Is this a real thing?
I’ve seen people say it for years. “Oh I can’t drink tequila…it makes me crazy. Give me a rum and coke.” I’ve also seen it said about whiskey and gin.
Is there actual science behind this or are these people just binge drinking and acting like idiots and blaming it on the particular type of booze?
(I wasn’t sure if I should flag as Biology or Chemistry)
Edit: I did search the sub and there have been similar questions in the past but the answers looked to be largely anecdotal and inconclusive.
Comments
I feel like there’s very subtle differences but it mostly comes down to how much of a liquor that each person will drink. Drink you like = you drink more = drunk effects more noticeable
There are legitimate differences in the speed-of-absorption of alcohol. Chugging hard liquor on an empty stomach will hit you harder.
The stuff mixed in with alcohol also might matter… mixers with lots of sugar or caffeine might make you feel different.
Or, maybe they only drink tequila with certain friends, that are known to go hard. So tequila “always gets them fucked up.”
Mostly, it’s just a bunch of idiots finding somethign to talk about when binge drinking.
I’m not an expert, but I would point out that all the other stuff in your system also has an impact.
For example, one type of drink might have a lot more water in it, which provides extra hydration and reduces some of the negative effects of the alcohol.
Sugars and caffeine can give an energy boost, influencing the overall effect.
So if you consider “types of alcohol” to mean different ratios of all the other stuff that is in there in addition to alcohol as well as the amount of alcohol and how quickly it hits your system, then you can easily see how they would have different cumulative effects.
Technically? No. All booze is just ethanol.
That said, due to other factors like the context in which people consume different alcoholic beverages, the quantities, and even their expectations, they can manifest different effects. I.e., if you always drink tequila when out partying with friends vs beers on your patio at home, how you act while drunk from each will differ due to the context not the booze itself.
Some real minor effect may be seen from sugar content, allergies to specific ingredients, etc but “whisky makes me a more angry drunk” type statements are bull. If/when true it’s more of a nocebo or placebo effect.
Other factors can include food (always drinking wine with food but alcoholic coolers in the bar without,) speed of consumption (a lot faster to get really drunk from hard alcohol than cider,) even taste (the pleasant taste of an alcoholic iced tea vs say the harsh taste of a cheap whisky can prime your expectations.)
Those aren’t different types of alcohol, the alcohol part is the same, it’s the other stuff that’s different. Can the other stuff have an effect? Sure, mostly depending on how much water is in it, then sugars, salts, etc.
e: it’s not so much “tequila makes people go crazy” as people drink tequila in shots of hard liquor all night and shots get people drunk fast, especially if they aren’t drinking water
No, there is no difference in the way different sources of alcohol affect you, at least not the kind of alcohol we drink. If you drink denatured alcohol, you would probably violently throw up pretty soon thereafter, but people don’t typically drink that.
All the anecdotal stories about this kind of alcohol making you flirty and that kind of making you angry and that kind making you sad, etc., those are all examples of the placebo effect. People expected to make a difference they’ve convinced themselves that will make a difference and so psychologically a difference manifest. But all your body cares about is how much alcohol you’re getting and how quickly you’re getting it, alcohol from red wine versus alcohol from bourbon makes literally no difference, other than maybe if one taste better or more palatable then you might drink it faster and make yourself drunk quicker or overindulge and make yourself sick, but it still just comes down to the amount of alcohol.Everything else is just psychology and placebo effects.
Sugar content and speed of consumption (sipping a beer vs downing a shot, for example) are going to have an effect on how you metabolize a drink. I’ve never felt worse after drinking than when it was something sweet and the amount of alcohol I consumed was very high over a short period (looking at you, cheap bottled “strawberry margaritas”).
So my friend who was “crazy” after drinking tequila probably shouldn’t have been having shots of anything, but slowly sipping whisky on the rocks was going to have a different effect for reasons unrelated to its peatiness.
And there could be secondary ingredients different individuals react to differently.
I suspect this isn’t something with a lot of literature due to all sorts of factors that actually go into this. On top of any actual effects from the alcohol, you’ve got to consider the effects of the mixers/what else in the drink: e.g. beer, wine is not a straight spirit.
