Why It’s a Really Bad Idea to Drink All Kinds of Drinks Mixed Together
Yes, Friday! That means two things here in the editorial office: salty microwave popcorn and wine. And sometimes vodka, whiskey and dangerous cocktails too. But that combination often goes terribly wrong…
Drinking different alcoholic beverages mixed together is one of the basic principles of going out, but you’d better not do it. And yet it happens to me about once (okay, maybe two or three times) a year. You’d think I’d know better, but apparently I don’t. I call these my never-want-to-go-home-again nights.
And then spirits get involved
Let me explain how they work. I plan to do a Houdini at a reasonably civilised hour after two fairly restrained drinks in the beer-and-wine category, or do a backward shuffle, but then spirits get involved and I (indeed) never want to go home again. Nobody said these were complicated nights. When I wake up the next day, I solemnly promise myself never to do it again. But why does it actually seem as though you’ve looked deeper into the glasses when you drink different beverages together? The answer: you haven’t.
Tax and max
Ultimately, it’s about the amount of pure alcohol you consume. In the case of a good glass of wine, that’s a respectable twelve per cent per serving, but if you switch to vodka, tequila, Jägermeister or limoncello, you’re quickly looking at 30 to 40 per cent alcohol per serving. And there’s your answer. On top of that, every body reacts individually to certain types of alcohol, and voilà, there you have it. Apparently, it’s also not true that beer after wine makes you sick; you’ve simply reached your personal alcohol limit, so if you’d stuck to the same drink, your stomach wouldn’t have been happy about it either.
Uh, a straw?!
It’s also good to know before you start drinking gin and tonic through a straw: alcohol is absorbed more quickly when you drink through a straw. With a regular sip, the alcohol evaporates more quickly and is absorbed less quickly by your stomach and intestines. Through a straw, it works in a more concentrated way, meaning the alcohol enters your body around your palate. The palate, that is, which means the alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream more quickly. You get drunk sooner, but ultimately it’s still about the amount—you just feel the effects a little faster. Cin cin!
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