Measuring absorption spectra of single molecules presents a fundamental challenge for standard transmission-based instruments because of the inherently low signal relative to the large background of the excitation source. Since most chemical species are not natively fluorescent, single molecule absorption spectroscopy would provide a powerful tool to study chemistry in progress. Our goal is to observe a chemical reaction by monitoring real-time changes in the infrared absorption spectrum. Recently, we have performed the first proof of principle experiments demonstrating that an absorption spectrum of chromophores in water at room temperature can be encoded into a 1064nm CW laser. This is achieved by monitoring the position of an optically trapped gold nanoshell, which exchanges momentum with photoexcited molecules and scatters the 1064nm. This proof-of-concept measurement sets up a new paradigm for performing absorption spectroscopy in solution and paves the way towards realizing universal single molecule absorption spectroscopies that operate under ambient chemical conditions.