# Do you get dunk faster by drinking through the stir straw? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 4, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578 "2009-10-04T19:48:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578/1 "2009-10-04T19:48:48Z")
There is this persistent rumor at the neighborhood bar that ifyou drink your drink through the little stirrer you will get drunk faster. Is there any truth to this rumor? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578/2 "2009-10-04T19:50:52Z")
Have you been dinking through a straw tonight? ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578/3 "2009-10-04T20:16:02Z")
Why yes I have. But I started too early and did a few shots, so I can’t perform a scientific experiment at this point ---
**Author:** ![solarnator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@solarnator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solarnator)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578/4 "2009-10-04T20:22:40Z")
Physically, no. Psychologically, yes…if you believe it. Physically, your drinking the same amount of alcohol with or without the straw. If you don’t stir it and pour the alcohol first you can get drunk faster cause you drank the alcohol at the bottom first but per drink…your still consuming the same amount of alcohol per drink. Psychologically, you will THINK your getting drunker by the drink cause you believe you are (because you believe the rumor to be true). People have been given something to drink and because they BELIEVED it was an alcoholic drink started acting drunk. They were told it was an alcoholic drink so they acted like it. Once they were told the truth…they realized it was them and not the drink getting them to act drunk. The power of your mind is like that in some situations…don’t think you can fly tho, you will find out the truth once you hit the ground! ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578/5 "2009-10-04T21:17:00Z")
You will if the drink isn’t thoroughly mixed. the alcohol will be on the bottom in the above case. Also when ice melts it creates a layer of water on the top. The straw allows you to avoid mixing that melted water into the rest of the alcoholic drink. Get a new drink when the water layer is all that’s left. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578/6 "2009-10-04T21:29:06Z")
Seems impossible to me. The stir straw isn’t really designed for drinking through and I can’t imagine that, given the small bore of the straw, you could ingest your drink faster than by simply drinking it the usual way. OTOH I can imagine that using an actual drinking straw would be faster yet. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578/7 "2009-10-04T22:08:27Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Seems impossible to me. The stir straw isn’t really designed for drinking through and I can’t imagine that, given the small bore of the straw, you could ingest your drink faster than by simply drinking it the usual way. OTOH I can imagine that using an actual drinking straw would be faster yet. Booze _is_ absorbed by mouth mucosa, and while you hold it in your mouth there is also an opportunity to breath in the vapors. Otherwise alcohol has to hit the stomach and _mostly_ make it to the intestines before it is absorbed. That process is slowed by food in the stomach. With the right liquor strength, the right dwell time in the mouth, the right breathing rate, and a belly full of food there _might_ be a kinetic argument to be made for getting drunk faster by sipping, but it’d take a whole pile of measurements that no one really wants to make\* in order to prove it. * * * \*without a sufficiently large research grant ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-dunk-faster-by-drinking-through-the-stir-straw/512578/8 "2009-10-04T22:12:04Z")
Drinking through a straw usually means that you drink faster (probably not such an issue with shots, but with larger drinks). If you drink faster, it’s more likely you’ll drink more in a given time period.