Color from natural cork?

[Steve Broady]

I really don’t know where to put this. Hopefully it’s not safety related.

I recently bought a bag of natural corks from Amazon. This item, if anyone is curious. https://a.co/d/eNlzKZD I dropped a handful on the floor this morning when moving the bag around, so I tossed them into a bowl and rinsed them in the sink. I was more than a bit surprised to see a fair bit of amber color in the water after literally a few seconds.

These corks appear to be solid, not glued together bits of cork. They’re sold specifically for storage of wine and beer, so one would assume that they’re safe for food contact. I can’t find any threads here talking about this issue, so either it’s just normal and I don’t know it, or there’s some kind of contamination on these corks. Before I use them, I figured I’d ask the collective wisdom here. Is this safe to use, and is this normal?

[hellbilly007]

I haven't heard of anyone having issues with any corks other than maybe one breaking off in a bottleneck.

With anything coming from a questionable source I would at the very least boil them before use. Perhaps soak em in some heads. Manufacturing facilities can and usually are unfavorable to food and drink items

[greggn]

... and is this normal?

I have never seen leaching from a natural cork. It may or may not be relevant that I only purchase from Widgetco.

https://www.widgetco.com/products/size- ... -xxx-grade

[tommysb]

there's a commercial gin here that uses some element of cork for ageing -
https://www.ginout.com/ginout-english

It's harvested from trees in big sheets, (not sure if you've ever seen cork trees?), but in the sense that it's another type of 'wood', there's no harm in cork coming into contact with spirits (no more than wood).

If your corks are 100% cork, I wouldn't worry.

I guess the question is more along the lines of - 'should natural, food-safe cork give off colour when boiled in water?' - I was curious about that myself, so did a little experiment.

I've got a cork I know is good - marked appropriately.

Stuck it in some boiling water with a fork to hold it down

Within a few minutes there was a light straw colour to the water

.

So I would say it is normal to get SOME colour leeching from cork.

[Steve Broady]

Thank you, tommysb. Logically, cork is tree bell, so it makes sense for it to potentially leech some color, and presumably therefore flavor as well. But, I hadn’t heard of it ever being an issue, and I have no specific reason to trust that these corks aren’t somehow adulterated (No reason to suspect that they are, either). So I figured I’d ask here.

[dunluce]

Yes, cork will leech colour like any other wood.

I actually don't know of any wood that will NOT leech colour.....even pure white birch bark will leech colour.

[SaltyStaves]

The Peroxide wash (that white outer surface) is more of a concern. The spirit absolutely will break that down.

Whether or not that is an issue, I can't say.

[Saltbush Bill]

I've seen cork put colour in water...so I think it's quite normal.

[howie]

this video has some answers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deqx-Xb-yHY

[subbrew]

The Peroxide wash (that white outer surface) is more of a concern. The spirit absolutely will break that down.

Whether or not that is an issue, I can't say.

Peroxide is no problem. It breaks down into oxygen and water.

When I start to get a cold I breath hydrogen peroxide vapor to kill the virus in my sinus and lungs. Usually stops a cold before it even really starts.

[Steve Broady]

I have never seen leaching from a natural cork. It may or may not be relevant that I only purchase from Widgetco.

https://www.widgetco.com/products/size- ... -xxx-grade

Thank you for the link, greggn. I have been wondering where to get some large natural corks, but hadn’t gotten around to looking yet. Just placed an order.