In this video, someone pours drinks from a single container. He doesn’t stop between pours–it’s a single continuous pour into a series of glasses which are adjacent to each other.
The liquid in the first glass turns out to be green. The liquids in the subsequent glasses turn out to be more and more yellow. Then they begin to shift towards red. The last glass ends up with a purely red substance in it.
It’s not something that happens upon collision with the glass–you can see that the color change is taking place in the poured stream itself.
How’s he do it?
I’d think if he had two or even three different liquids with very different densities and colors, the change in color wouldn’t be as smooth as it is in the video–you’d have clear boundaries between the substances. But am I wrong about that?
I think you could do it with two or three relatively close (density-wise) liquids of different colors. The pouring action would provide plenty of opportunity for mixing, resulting in a gradual shift.
Density need not be the key. I’ll bet one could pour the red drink in, then freeze it, then yellow, then green. If the thawing process is gentle enough, it ought to hold the order at least as well as it does when he pours it. There may be a trick behind the pitcher he is using for pouring it too.
It’s probably not the same trick, but it may be related. In the one I linked to, you can see the substance changing color during the pour.
I mean, I can see ways to modify the trick you linked to to make it do the thing I linked to, so it may be fundamentally the same idea. But I’m not sure.
Also, just reveal it already. I don’t know what relevance there is in the fact that this is an internet message board.
The tea kettle trick appears to be fundamentally different in that with the tea kettle the water came out clear and changed as it hit the bottom of the cup. One can assume there is something in the cup changing the color (and the kettle is clearly split into two parts allowing both dry scarves and pouring the colored water in and getting clear water out) whereas in the OP the colors are changing as they come out of the shaker.
My WAG is that it isn’t so much as a magic trick as it is a bar/parlor trick or just something some bartenders do as flair…with a bit of practice.
That’s not the same trick at all. It’s a completely different effect.
The versions I know of are usually done with pH indicator powder in the cups. Mix in a little vinegar or something into the water, plus a bit of clever sequencing to get different colors.
I’ve had layered shots (aptly named “mind-erasers”) that were created by pouring various different liquids of similar density (iirc vodka, kahlua, and sprite) over the back of a spoon or an ice cube to diffuse and minimize mixing. The shot was taken through a straw and the drinker experiences a gradient of different flavors similar to the gradient of colors here.
And adding to WarmNPrickly’s theory, if the alcohol used was above 22% (I believe), the freezing point becomes lower than most freezers so it will only thicken instead of freeze entirely. This allows for much easier layering and in the case of the mind eraser, allowed the more sugary sprite to sit on top. Of course a little mixing occurred, increasing the longer it sat.
So they could use alcohol that they keep in the freezer, colored red, blue, and green. They pour the blue in first, then using a method similar to the mind eraser, layer the yellow on top of that (making it green where they meet) then red on top (creating the orange).
Then everyone gets good and snookered and can vomit in style.
The shots poured in the video are mainly juice and booze…think screwdriver. Screwdrivers are just darnright boring though, so instead we make a tequila sunrise by pouring som grenadine in. How is this done? Freezing? Magic? Nah, just pour the grenadine in the juice and it floats down to the bottom all on its own. Now, find a green liqueur or coloring agent (creme de menthe comes to mind as one of the lighter ones) with a lower density than juice and booze, and you’re set.
I think the pousse-cafe solution is pretty clearly correct, having seen the video. There are other ways to work a color-changing pitcher (as the YouTube magic trick shows), but this was all done in practically one long pour, so the "layered’ method seems the only believable one. And you can see that the liquid is about the right color as it comes out of the spout.(I could see a tricked-up pitcher that added color to the mix, but that seems unnecessarily complicated)
It reminds me of a different way to do this, which the video clearly doesn’t show, and that’s the use of different chemicals. If you have a little cobalt chloride in the bottom of one glass and pour a solution of ferric ammonium sulfate into it, you get about the same green the first glass has. If you pour some of the same ferric ammonium sulfate solution into a glass with sodium ferrocyanide solution i it, you get Prussian Blue. There are a few other variations that’ll give you other colors, and it’s all self-working.
Hey Guys! Sorry to break it to you but it is being done by a regular cocktail shaker. the effect is made by layering the ingredients on top of one another. Start with Grenadine on the bottom. Add Ice. Layer Orange Juice on top by pouring it over a spoon. Add vodka. Add Ice. Layer Blue Curacao On Top of Shaker and pour carefully.
I don’t know what relevance there is in the fact that this is an internet message board.