How to Drink 101

The best way to drink is with moderation. The binge drinking that many young drinkers engage in these days leads to unfortunate events—like death and irrevocable brain damage. And that’s just from the effects of the booze on the body, let alone the after- effects of falling down, or driving while intoxicated.

Drinking in moderation is much more pleasurable. You have time to enjoy the flavors, the bouquets and also the company you are with. You may even remember the jokes that were exchanged during a pleasant evening with friends. Leaving a gathering too drunk to remember what went on is really not much fun in the end.

Old ways are best
Take care in selecting what to drink, and when. There are the age-old concepts that various alcoholic beverages should not be mixed, or at least not in the wrong order. “Liquor before wine, every thing’s fine; wine before liquor, never sicker!” is a pretty good rule of thumb. That is, drink your whiskey or gin and tonic before a meal, wine wit the meal, and usually, you’ll feel better than if you did it the other way around.

Another good rule of thumb, is to stick with one selection for a session of drinking pleasure, thus avoiding the effects of mixing.

Taking your booze with meals is also a sound concept. Food gives the liquid something to land on and be absorbed by, thus reducing the speed at which one becomes intoxicated. Drinking on an empty stomach is rarely a good decision, except possibly when using some hangover cures that follow the “hair of the dog” concept. Of course, if you had , but followed the moderation concept, you would not be needing a cure!

It is not for nothing that marriages of wine and particular foods were developed. A good claret with a steak or a pleasant white Bordeaux with fish come to mind.

Parting shots

There is often, among a group of younger people, the apparent need to do "shots". These concoctions tend to mix lots of various liquors, come with cute names, such as slippery nipple, gorilla snot, etc. Generally drinking one of these by way of celebration or camaraderie is OK, but an extended session of shots, either mixed with other shots, or used as chasers for your main selection (beer? whiskey?), is not recommended. Mixing a variety of liquors based on possibly incompatible ingredients, is a recipe for talking with the porcelain Honda--if you get that far! If you must, and have a choice, choose shots that have only one type of liquor in them, and avoid the really sweet ones. First, if they taste like a soft drink, you won’t notice how much you’re drinking. Second, the sugar will make you drunker, and sicker. So choose something that will remind you that it packs a wallop.

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How To Drink

A Selection of Drinks