Cocktails brewed with saliva on the menu for Goldsmiths student

A design student from Goldsmiths, University of London, has developed a range of beverages using alcohol brewed with human saliva.

Sydney Schaefer, 23, uses traditional brewing methods to create a variety of types of alcohol, from which cocktails including mojitos and pina coladas can be made.

Starting with starch bases ranging from brown rice to purple corn, Schaefer then adds the saliva before mixing with yeast and water and leaving to ferment for a week.

Amylase, an enzyme contained in saliva, reacts with the starch to form sugar, which in turn reacts with the yeast to produce ethanol. This is then diluted to create a drinkable product.

Schaefer has named the product ‘Anivor’, and has designed a range of branding for the bottled drinks.

She consulted with a number of brewers and mixologists throughout her final year project, including the European Bartender School.

The drinks will be on display and available to taste at ‘Hyphen’ – the Goldsmiths BA Design Degree Show.

The show takes place at the Truman Brewery, London from Friday 16 June to Monday 19 June at 6pm.

Schaefer said: “The idea with this is not to be grotesque or gratuitous, it’s to treat the human body as a producer of materials rather than just a producer of life, and to start learning how to harness the things we produce.

“The different starch bases really affect the flavour and the colour of the drink, so each drink comes out differently which is very exciting.”