A girl I know has recently turned 21 and, well, she has no idea how she is supposed to drink. I have heard how baby rattlesnakes are the deadliest because they will bite and not know when to let go, she seems to be the same with the booze. I do not think that is at all an alcoholic, she just doesn’t know what else to do aside from chugging it. Frankly I realized that since I don’t drink very often, or of that great variety, I really don’t know how either.
So, I was curious as to your opinions, traditions, rules, and ceremonies for drinking beer, wine, whiskey, brandy, etc.
Beer - on draught, by the pint, almost always with other men, accompanied by raucous laughter and general ridicule of all present - or occassionally a serious discussion which descends into mindless rambling. Worry if you’re drinking more than 2-3 pints an hour.
Wine - the only polite way to entertain. The endless ritual of topping up glasses is a social lubricant. Worry if the empty bottles outnumber the drinkers. Have a few nice beers or lagers available for those who can’t do without 
Whisky - when the mindless rambling induced by beer seems to be becoming a serious debate, and when the pub’s shutting, it’s time to head home and crack out a decent malt. Nobody’ll notice if you only take two sips all evening, because someone else will drink half a bottle. Do not drive the next day.
Cheap vodka, rum etc…only for newbies to drinking, mixed with coke etc, so they can combine slight drunkenness with a sugar rush. They may progress onto cheap lager.
Decent vodka, rum, brandy…only if you’re showing off 
What is she drinking? Rapid chugging is often the undergraduate’s way of dealing with cheap and vile alcohol. Maybe she needs to be introduced to some good-quality beer or wine that deserves to be sipped and savored.
Drinking a glass of water at the same time as the booze also helps slow down consumption and prevents hangovers.
My friends and I learned by doing just that - chugging it. After awhile you begin to learn that too much = bad. Not the best way to learn, but you learn to limit yourself. Except if you have the “gene”…, yeah.
To excess.
Drinking is very much a communal activitity. Don’t believe me? Get completely wasted in a group of people who are only sipping. Where does the fun go?
There is a time when everybody is sipping wine in a nice environment, and the conversation flows. Good drink, good food, good company.
Then there are the other times. When people are doing shot after shot and the beer flows like some sort of flowing thing. All that’s left is to try to piece together the last night with your friends and hope to god somebody didn’t videotape the whole thing.
Of course, I drink a lot, and don’t recommend it to other people (unless I’m drunk).
So here’s the secret to drinking. If you have a problem with it, don’t. If you don’t have a problem with it, drink in moderation and along with your friends. If your friends drink too much, and you don’t approve, stop. You are never going to miss out on the fun by hanging out and not drinking to excess. The fun’s still there, and you’ll be sober enough to remember it. And here’s a tip: Nobody cares if you don’t drink. They may proclaim loudly that they do, but they don’t. After a while, they won’t even notice. Remember, it’s all about enjoyment.
But if you’re like me, and drink drink drink, remember, the consequences will always be there in the morning. Prepare to inherit them.
There is an art to controlled inebriation. Sip, enjoying the flavor of something tasty, in a relaxed and controlled way, in good company. One drink generally takes me between 30 minutes and an hour to sip, but I’m a lightweight, and your mileage may vary.
The art is this: be aware of your sensations. When you reach your preferred level of drunkenness, your goal is to sip your drink in exactly the right amount to maintain the Ideal State without either becoming more or less drunk than you enjoy.
The second trick is to be aware of how long it will take you to become sober, and stop sipping at the appropriate time. For me, that’s two hours- again, I’m a lightweight, and others will respond differently.
Tis best not to do something at all if it has so many rules. Better question to ask is, Why are you supposed to drink? To lose inhibitions? And yet still have rules you must follow? Unless you fully plan to do a lot of damage that night, don’t start down that path at all, because moral struggles are no fun!
Get her on the Guinness, it’s an acquired taste, and a little too heavy to just sling back multiple pints, but my god is it good!
It takes roughly about an hour for a unit of alcohol to be processed by your liver.
A pint of normal beer, small glass of wine, most spirits is one unit, cider, strong beer, strong spirits or a large glass of wine is 2 units. (UK measures).
Girlies are generally recommended to drink no more than 2-3 units a day, max of 21 a week - men 3-4 a day, 28 a week. (NOT to be done all in one go (this is called binge drinking, and is really not good at all.))