Then some biases would need to be accounted for. If I normally drink beer for more causal evenings at the pub, but move onto spirits for a clubbing type night, then the fact I’m drinking more and faster is more relevant than the type. I can shoot down several rum and cokes no sweat for a lot more alcohol per hour than beer, perhaps making me think rum does more to me. Then I’m also a lot more drink after a night of beers+rum instead of just beer, so perhaps I’m less likely to be sure to chug some water or get a kebab before bed. Etc. Throw in more external factors too: is it sunny out? What did you eat before? And so forth
All of that aside, from a non-scientific perspective I believe it’s a mix of both the alcohol and the ‘vibe’ of the evening. I’ve certainly done heavier nights without spirits and I feel a certain way different to one of just spirits. And can be in different moods depending on what’s going down.
There is no difference. Alcohol is alcohol.
The reason people act differently on different drinks is psychological and how quickly alcohol is consumed.
Wine might be perceived as classy and sophisticated. You’re not going to a club and getting wasted on wine.
Tequila might be perceived as a party drink. You’re usually not home drinking tequila while you read a book.
Beer and wine have more volume per serving so it’s harder to get drunk off them quickly. Someone could do 2 or 3 shots back to back but not down 3 beers in the same 10 seconds.
How you mix them and how you drink matters. Compare shots vs a martini you sip. If you ONLY drink tequila in shots and party settings then you will behave differently based on the speed of the shots and the energy of the party
It’s basically just psychological. There’s a couple ways that can manifest.
Expectation: “I’m mean when I drink whiskey” or “vodka makes me depressed.” Might happen because you expect it to because that’s a stereotype with that type of booze. Maybe because a particularly notable time you were mad or depressed was while drunk on those (or, in some cases, the only time you drank those). So you expect it, and they’re mental states, so that’s enough for it to happen.
Context: “Wine makes me sleepy” or “I get wild if I drink tequila.” Most of the time, this sort of thing will be because (in those cases – this may differ by person) you mostly drink wine at home later in the evening or because you only drink tequila after you’re already somewhat drunk.
Nope, its entirely a placebo effect. The only thing that matters is the amount of alcohol and how quickly you drink it.
Out side of that it’s all just personal and societal expectations. If you always have tequila at wild and fun parties people associate that with being wild and then act accordingly, basically.
Another example, you might hear “wine drunk” and how its more relaxed and cozy. That’s because people are more likely to drink wine in a relaxed and cozy environment, it has nothing to do with the actual alcohol.
This placebo affects is so strong that there are even studies where people are unknowingly given non-alcoholic beer and because they expected to get drunk they started acting like they had.
In “hard liquor”, the active ingredient is ethanol, which doesn’t vary. Other compounds, often called congeners, vary greatly from spirit to spirit. There isn’t much strong evidence that those compounds affect behavior, although a higher amount of congeners is linked slightly to worse hangovers. Dark liquors tend to have far more congeners than clear liquors, regardless of the type of spirit. All hard liquor is clear after distillation, but some types, like (but not limited to) brandy and whiskey, are aged in barrels afterward, which introduces more of these compounds and changes the color (and flavor) of the spirit.
The current prevailing theory, absent solid evidence, is that social expectation plays a big role in one’s overall mood and behavior when drinking. The amount of ethanol will also affect behavior, but the idea that different kinds of spirits produce different moods or attitudes is almost purely anecdotal.
I agree that they are all the same – but some alcohols do have higher ABV – some rums are as low as 35 while Bacardi 151 is 75%. So yes to what everyone is already saying but also people’s perceptions may also have been skewed by the ABV of the alcohol. Add to this there opinion usually comes from a memory in college or when they first started drinking and got sick.
Clear liquor makes me horny, dark liquor makes me violent
As a former professional alcoholic:
All alcohol is ethanol.
It can be found in all kinds of drinks, but it’s the same chemical with the same effects on the body.
It all affects a human being in the same way.
The old adage that “___ makes you crazy” or whatever, is simply because someone mixed tequila with water and it was easy to drink 15 of them and they did something stupid.
No; ethanol is ethanol is ethanol.
People experience what they expect to experience. This is also how people can self-report getting drunk from non-alcoholic drinks…if they weren’t told that the drinks were non-alcoholic.
