Originally Posted by
Peckish
I don't believe this is true, I think it
is starch. The MSDS sheet for Best Press says it's in the "starch family". I think they clarify the starch to make it clear; add perfumes, dyes, and a surfactant to make it absorb quicker; and market it in specialty stores like quilt and fabric shops instead of the grocery store. They can call it an "alternative" because it gives us a choice over the standard starches we've been using for years.
You may be right. The homemade recipes that mimic Mary Ellen's Best Press are basically vodka and water. Vodka is made from fermented grains, which means the base is organic. Technically that classifies it as a starch. However, if you compare the pressing characteristics of Best Press to sizing and starch, it much more closely resembles sizing.
The marketing of Best Press is ambiguous. I have a bottle here that says "The Clear Starch Alternative". That could mean different things -- for example (1) that it is a clear starch instead of a white starch, or (2) that it is clearly an alternative to starch (ergo, not starch), or (3) that it is an alternative to starch that happens to be clear. I never even thought of the first meaning until you brought it up.
Maybe it's in-between. An organically-based sizing.........
Edit: Should add that I have a bottle of Best Press here that was given to me about a year ago. I haven't used it, but it is more than half empty from evaporation. I think that is because of the alcohol in it. Spray starch, Sta-Flo, and starches mixed from powders do not typically contain alcohol and also don't evaporate. So, for me, it is difficult to classify Best Press as a starch; it acts much more like a sizing.