I tried to do a search on this, but couldn’t come up with the right phrasing.
My friend, a most experienced drinker, had a horrible episode last night after drinking a couple of shots with small amounts of tequila in them. He ended up with tunnel vision, was very disoriented, and ended up vomiting for a good part of the night and this morning. He’s still in pretty fragile shape, after drinking what would have amounted to less than 2 ounces of the stuff.
He’s had a couple of these episodes in the past, so, naturally, he makes sure that any shot he drinks doesn’t have any tequila in them. Sure enough, he asked if there was any in these shots, and he was told no. After he drank them, he was told that yes, in fact, there was tequila in them. Ha ha. Very funny. Less than an hour later, he was in rotten shape.
Question: Is there something in tequila, that isn’t in other drinks, that causes him to suffer so? Is this active ingredient in any other foods or drinks?
Tequila is made from the suculant blue agave. It looks like a cactus but technically it’s not. It is also called the century plant. I have tons of them on my property in Arizona.
Your friend is most likely allergic to the agave. However, it is not uncommon to have an exceptionally cloudy day after a night of binge drinking tequila…
I’m glad there was a smiley at the end of your post, RM Mentock, otherwise, you might have gotten my back up a little bit. I love my dictionary, and use it more than the average bear. I did look it up in my Oxford, as well as on the 'net.
I could have been more specific: I know that tequila is made from blue agave. But is nothing else added to it, to make tequila?
I’m kidding. Not all tequila has worms. And perhaps there are some brands of tequila that have other additives. I think that Biohazard’s suggestion would be an interesting experiment. You might want to mix some of it with straight grain alcohol though, otherwise the effect might not be as pronounced.
This could also be a tequila-induced migraine, accompanied by vomiting. As a migraine suffferer, I can tell you different kinds of booze affect me in different ways. Some kinds are almost guaranteed to give me a headache.
This is why I drank rum-and-tonics all summer. I can have them with absolutely no ill effects.
(For conoisseurs, I use Don Q crystal rum and add lime and a dash of bitters.)
Actually tequila is quite different than other liquors. It is included with other “natural” neurotransmitter mimickers such as marijuana and peyote. They actually fit into the receptors in your CNS (central nervous system) and produce euphoria in ways that alcohol can’t. The alcohol is just an added benefit…
Many people can’t handle tequila, whereas they might do fine with bourbon or some other alcohol.
My guess is your friend’s reaction is indeed attributable to the blue agave. I work as a chemical dependency counselor, and almost without exception, my alcoholic clients will tell me of severe adverse physical reactions they have had to tequila that they have not had with other types of alcohol. People often get disoriented, violent and extremely ill when they have ingested tequila… these are all typical of an allergic reaction. Of course, they are also signs of inebriation as well! But tequila seems to be particularly likely to produce these types of reactions in people, even “seasoned veterans” in the area of alcohol consumption.
That’s fascinating. I’ll have to look into this more. During grad school, I found I have an affinity for good tequila (sometimes I think it helped me get through grad school). I always wondered why drinking tequila made me feel different than, say, drinking vodka; I wasn’t sure if it was because we tended to have fun groups of people over for the tequila nights, or if I was just being subjective.
I am also amazed at the variety and range of quality of tequilas. The ones at $100+ per bottle are actually amazingly good, and make good sipping drinks. Most people are shocked to find that out…
… though probably not as shocked as having me post in a tequila thread.