All these scientists in your replies ain’t never got wasted off of cheap wine or tequila. If they had they’d be answering “Hell yes there’s a difference !”
It is not the alcohol causing different effects, but the other elements in the booze itself
Red wine has sulfides that whisky doesn’t. Or, at least, not in the same amount. So, three glasses of red might leave you with a headache when three shots won’t.
Yes. Alcoholic here. They absolutely are different. Can’t give you a specific reason. But different types of alcohol give different types of feelings. Don’t know why, maybe it’s what you are used to than something different. But they absolutely do evoke different feelings.
its not what or how much you drink, its how fast you drink it. tequila goes down faster than beer.
I’m pretty sure all the actual alcohol is the same in them all. Only the process and additives are different.
I’m a functional acholic. I have years of field testing here. The only thing that ‘counts’ is percentage of alcohol. The more you intake, the harder the hit. A person can sip tequila for hours and barely feel a buzz, or chug a bottle of cheap wine and be on the floor in 30 minutes. It’s the amount of alcohol in the drink. Anyone who says ‘drink X’ makes me feel ‘Y’ and drink ‘Z’ makes me this way is just reacting to the amount of sugar.
Putting on my “I’ve worked in the alcohol industry for almost 20 years” hat here.
Kind of — there’s different types of alcohols, like methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, etc. Those definitely have different effects on you, ranging from making you drunk to making you dead. However, there’s different kinds of alcoholic beverages (gin, vodka, tequila/mezcal, whiskey, etc). Those will affect you essentially the same, depending on alcohol level. So, a 40-proof vodka will make you drunk the same as a 40-proof gin or tequila or rum, and a wine at 14.5% ABV will affect you the same whether it’s chardonnay or merlot.
Now, that being said, there’s some things in various liquors that will affect you differently, slightly. So a vodka is essentially ethanol and water, so it doesn’t sit in an oak barrel and soak up caramel, sugars, vanillin, tannins, and trace flavor chemicals like how a whiskey does. That’s part of the reason that we “experience” alcohols differently, and definitely the reason that certain beverages cause different hangovers (generally brown spirits hit you harder the next day, but everyone’s biochemistry is different).
Additionally, there’s how the alcohol is consumed. Cheap tequila? You’re likely drinking shots with salt and lime — consuming a lot of alcohol relatively quickly. Gin? More likely a gin and tonic, which you’re sipping. Slowly. The former is going to make you drunk faster, so you feel more out of control. Also there’s the environment you’re consuming the liquor in — going back to shooting cheap tequila, that’s likely at a party, or on spring break, or on a trip to Mexico…. all situations in which you’re primed to cut loose and do things that you might not do otherwise in your “normal” life. So the alcohol is giving you an excuse for acting wild, not causing you to do so. Contrast with the gin and tonic, which you might be consuming at brunch with friends, or at a garden party or event… a situation where you’re primed to act a bit more conservatively.
Nope, it’s 100% mental
You’re usually doing tequila shots in a lively atmosphere with friends. You’re gonna get drunker quicker due to shots, and you’re gonna be rowdier due to the atmosphere.
Wine is usually drank in a more subdued atmosphere. You sip it pretty slowly (you ever chug wine? It ain’t good), so you get drunker slower. You get a buzz, you get tipsy, you get a bit drunk. You can regulate yourself easier, and the atmosphere means you get less rowdy.
Alcohol is alcohol. Your body doesn’t care.
on thosedrinks the type of alcohol is thesame, just in different %’s, ranging from very light berrs with low % to something like Everclear that’s basically rubbing alcohol.
if you truly mean different types of Alcohol then yes there is a difference 2 main types of ” alcohol” with usable application are Ethanol and Methanol, the 1st one is drinkable and is metabloized by the liver(the overtime this process damages it) while the later cannot be metabolized, making it extremely toxic for consumption(this was the main reason amateur monnshiners got massively ill or even died, they try to use the 1st loops of their distillers, but those loops should not be used as they output mainly methanol.)
Why do certain types of alcohol affect me differently? I like this explanation the best of all I found. It makes the most sense to me. I am a non-drinker, raised with a functional alcoholic father, a bartender older sister, and a certain mentality when it comes to drinking. I know my dad would act differently when drinking different drinks, even if he didn’t know what liquor was in them. My sister often saw it as well. Whiskey tended to bring out aggression, for example, while beer made for more happy, loving drunks.
