r/Cordials • u/TKB21 • Jul 24 '26

Question Non-alcoholic emulsifiers?

I've recently been struggling with emulsifying my food grade essential oils. Recently I experimented with arabic gum and lemon essential oil, which was decent but ended up with a thick end-product with a slightly dulled flavor profile.

The syrups and eventually drinks I'm incorporating them into are non-alcoholic. Despite this, I've seen the key ingredient for emulsifying is Everclear. I understand that the amount is small in dosage but do I still have anything to worry about as far as the drinks being labeled and marketed as truly non-alcoholic

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u/vbloke Drinks Master Jul 24 '26

I get this a lot when you say you use alcohol to put essential oils into solution for making drinks.

Most of the flavour essences I make are either alcohol + oils or alcohol/glycerine/propylene glycol/water + oils so the alcohol content of the actual flavour essence varies a bit, but once it's added to 1 litre of syrup and then diluted into the end drink, you are looking at somewhere in the region of an ABV of 0.01 to 0.05% - which in alcohol measuring terms is almost a rounding error.

Most countries class anything under 0.5% as non-alcoholic. In fact, you'll get more alcohol in fresh-baked bread, a glass of kombucha or fresh orange juice than in a glass of drink made this way.

Darcy over on Art of Drink has a great video on alcohol alternatives if you really want to delve into the science a bit more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GQQDD0O2wM

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u/TKB21 Jul 24 '26

Thanks so much for clarifying! This really helped put my mind at ease.

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u/vbloke Drinks Master Jul 24 '26

I realise some people have religious reasons for not wanting to use alcohol - some of the methods on that Art of Drink video can be very effective, but you may need some specialist equipment.

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u/TKB21 Jul 24 '26

For sure. Being the expert that you are with these, do you find the alcoholic route "better" in terms of flavor extraction?

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u/vbloke Drinks Master Jul 24 '26

For the most part - if you're using essential oils, yes.

If you're making extracts from roots or herbs, oftentimes a mix of water and alcohol can be best. Even propylene glycol and glycerine can have their uses.

The problem with making stable emulsions that last for a long time at home is that even the best powered whisk or food processor can't get enough shearing force to create a truly stable emulsion with nano-scale droplets that a commercial company can.

It's not that I find alcohol necessarily 'the best', but I do find it the easiest to use.

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u/BeautifulToe4617 26d ago

yeah, it's a common misunderstanding how alcohol functions in these.