The real deal

To my shame, I once asked a Scotsman for a whisky... with ice. As conversation in the room ceased and the barman glared aghast, I was 'politely' taught one of life's important lessons - you can only have two things in a real Scotch: water and more whisky. There is however, a greater problem facing whisky drinkers than how to consume a traditional malt. Counterfeit spirits, particularly Scotch, is estimated to be worth more £500m each year. Indeed counterfeit Scotch whiskies are more common than you might think, with the Scotch Whisky Association reportedly handling between 60 to 70 active cases of counterfeiting at any one time. The problem is that it is actually quite difficult for the average person to tell the difference between a genuinely aged whisky to one that has been enhanced with flavourings and chemicals. And while every effort is made to secure the supply chain, it does appear that fakes are making it to market around the UK and abroad. While there are lab tests that can identify fakes, not every bar owner or restaurateur has the time or funds to check, especially every bottle of every spirit that is brought and sold. The Challenge The challenge this month is therefore to come up with a simple, cheap and relatively portable method of analysing the contents of various spirits and then tell if they are genuine or fake. The current method of taking samples back to a lab and running them through a spectrum analyser is both slow and impractical. The device you come up with should be much more portable and capable of being taken into pubs and restaurants to undertake on-site testing. It should also be able to come up with almost instant results. If possible, the device should not come in to contact with the whisky, though this is not essential, as you could always take a small sample. While this is a problem domestically, exports of top-end spirits is now big business. And the biggest markets for counterfeit spirits are China and India. Making the device small and low-cost would mean that it could also be easily deployed and used in the countries where fake spirits are most rife. The answer will be revealed in the July issue of Eureka. In the meantime let us know if you can come up with anything better via our website. -Solution- Solution to the June 2013 Coffee Time Challenge The solution to the June 2013 challenge of how to detect counterfeit Scotch and other fake spirits comes from a team of Scottish researchers that have developed a technique based on the principles of Raman spectroscopy. The size and need for alignment in a typical Raman spectroscopy machine has previously made it impractical for portable applications. However, improvements in fibre-optical Raman probes as well as lab-on-a-chip (LoC) techniques has lead to the development of an optofluidic method called waveguide confined Raman spectroscopy (WCRS). The chip is fabricated using soft-lithography that aligns and then embeds two optical fibres in place. One fibre is used to deliver the Raman excitation beam into the chip and the other to collect both the Raman and fluorescence signals from the sample. The cost associated with this technique is at least two orders of magnitude lower than commercially available fibre-optic Raman probes. The St Andrews University-based team has been able to capture interest from the drinks industry with its patented technology that has demonstrated accurate analyse of a range of spirits from a 20µl sample. It has been able to distinguish single malt Scotch whiskies based on brand, age and even which cask was used - as well as detecting trace toxic additives such as methanol at concentrations of less than 1% by volume. The system can be used in broad daylight making it more amenable for field applications, and the team continues to develop a handheld device that is able to fire a laser, record the scatter and analyse the particular 'signature' of given liquids. www.st-andrews.ac.uk