The mental state of the person drinking absolutely makes sense. Beer drinkers tend to want to relax, have a laid-back good time. Tequila tends to be the party drink. Whiskey is considered more hardcore, a ‘drink when ticked off’ drink. If you start drinking already predisposed to a certain mood, the alcohol will amplify it. (heavily alcoholic beer drinkers, for example, tend to get sleepy and relaxed – expecting beer to relax them.)
People think they’re different in the sense that when you’re drinking tequila it might usually be a hard partying night and maybe vodka is a more regular night, but you end up thinking tequila “makes you crazy”
Hard liquor has different % and flavor profiles. All alcohol is a depressant, except Tequila which is a stimulant.
Flavor profiles impact drinkability , most noticeably in a cocktail with a complimentary or masking mixer.
If you order a vodka OJ and its really stiff you wont taste the alcohol compared to like a really stiff rum and coke.
If you believe that a different liquor affects you differently outside of %, its a placebo unless its Tequila, which is a stimulant.
-ex bartender
Certainly with whisky the longer it’s aged the smoother it tastes. There is also a difference in hangover effects from well vs. top shelf whiskies. Not specifically from the alcohol itself but from the higher quality ingredients and better distillation process.
It’s less about alcohol and more to do with water management and your body’s ability to hydrate.
Beer, wine, malt Beverages and liquors don’t usually get over 15% alcohol and you get the benefit of the rest being water. It is absorbed more slowly as a result. The higher the sugar content in these drinks, though, the easier it is to get dehydrated.
Whiskey, tekila, rum and gin aren’t going to get over 50% commonly, and are most often (in the “well” category) in the 35% range. These are often drank straight (especially tekila) so the danger is that you consume much more of them. When mixed, they’re often mixed with sugary substances that make matters worse because it masks the taste of the alcohol and again leads to dehydration.
Vodka, everclear and moonshine are the worst, reaching 90% or more. These are again usually drank straight and the total amount of alcohol that makes it into your system is much higher.
As people say, there are factors related to the party vibe associated with certain drinks, the way certain drinks become easier to drink as you get drunker (leading to faster consumption), the mixes or not, etc.
Alcohol is alcohol and shouldn’t matter where it comes from. There is a small chance of individual reaction to other elements that impart flavour (like someone might have digestive differences with beer, or a mildy intolereance to certain additives, or a psychological association to certain herbs or whatever).
The only thing that makes a real difference chemically is caffeine. The amount in coke is lowe enough it has minimal impact, but if you are drinking many caffinated shots or mixing Rockstar with vodka you will be a very different drunk way more likely to be conscious but blacked out.
I do think people drinking whiskey get more problematic because they can increase their speed of drinking in spite of the flavour as they get more drunk, where something like gin and tonic maintains a bitter aversive taste subjectively. Tequila, people often drink several shots at once and it hits them fast.
A lot of people don’t really think of the relationship strength difference between tequilla shots and like Polar Bear or Porn Star shots either. It’s like a 1:3 ratio depending on if a lighter alcohol (13-18%) is also mixed vs straight hard tequilla. Of course three tequilla shots at 40% will nail you to the wall faster than three shots that are 16% plus a sizeable ice chip or mix with something less or non alcoholic.
As others have mentioned, the liquor thing has a lot to do with frequency of consumption and other factors such as how much food has been eaten and what mixers are used.
I have a colleague that is a preclinical alcohol researcher and he insists hops have a psychoactive effect since they are related to cannabis. I believe this is still controversial though.
Other alcoholic beverages have various compounds such as congeners from the fermentation process that can impart negative effects. Red wine I think has other things like fusel alcohols and tannins that some people react to differently and can lead to undesirable effects.
Clean ethanol is going to effect the brain by modulating GABA neuronal activity but there are going to be other effects on the enteric nervous system by ethanol as well as the other compounds present
Tequila is a stimulant whereas most other alcoholic beverages are a depressant
Naw, what we call drinking alcohol is technically “ethanol”, ethanol is what grownups drink to relax. All the different liquors have the same ethanol, although some have more or less.
