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Psychedelic Photos Reveal What Your Favorite Cocktail Looks Like Under a Microscope

By Ellyn Kail on August 15, 2014

American Amber Ale

Vodka Tonic

With the help of polarized light microscope, research scientist Michael Davidson and entrepreneur Lester Hutt transform cocktails into fine art. Their unique company, Bevshots, specializes in printing microscopic images of wines, ales, and mixed drinks onto clothing, bar accessories, and home decor products, including metallic prints and canvases. Each stunning abstraction is created from a drop of an alcoholic beverage, crystallized on a glass slide and magnified up to one thousand times.

The vivid colors captured are produced by the refraction of light as it passes through the crystals, which take between one to six months to fully harden. Like fingerprints, no two crystal patterns are identical, and Davidson, who works from his lab at Florida State University, often creates up to 200 slides of the same drink to ensure that at least one is visually arresting. The color, form, and patterns of the crystals depend upon the chemical makeup of the drink; images of cocktails containing more sugar, for instance, differ from those made from purer liquids.

Pulled from the context of bar tops and parties, the cocktails appear soothing as an abstract painting composed of dreamy brushstrokes. At the same time, they exert an electric and mildly hallucinatory effect on the eye, deliciously recalling late nights and psychedelic encounters.

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