More technically, alcohol is a solvent…
It’s both, you’re mixing different phylogenies. Any alcohol prepared for consumption is a solution of water, ethanol, and various other substances (almost all water or alcohol soluble). Ethanol in aqueous solution is also a strong solvent (pure ethanol is a less effective solvent, but a solvent nonetheless).
So it’s a solution that can be a solvent.
Alcohol refers to an alcoholic drink (like the martini held by this sophisticated cat). Water and ethanol (99% of these drinks) are miscible, so are always at least a solution with one another. The additional flavor compounds that make drinks different from one another tend to be in solution as well.
Alcohol is a solution if you dilute it a little.
100% distillation of alcohol is impossible, so I guess it’s always a solution. But technically it’s not a solution. Spirits are a solution.
Distillation is not the only way to remove water. You can distill ethanol up to 95.5% and then remove the rest of the water by chemical drying
Cool. TIL.
To quote a great man by the name of Schotty: “Alkohol ist keine Lösung! Alkohol ist eine Löse – das ist ein Riesen-Unterschied!”
There’s the joke in Swedish about alcohol being a lösningsmedel (solvent, but also something that solves problems). Won’t that also work in German but with Lösungsmittel?
needs more jpeg
Solvent or solute depending on concentration. The drink however is a solution.
I don’t have a drinking problem; I have a drinking solution!
Anhydrous ethanol gang begs to differ
How dark it is before the Dawn!