Sometimes fancy alcohols will add “botanicals”, which are herbs and fruits that they add while the alcohol is getting ready to give it a certain flavour; some people will say certain botanicals can do different things to your head (like the wormwood in a thing we call “Absinthe”), but many people say that’s “circumstantial evidence”, which is a fancy way of saying it might have happened to someone but that doesn’t mean it always happens to everyone.
(Not trying to be condescending I’m just tryna answer like I was talking to my little sister)
Even if the “this alcohol makes me behave this way” were entirely down to the placebo affect…it would still genuinely affect you in that way and you’d not be able to do much about it. I know it’s that…but when I drink vodka you know damned well I’m gonna get fighty.
The placebo affect is freaking freaky 🙂
Used to be a wine maker and distiller, ethanol is far less complex than people make it out to be. It will always have the same effect regardless of what sugar source it was fermented from, although the rate of absorption will differ depending on the liquid, mixers and ingestion method. Distillation simply draws out ethanol from its origin, but doesnt actually change its chemical structure.
Also hangovers have little to do with the type alcohol you drink. Its a buildup of bile and can be completely eliminated with preparation. There are now even companies who have products that attack the bile while its being formed to stop buildup like ZBiotics, but chugging a ton of water can offset the buildup to the extent that you wont feel anything the next morning.
Yeah it’s all placebo, people are in different scenarios when they drink certain types of liquor and correlate the inebriation with the drink rather than the people egging them on or the type of environment they’re in. They’re basically doing alcohol astrology
Ethanol is the same no matter what
At some point, people used to state that the varying tannins in dark and light liquor may affect your experience but that’s false afaik and it moreso affects the hangover (marginally) that you get after
I drink different types of alcohol , in different kinds of situations , including solo . Yes , i can totally say 100% that different alcohols work different on my body (brain actually ) . Beer , makes me sleepy . In group it can be different , because of atmosphere and things like that , but when i drink it solo in my room it makes me sleepy quite fast . Strong drinks , makes me more awake , and party like . Wine , well it depends , but it is much more on the awake side then the sleepy side .
Now i cannot give a explanation , i do know what i drink so , when drinking stronger drinks , i go slower also (wine is a tricky 1 again ) . I drink beers from regular 5% , but i am more in the triple beers of +8% (i am from Belgium btw) .
For the tequila statement , i would say that most of the time people do not only drink tequila but use it as a extra shot . Which then indeed is mixing many times a much softer drink with a heavy shot , which imho can create havoc , and they blame it on the 5 shots of tequila leaving the other 10-15 drinks out of the equation .
No
It’s just the concentration in how the alcohol is delivered and the drinkers willingness to and how to ingest it.
For example High % alcohol Vodka mixed with super sweet carbonated water go down easy like a cold coke….but the high dose of sugar mixed with alcohol can get you drunk fast but make you feel nautious
The tequila thing is mostly because people take shots.
If you drink the same amount of alcohol in beer or wine then it’s usually much slower and you can moderate your consumption based on how you feel.
You can also drink slowly enough that your body metabolizes it at a similar rate, so you never get overly drunk.
If you take shots, you can down a whole nights equivalent of wine before you feel it, and the party has just begun.
Ish. It’s more about the concentration of alcohol.
Beer is typically very minimal alcohol content that’s why people are able to drink a lot of it. Where as whiskey is really high alcohol content.
Tequila is in the middle, less than Whiskey, significantly more than Beer. But people do shots of tequila where you don’t do shots of Whiskey. So people are getting a lot of alcohol in a really short time, so the effects hit them pretty fast.
I have an ex who could drink all sorts, lots of it when he wanted, but he always told us that he couldn’t drink vodka because it made him crazy. It was hard to believe because he was the most laid back person I knew, always laughing etc.
Then, at a birthday party, he drank vodka for some reason (this is 10 years ago so I don’t know why etc.), it was as if a switch had been flipped and he was suddenly manic and destructive. He ran down the street and tried to smash the window of the corner shop. A friend went after him and had to physically restrain him. Dragged him back to the flat and we had to lock him in a room until he sobered up the next day.
We made sure he never went near vodka again after that.
