Holy grail discovered
March 2, 2010 3:53 PM   Subscribe

 
Hangovers ceom from dehydration and impurities. Drinking lots of water with a very pure vodka will keep you from getitng a hangover. SKYY is supposed to be super-pure, and it's inventor came from the Cooper Union so there is that.

Still the Metric of "don't drink so much, don't feel awful" still stands.
posted by The Whelk at 4:11 PM on March 2, 2010


It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it?
posted by dhartung at 4:12 PM on March 2, 2010 [12 favorites]


Or you could just drink some Bavarian beer.
posted by nitsuj at 4:16 PM on March 2, 2010


Couldn't you just drink less?
posted by octothorpe at 4:17 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


People who drank oxygenated booze had less severe and fewer hangovers than people who drank the non-fizzy stuff.

I wonder how far I can get at home with a bottle of gin and an oxygen mask.
posted by selenized at 4:18 PM on March 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


I have not heard of this 02 Lin oxygenated soju stuff, and even though I'm not all that fond of the soj' (mostly because of the hangovers, in fact) if it's available at my local shop here in Korea, I will try it this weekend and report back.

FOR SCIENCE!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:19 PM on March 2, 2010 [10 favorites]


The last time I drank half a glass of cider, followed by two or three cups of water, I woke up feeling utterly miserable. For those of us on the low end of the alcohol tolerance spectrum, this might be a welcome development.
posted by Jeanne at 4:19 PM on March 2, 2010


Mmmmm, I have a hard time imagining bubbly rye tastes too good, so I'll pass.
posted by nathancaswell at 4:19 PM on March 2, 2010


Couldn't you just drink less?

But then you're less drunk, which is kind of the point of getting drunk.
posted by nathancaswell at 4:20 PM on March 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


I volunteered for 5 years as an EMT (isn't that kind of like volunteer pilot?) and the two guaranteed hangover cures were O2 and saline.

If you were particularly hurt you would hit both. It only took about 30 minutes to get back to feeling 100%.

Having said that, I'm a little hesitant about just oxygenating things for fun.

My finding in recent years has been that I can have twice as much fun drinking about half as much booze as I used to.
posted by poe at 4:22 PM on March 2, 2010


Heard a podcast today that recommended flavored vodkas + soda water = hangover-resistant drinking. Thought that was an interesting idea that I tried and ohmigawd I'm on the floor and I've pissed myself help.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:23 PM on March 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


I wonder how far I can get at home with a bottle of gin and an oxygen mask.

With or without your walker? THe old guys I used to see on the street corner seemed to get pretty far with a gin+oxygen canister+walker combination.
posted by GuyZero at 4:23 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I've had some of that. Partner brought an unfinished bottle home from a night out and left it lying around so of course I snaffled it. Didn't know what it was so didn't drink much and had it with water thinking it was going to be like Chinese baijiu so the fact i didn't have a hangover doesn't prove much.
posted by Abiezer at 4:23 PM on March 2, 2010


and an oxygen mask.

Real men use amyl nitrite.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:25 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I volunteered for 5 years as an EMT (isn't that kind of like volunteer pilot?) and the two guaranteed hangover cures were O2 and saline.

EMTs have the *best* parties and oh the saline cure is ...surprisingly effective but you've got to be drunk enough to consider it and if you ARE that drunk, you need it.


Real men use amyl nitrite.

Always reminds me of the dentist in the worst way, for some reason. Too much like blacking out to be any fun.
posted by The Whelk at 4:29 PM on March 2, 2010


This is interesting research but a terrible, terrible idea. Drink less, drink water, or whatever, if you want. But there's a strict etiquette, I feel, to the morning after the night before.

When you wake up with a mouth of cotton, a stomach of butter and a head made of pure pain, you should relish the experience. You worked hard for it, and every remorseful tear you shed was paid for in alcohol that you know tasted and felt good at the time.

