Health warnings ignored as Brisbane's first alcoholic vapour bar opens
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Health warnings haven't stopped patrons from trying Brisbane's first alcoholic vapour bar.
The bar invites customers into a room filled with cocktail vapour, where their bodies simply absorb the alcohol.
Concerns have been raised that it could be dangerous, but there've been plenty of people queuing for the experience anyway.
Maria Hatzakis with this report.
ANNOUNCER (advertisement): Introducing Vapshot vaporised spirits. That's right: you've probably heard about it all over the news.
MARIA HATZAKIS: It's a craze sweeping the United States: vaporised alcohol.
There are no glasses needed or drinking involved. Instead, alcoholic vapour is pumped into the air and absorbed into the body.
Now a bar serving vaporised cocktails has popped up in Brisbane, drawing plenty of curious customers.
BAR PATRON 1: It all, like, settles on your skin. You can feel it on your skin and if you lick your arm, you can taste the sweetness.
BAR PATRON 2: I know that these type of bars exist in different places around the world but I've never experienced one before.
So yeah, the whole thing was: I don't know, it was weird. (Laughs)
MARIA HATZAKIS: The company behind the Brisbane bar launched a major alcohol vapour bar in London in July.
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MARIA HATZAKIS: But the concept has health experts worried.
JAKE NAJMAN: We're in a sense putting alcohol in places it normally hasn't been: either through the nasal passages, the throat or a combination of the two. Given that it's a toxic irritant chemical, we don't know what it's going to cause and what problems are going to arise.
MARIA HATZAKIS: Professor Jake Najman is from the Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre at the University of Queensland.
JAKE NAJMAN: If it did become popular, I think we'd have to work very hard to try and get it stopped, because the potential for harm here is substantial.
MARIA HATZAKIS: But worries about potential risks haven't stopped Brisbane locals from giving it a go.
BAR PATRON 1: It didn't feel like it was restricting my breathing in any way or anything like that. I felt like I was breathing normally: just the air tasted differently.
MARIA HATZAKIS: The pop-up bar's been running as part of the Brisbane Festival and served its final cocktail last night.
Whether the concept catches on remains to be seen.
BAR PATRON 3: There was a novelty factor when you go in there. But then you go in with a bunch of friends then you try to do what you normally do with a bunch of friends: take selfies.
And then you realise that your photos are not coming out well. You can't really talk 'cause you're breathing in alcohol. And after a while, you'd be like: "Yeah, I think we're done here."
BAR PATRON 1: Yeah, I'd do it again. (Laughs) I don't know if I'd spend, like, hours in there because of the slight stickiness, but I'd go in there for, again, novelty.
BAR PATRON 4: I would say it was a one-off, maybe. I mean, it's a novelty experience. I don't think it's any kind of replacement to a bar.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Brisbane bar goers ending that report from Maria Hatzakis in Brisbane.
Source: ABC / AM with Michael Brissenden, Maria Hatzakis, 26th September 2015
Originally published as: Health warnings ignored as Brisbane's first alcoholic vapour bar opens