It’s considered a good idea to not drink more than 6 units in any one sitting, but that of course depends on many factors including the length of the session, your tolerance, drinking habits and body size, and loads more.
Personally I blow all those figures out of the water, but then I do work in a pub and I’ve been drinking a good 6 pints a day for many many years! (however I’m rarely drunk, a little tipsey maybe)
Now, the ettiquette of drinking and rounds, there’s an art form…
Muad’Dib, your friend should pick one kind of alcohol and focus on learning to enjoy that. I’d suggest wine or beer. Drink it slowly. Try different brands of IPAs or Merlots to taste the difference. And when I say wine or beer, I don’t mean Arbor Mist or Bud Lite. Good booze doesn’t have to be expensive. You can get nice $8 bottles of wine and six-packs of locally brewed stuff.
Lots of inexperienced drinkers start out drinking “girly drinks,” sweet stuff with funny names. Big mistake. In the New York Times today, they quoted someone as saying, “Lots of alcohol plus lots of sugar will make you lots of sick.” Very true.
Regarding wine, it’s best to stay away from “table wines”, which are usually poor quality. Spend a couple more dollars and get wine with a legal territorial designation. For French and Italian wines, that means the label is marked “DOCG” or “Appellation Controlee” respectively. For German wine, look for the phrase ‘Qualitatswein’ or ‘Qualitatswein mit Predikaet’. I have rarely been disappointed with wine that passed this simple test, even if the bottle cost well under $10. And I have rarely been pleased with wine that doesn’t, for example the $14 French wine of which I bought two bottles by mistake, having assumed that at that price it was a regional wine.
For California wine the rule is less clearcut, as I’ve often found non-regional California wine that was very satisfactory.
Drinking water or sugar drinks DOES NOT in any way slow down the absorbtion of alcohol, it merely gives you something else to drink along with your alcohol so you don’t drink so fast. I assume this is what you meant, FP, but I wanted to make sure it’s perfectly clear.
One drink (12 oz beer, 4 oz wine (I think) or 1.5 oz hard liquor) takes 1 hour to process in an average sized person.
As for hangovers, by all means keep drinking water and lots of it. Your hangover will be nothing even close to what it would have been if you don’t. Hangover headaches are caused by dehydration (among other things) so water is of utmost importance to preventing the morning after sickness. I’ve found that high protein foods help as well.
Find out if she is drinking to become more intelligent or if she is drinking to be more attractive or a combination of both. Go from there.
Howard - A reformed whore.
Absolute nonsense. IMHO, obviously :D. Any typical italian restaurant will offer you ‘vino di casa’, which is invariably very good, and also fails every EU and national test. I’ve drunk plenty of filth that has an appellation tag.
Find somewhere with a decent waitor, and they’ll tell you what’s worth drinking.
I don’t have a great deal of luck with ordering unfamiliar wines in restaurants, anyway. My statement refers mainly to buying wine in shops, and in that context my method of choosing has served me quite well.
The alcohol content has to increase with each subsequent drink, otherwise you’ll get drunk very soon, and not feel too well. I.e. you should never drink vodka, and then beer.
If you like the alcohol buzz but not the flavor of the alcohol itself (mmmmm… solvent), I find that a sour mixer tends to kill the alcohol nastiness. Try a Greyhound (vodka and grapefruit juice) or a Gimlet (gin or vodka, a roughly equal measure of Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice and maybe a bit of club soda). The only non-sour mixer I’ve ever tried that covers up the nasty is Bawl’s. It tastes a bit like a creme soda and is also full of guarana.
How to Avoid a Hangover
Hangovers are caused largely by dehydration (alcohol stimulates the loss of water, hence crystal-clear beer pee) and toxin buildup.
So, have a glass of water every couple of drinks and have some nibbles.
If you feel like you’re going to puke, then get thee to the bathroom and puke, then STOP DRINKING. Puking is your body’s way of telling you “I don’t want any more of that stuff in my alimentary canal!”
Everything you could ever want to know on how to enjoy alcohol without making a complete ass out of yourself (plus tons of good drink recipes).
Something I’ve noticed is that sitting and drinking is much worse for you than doing stuff (dancing, going for a walk, bar-hopping etc) and drinking. For one thing, it means you drink less, and for another, the activity seems to get the booze pumping through (and out) of your system faster.
I find that if I’m sitting and drinking, I don’t feel drunk until I stand up, and then … wow. It can really sneak up on you.