LIQUOR FROM GRASS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27308, 26 March 1954, Page 8

LIQUOR FROM GRASS

Discovery By Dutch

Chemist

PATENT RIGHTS IN MANY COUNTRIES

A Dutch sugar chemist, Mr J. G. Bruinier, aged 69, of Amsterdam, is able to turn ordinary grass into drinks which are exactly the same as wine, not only in colour but also in quality. On several occasions he has demonstrated this sensational discovery to sceptical experts. To the great astonishment of connoisseurs, the drinks which Mr Bruinier prepares from grass, clover, reeds, vegetables or cabbage, are not to be distinguished from Burgundy, Moselle or Rhine wines, sherry, port, vermouth, champagne, beer, whisky and brandy. The inventor extracts from grass (or vegetables) the juices which yield the drinks after sugar and other secret vegetable ingredients have been added and allowed to ferment. The discovery is based on the idea that all plants contain the same original juices, once their characteristic constituents have been removed. Mr Bruinier discovered the principle of this new method of wine-making in 1936, when he was working as a sugar chemist in the then Netherlands East Indies. In the meantime he has obtained patent rights in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, West Germany, Sweden, England, Ireland, Venezuela, Argentinia, Mexico, the United States, Canada, the Union of South Africa, India, Pakistan, and Australia. The inventor has no difficulty in finding raw materials for his process. At present all he needs is a few tufts of grass which his grandchildren pick on canal banks.