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Why do some liquors cloud

GeorgeK

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when you add water to them? For example uzo, which is clear until it is cut with water, then it looks like milk, why?

What is the scientific name for this phenomenon?
 

aadams73

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From Wikipedia:

When water or ice is added to ouzo, which is clear in color, it turns milky white; this is because anethole, the essential oil of anise, is soluble in alcohol but not in water. Diluting the spirit causes it to separate creating an emulsion, whose fine droplets scatter the light. This process is called louching, and is also found while preparing absinthe.
 

GeorgeK

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It looks more like a chelation than an emulsion...does that mean that the extracts (orange and almond) contain anethole? Does that mean anything to taxonomists?
 

RainyDayNinja

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It sounds like you don't know what chelation is. Chelation is when a molecule has multiple groups that can bond to the same metal ion, something completely unrelated to this topic. An emulsion is just a bunch of very small droplets of one liquid suspended in another liquid.

Ethanol is a kind of polar solvent, somewhere in the middle between the non-polar oil and more polar water. So the oil dissolves just fine in the mildly polar ethanol, but when the polarity increases due to the addition of water, it can't stay in solution, and comes out as little droplets instead.
 

GeorgeK

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It sounds like you don't know what chelation is.
.

To be fair, it means different things to different people, and I grant that a molecular biologist will have a different attitude than an MD...


The comment above was meant as a "It looks more like" in terms of the physical appearance, not a chemical equation. That's sort of why it confuses me.

.

Ethanol is a kind of polar solvent, somewhere in the middle between the non-polar oil and more polar water. So the oil dissolves just fine in the mildly polar ethanol, but when the polarity increases due to the addition of water, it can't stay in solution, and comes out as little droplets instead.

Ok...I'll have to chew on this a while
 
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