No. The idea that tequila makes you wild or gin makes you sad is not true
There have been studies about that. I recall reading one where they lied about the type of alcohol. And people acted according to what alcohol they thought they were drinking
It is likely more of a self fulfilling prophecy or a learned affectation. People believing tequila makes you crazy causes people to go crazy when they drink tequila. Or people want an excuse to go crazy so they drink tequila
Supposedly the alcohol is the same but there is lots of other things you would never be exposed to in drinks like gin or wine and definitely absinthe. I feel just the smells in gin can have an effect.
From my personal experience.
Tequila makes you over animated then you have to go lay down.
Bourbon makes you over animated then you want to go downtown and party.
Gin makes you think you’re not drunk and scotch has a somewhat similar affect.
Vodka just fucks you up.
I did years of research.
So I read the book like 15 years ago. But the answer is no. Poison os poison. The book explains it that when you see people act a certain way or have experiences involving that type your brain is tricked into thinking thats the default way to act. An example they used was a tribe in Africa where drinking is a joyous occasion and compared it to Irish drinking and how from some a such a young age we are conditioned to think thats what the effects are or is it affects in this case?
The delivery method can have an effect on the speed of the hit. Any self respecting student will know a cheap bottle of Cava will do very nicely for prinx…the carbonation helps alcohol cross the stomach wall…one of the few nutrients to enter the blood stream from the stomach.
The quickest of all is to chug your drink of choice..literally bottoms up…!
Yes kinda, but also no.
The actual alcohol content is the same however:
Quick note on sugar – sugar slows the absorption of alcohol. It doesn’t stop it though. It also gives you lots of energy.
Water content, and drinking speed have a big part to play too as well as things like caffeine and energy drinks. All these assist the alcohol highs in different ways.
Beer is a low percent, with more water, fizz and yeasts. That means they take longer to drink, and you get more hydrated, you also feel full/bloated doing so. A low percent beer will make you wee alot, and because you’re not getting drunk fast you don’t feel those quick ‘drunk’ effects as your liver can keep up with the worst of it and you gradually get increasingly more tipsy. As such it’s a bit easier to acclimatise and feel in control. Also hangovers may be a little more subtle.
wine is high percent, with heavy tannins and a medium sugar content. You drink a lot less liquid, and with the slight increased sugar content, you can drink more and it tends to hit harder a little further down the line. Also – low hydration plus high sugar and heavy tannins means a big morning headache.
Rum and coke, high water content and very very high sugar. Which means you can drink a lot of alcohol very quickly and feel fine until suddenly you’re way past it and the booze hits you like a freight train. On the bright side, you’re a lot more hydrated, so instead of a pounding headache like with wine, you have a sugar crash and feel shakey and dizzy.
tequila, is straight alcohol to the dome. Hits fast, drinks instantly, and two or three in a row can put you from fine to a few beers deep in 15 minutes flat. Often if you’re just drinking tequila, you’re having water with it – so low sugar, high hydration and a very tiny hangover – same as whiskey. The difference with whiskey is you’re sipping it and not taking shots so you can slow down a bit.
All of these explain why people on beers can drink for hours, getting increasingly drunk and boystrous. People on wine get goofy and surprised they’ve finished a whole bottle and suddenly quite drunk. People on Rum and Coke will smash a bunch, seem fine and get quite out of control quite suddenly and have enough sugar to keep bouncing off the walls, people on tequila get smashed fast and seemingly handle it if they manage it well. And why alcoholics learn to drink whiskey water all day.
Definitely not for the overall effects, but I’m seeing a surprising lack of mention about the stomach, which is the only thing most drinkers are paying attention to outside of their brain. It differs for everyone but darker liquors can tend to be harder on the stomach from all the aromatics packed in there — though whether that has anything to do with methanol, lord knows. Tequila has sort of a similar issue, but I’ve hit all of it enough to know that even if the source of variation is the methanol, the methanol isn’t doing much to anything except for my stomach.
People absolutely have the misconception you identify in them, though. I am constantly told “don’t mix clear and dark liquor!” which puts me through one hell of a third variable adventure while I happily do that with no issues. As others have pointed out, a strong societal conviction around mixing liquors being bad leads people to only do that when they don’t care at all about the consequences of their drinking, which will produce effects that only confirm the myth. The same can go for any singularly stigmatized liquor, of which tequila is a great example.
