Until very recently I’ve had very few run ins with bartenders trying to poor me bottom shelf booze when I’ve request some other brand.  That is until last week when I attended a dinner in the lovely seaport town of Camden.  While I won’t name the restaurant it is the nicer of the few there and they do make a relatively mean steak frites.  Nonetheless, I ordered a Stoli Dirty martini and at first sip it was as if I was drinking 50% water.  It was difficult to tell if they had chosen to serve some other lower end brand of vodka and cover it up with water, but one thing was for sure: it wasn’t 100% vodka.

Enter the Rotgutonix.  Dip this handy pen sized tool into your beverage and it can identify up to 6 brands of liquor and their level of concentration. While it seems to be limited to the darker of the liquors they are currently working on one to detect up to 20 different brands of booze.  After my little experience in the North East last week I’d love a version that told me how watered down my drink is.  Because even after shaking, stirring, whatever have you to make a martini, it shouldn’t have tasted like sea water.

[Thanks, JnX]

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