Ongoing Musing

[muninnhuginn]

Why is it that different (types of alcohol was what I was going to put, but it's all I suppose basically the same alcohol) alcoholic drinks have different effects?
To clarify, I mean essentially the effects at the time of drinking. (I'd guess there may be different effects later: I'm not the one to investigate that set of effects since I'm almost hangover proof.) The sort of variables I'm thinking about are:

• speed of effect: how long it takes before the first "hit"
  
• magnitude of effect: a notional scale from almost nothing through merry to stocious
  
• type of effect: for instance, falls asleep.
  
  I'm always surprised at the immense difference between, say, drinking beer or wine. Why, I don't know. I've accepted for years that I get high very rapidly on coffee (real; instant just makes me cross), but drink huge quantities of tea (I mean huge: the tea mug ought to be welded to one hand), very strong, with no apparent effect. Both have caffeine in them, but the effects are different. Since I drink my tea so strong (and black) that it looks like coffee, I'm getting more caffeine than I would from coffee. But it doesn't pack the same punch.
  Still, this was all prompted by the glass of absinthe (cheap Czech (Cheap Czech Absinthe: band name, song time or album title?)) I drank last night, prompted, no doubt, by the pictures of green dregs in the bottoms of glasses in one of the scenes from the very interesting programme on Picasso on BBC4.
  For the investigative record:
  Effects of absinthe, cheap Czech, one large glass, over even larger quantities of ice:
  
  
  
  • speed wise, almost imperceptibly slow
    
  • mentally produces great clarity of thought
    
  • physically relaxing, but not warming (no "glow")
    
  • emotionally distancing
    
  • don't seem to have drunk alcohol at all, so obviously not drunk.
    
  
  I know absinthe's a bad example. It's got wormwood in it. So I'm really mixing my poisons. But its effects are remarkably different from beer and reasonably close to whisky.
  Also last night, I discovered I'm beginning to find the mere smell of sherry almost unbearable. (Smell, now that's a whole other investigative can of worms....

Comments

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Interesting - and definitely room for Further Research there. As another member of the envied-but-hated-if-we-don't-shut-up-about-it Tribe of the Hangover Immune, I always used to disbelieve those who claim that mixing drinks causes worse hangovers, preferring to believe that it's just that people tend only to mix when they have had rather a lot to drink, anyway.

On the other hand, that's a rather rationalist approach, assuming that the only material component is the alcohol itself. Before exposure to absinthe, I'd have been more than happy to assume that the different psychological reactions to different drinks were to do with socialisation ("gin makes folk maudlin") and environment (you hardly ever have champagne when feeling miserable on your own), but with absinthe and some tequila-style drinks, there's a definite psychoactive presence. Enough, certainly that I was surprised to read speed wise, almost imperceptibly slow
above as I interpreted the first two words as referring to the amphetamine-like effect that I find quite noticeable with absinthe. Strong agreement with the rest of the effects, though I don't find they cluster at all closely to the effects of whisky.

More Alcohol-Induced Musings

[muninnhuginn]

... or should that be "Alcohol-Inspired"?
I've had one hangover, once, and it hurt. I'm generally more sympathetic to other people's suffering, since.
It's also true that, after a wonderful vintage madeira, I did wake up with a migraine attack that completely took the sight from one eye for about half a day. The madeira was, however, worth the pain.
I will, however, take care to factor in the social context modifier. It can, though doesn't always, make a difference. And in the case of absinthe, which I've decided I like enough to get something more authentic than the Sebor I have at the moment, I have generally drunk on my own (what an admission), though I wasn't yesterday, and it always seems to have the same mind-clearing effect.
Of course, this makes cocktails just too complicated to contemplate...