TL;DR: Yes, you are correct. They are just bad at drinking and do not realize that drinking is something they can become better at — or just trying to find something quirky to say to avoid saying “that shit makes me hurl.” Who knows.
People can have allergic reactions to different kinds of alcohol. Rice vs wheat based, for example. However, most just drink too much. Tequila is often just for partying.
When I was a young man, going out and getting drunk pretty regularly, I had this one friend who matched me drink for drink and didn’t seem to get appreciably more stupid or reckless than I did; unless he started on tequila, which always seemed to result in him starting a fight with someone. Conversely, just a few glasses of sake seem to make me disproportionately amorous. Is there any science to that? Doubtful. Have I observed this on multiple occasions? Yes.
I was drinking Evan Williams one time and got hives or something all over my torso. I took a picture with my shirt off and posted it to r/drunk and asked if that happened to anyone else and someone replied “yeah I got fat too.” 🙁
Alcohol is alcohol, it’s all the other variables around drinking that change.
If I make myself a Paloma (tequila, grapefruit soda, lime) and a Mule (vodka, ginger beer, lime) with the same volumes of liquor, soda, and lime juice they’re going to hit me almost exactly the same provided I drink them under the same conditions. Same amount of alcohol, almost exactly the same amount of sugar in the soda mix, though that varies a touch brand to brand.
To prove my point about it being the other variables that change, Grapefruit can interfere with the absorption/clearance of a number of prescription medicines, and that can mess you up bad.
Purely from experience;
Beer generally doesn’t taste great and has a pretty low amount of alcohol, which leads me to have a less enjoyable time drink on them or to sip on them while being lightly inebriated.
Wine is an acquired taste, but is really good if you find the right one. Context for drinking wine is usually with a nice dinner or hanging out with friends, plus you get more inebriated faster, so I generally get a bit sillier, while trying to stay semi respectable
Liquor and cocktails can be delicious (I actually enjoy liquor) and get you drunk asap. A couple shots will get you noticeably drunk and you’ll be acting however you do while drunk. I usually drink liquor when trying to get drunk or if I’m going to have one stiff drink, so I generally have a great time.
Mixing liquors is (at least for me) a myth. Maybe if you have some liquor that doesn’t sit well with you, but I haven’t seen anyone actually act different having 3 shot of whiskey and 3 shots of any other liquor other than the people who just don’t like the taste of that liquor
Tequila just tastes better in sodas so you drink more of it
Yes, absolutely. Drink high quality moonshine and then drink the bad one (the one improperly distilled) and feel the difference in the morning. It’s not the alcohol though, it’s all the other poisonous stuff that made in that drink that made you feel so bad.
But also people can have different reactions to different substances in the drink. I.e. I have a friend allergic to gluten and he can’t have wheat-based vodka, but is fine with potato-based one. I can totally see how somebody sensitive to gluten could feel different after drinking these 2 different types of vodka and conclude that “cheap vodka gives me bad hangovers”, while in fact it’s the gluten and yes, cheaper vodkas tend to be wheat-based.
Yes
Methanol has a very different effect on the body than ethanol. You really should stick to ethanol, weither it’s pure like vodka, contains dissolved flavorings like bourbon, or very dilute like in beer or wine.
I used to work with a guy who told me he couldn’t drink Jack Daniel’s anymore because it made his knuckles bleed.
My own experience: I liked beer, but discovered that I was allergic to hops. So some overly hoppy and IPA would set me off. Most liquors I was ok with, especially scotch But I had one bad experience with gin, and for a long time after that I could not even smell it without gagging.
Alcohol is alcohol, it’s the other stuff that goes with it that gets you. Or behaviors. A lot of people that have trouble with tequila are already drunk, and then start doing shots. Guzzling cheap whisky gets you drunk fast, and then you get out of control.
The only difference is in context. Some alcohol is drank in excess more often, you’ll drink more if you like the taste, you will act different if someone says something will make you act different.
Inject it directly into their stomach with a feeding tube, dont tell them what it is, control for water/sugar intake, and you will never notice a difference. They will get more drunk with more alcohol. They might act different if you dont give them water or give them a bunch of sugar/salt. But its not the alcohol itself making the difference.