A shelf stable, edible sphere containing alcohol and methods for preparing the same. The edible sphere comprises a liquid and/or gel inner core comprising ethyl alcohol and an outer membrane comprising alginate, wherein the outer membrane coats and encapsulates the liquid and/or gel inner core and wherein the edible sphere is shelf stable for at least one month. The process for preparing the shelf stable, edible sphere comprises combining an alcoholic beverage, a calcium salt, and optionally one or more further components to form a cocktail solution, de-aerating and either freezing the cocktail solution to form a frozen cocktail solution or adding a thickening compound to the de-aerated cocktail solution to form a viscous cocktail solution, immersing the frozen cocktail solution or viscous cocktail solution in a sodium alginate bath at ambient temperature for a period of time to form an edible sphere containing alcohol, and removing the edible sphere containing alcohol from the alginate bath and rinsing it with water to form a shelf stable edible sphere.
