface area of wood touching liquid. The Whiskey Elements remove chemical compounds Methoxy-phenyl-Oxime and Acetaldehyde from cheap whiskey. The impurity found in pig faeces and chemical blamed for hangovers are not found in high-end whiskey. So once the sticks have been used, the expensive and cheap whiskey are more chemically similar and have a similar taste. Advertisement

The sticks are made by cutting the wood horizontally to provide a ‘shorter distance for whiskey to travel through its repetitive exposure to the capillaries, so it matures much faster and becomes of a much higher quality.’

To test the product, the inventors put their sticks through their paces in the lab, where they compared top shelf whiskey costing over $100 a bottle that had been aged for over 10 years, with cheaper versions treated with a Whiskey Element.

They analysed the chemicals found in expensive and cheap whiskey.

Researchers found that the cheap bottles contained high levels of Methoxy-phenyl-Oxime – found in pig and mouse faeces – and Acetaldehyde, a compound blamed for hangovers.

In comparison, the expensive aged bottles contained almost none of either.

The researchers then added the oak sticks to the cheap liquor and waited 24 hours before testing them again.

Mr Peniche said: ‘The results were amazing. They showed characteristics found in top-shelf aged whiskeys with notably higher levels of the chemicals responsible for good flavours and smells, as well as a significant reduction in Methoxy-phenyl-Oxime and Acetaldehyde.’

Each stick can only be used once for maximum effectiveness and a two-pack is available to pre-order for $12 (£7.50) plus shipping.

The company has also come up with natural flavoured sticks so that flavours including vanilla, cherry, maple, smokey and peaty can be infused into spirits.



