The best way to predict the future, is to create it.
We, Ballantine’s, believe when individuals Stay True to themselves they leave their mark on this planet. As our drinkers have re-invented the world all around us, we’ve been right there with them.
Over the past 188 years Ballantine’s has innovated the way whisky is made and in 2015 we’re going to innovate the way it’s drunk too. We’ve set out to ensure that the spirit of whisky lives on into the future, with a Space Glass engineered to work in microgravity and a story that makes whisky drinkers dream big. Twenty eight billion parsecs big…
Space travel no longer belongs to trained cosmonauts, it’s palpably within our reach. In your lifetime, space tourism will become attainable, more popular and increasingly affordable. Captivated by this rise of astroprenuership, we’re making sure whenever we go there we’ll take whisky with us.
Tomorrow, we will launch the first prototype of the Ballantine’s Space Glass. We will be sharing our story on this Medium publication.
To assist us in creating a whisky glass fit for space, we’ve enlisted two of the most respected experts in their respective fields. Sandy Hyslop, Ballantine’s Master Blender, and James Parr, who heads up the Open Space Agency. OSA is an enterprise based in the British Interplanetary Society, dedicated to enabling citizenship space exploration. Watch the fascinating conversation Hyslop and Parr, two men from very different disciplines, had when they first met:
In our journal we will be featuring two separate pieces from Parr and Hyslop, the first will divulge some of our initial design thinking and early concepts of the glass. Taking into consideration how we contain whisky in spite of inertia and make it flow in directions it doesn’t want to go. The second piece focuses closely on the serve and the effects microgravity has on taste.
We have also beamed in some futurists who have shared their thoughts on the project. One of them is Ethan Seigel, an astrophysicist and NASA columnist, who uses Medium to share his knowledge and ideas with the world. Seigel sets the tone for our venture by investigating what significance dreaming about the future has on our present.
We have also asked five unique visionaries to map out their own futures by challenging them to envision what our drinking experiences will look like in 50, 100 or even 500 years?
Additionally, Shortlist’s Technology Editor, Tom Bailey, has a taken a future gazing look at all the gadgets every high flying space tourist will need in the not too distance future. And we have descended on London’s teeming borough of Hackney, to find out about the future of mixology with the Drink Factory. The maverick talents at the Looking Glass Cocktail Bar have then mixed up some futuristic cocktails from ingredients we hope to harvest on terraformed planets.
We have also scientifically validated the project by testing the Ballantine’s Space Glass at the ZARM Drop Tower in Bremen, Germany. You will learn how this research gave us an insight into whether the glass would perform better with a convex or concave base in order to maximise surface tension. The knowledge we have acquired during this unique journey, as well as testing here on Earth, will support our ambition to make the Space Glass commercially available — in time for your first space flight. If not a lot sooner.
Ballantine’s Space Glass Team.
“I think whisky connoisseurs are always looking for something different;
something that they have not tried before and something that can broaden and expand their experience.”
— Sandy Hyslop, Master Blender, Ballantine’s