You should raise your fist to the morning, punch proudly through the hours of discomfort as best you can, and look in the bathroom mirror at your reflection, with your chin held high and say, like I do:

I'm Fiasco da Gama. I'm hungover. And I earned it.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:30 PM on March 2, 2010 [9 favorites]


Ditching the acetaldehyde is key to ditching the hangover.
posted by infinitewindow at 4:31 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I think that this product will only be on the market until the first person with a lit cigarette opens a shaken bottle. So put me down for a case.
posted by vapidave at 4:32 PM on March 2, 2010


Couldn't you just drink less?

Communist.
posted by jonmc at 4:36 PM on March 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Grain alcohol with a pedialyte chaser. Either a hangover prevention strategy or a great way to get your child kicked out of nursery school...
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 4:40 PM on March 2, 2010


For drunken, hangoverless, camping. Just don't get drunk on the summit of Everest.
posted by netbros at 4:41 PM on March 2, 2010


Couldn't you just drink less?

Hey now. No need to use that kind of language.
posted by Splunge at 4:42 PM on March 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Real men use amyl nitrite.

Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:46 PM on March 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


jonmc: "Couldn't you just drink less?
Communist.
"

All the communists that I've known could drink me under the table without even trying hard.
posted by octothorpe at 4:49 PM on March 2, 2010


PBR and Amyl Nitrate, like I'm back on Bedford Ave.
posted by The Whelk at 4:50 PM on March 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Crappy pop science writing strikes again. The difference in the two sobering times after 4 to 6 hours is 20 to 30 minutes. No standard deviations, no p values and no chance to be statistically significant. People's metabolism vary too much. And it says they measured until alcohol levels went down to 0.000%. Um, no. Once below zero order metabolism alcohol will disappear by half-lives. 0.000% will (theoretically) never be achieved. And I'm not just being snarky about that last point. A measurable quantity will be there long after six hours. And 0.000% alcohol is not the same as sobering.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:51 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


A couple scoops of Oxi Clean in your drink will do the trick. It'll also clean the heck out of whatever you vomit on.


My liver has never been so white!
posted by orme at 4:53 PM on March 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Most non-boozy stuff tastes like shit when oxidized (wine, beer).

Or you could just drink some Bavarian beer.

Reinheitsgebot beer can still have tannins. Barley hulls are full of tannins, and depending on the malt roast, those all end up on the beer. Anyone who got a red wine hangover will tell you how fun tannin hangovers are.
posted by qvantamon at 4:56 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


A couple scoops of Oxi Clean in your drink will do the trick.

The last thing I need when waking up with a hangover is BILLY MAYS HERE! INSIDE YOUR HEAD!
posted by qvantamon at 4:59 PM on March 2, 2010 [13 favorites]


Does a screenshot of an excel spreadsheet, product placement, and no mention of sample size and a give you the same raw feeling of scientific integrity that it gives me?
posted by tmcw at 5:12 PM on March 2, 2010


I have my doubts as well, but at least half of the fun of SCIENCE is the experiments!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:20 PM on March 2, 2010


32 comments in and no synthehol jokes? Where my Trekkies at?
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:36 PM on March 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Couldn't you just drink less?

There's an even better cure than this: Don't drink at all. Not only a guaranteed cure for hangovers but also keeps you from having to taste the vile stuff.
posted by DU at 5:38 PM on March 2, 2010


Some of us like 'the vile stuff,' Ms. Nation.
posted by jonmc at 5:58 PM on March 2, 2010


I've never heard a single person honestly say they actually like the taste of alcohol. They like the effects and culture and combinations of other flavorings with other foods. But alcohol itself as a foodstuff? No.
posted by DU at 6:01 PM on March 2, 2010


I don't know that I'd call alcohol a foodstuff, but I certainly do like the taste.
posted by phliar at 6:05 PM on March 2, 2010


So...all those books about appreciating beer, wine and whiskey...pure fantasy?

Don't get me wrong, it really breaks my fat old heart that you disapprove, but don't be ridiculous.
posted by jonmc at 6:05 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


So...all those books about appreciating beer, wine and whiskey...pure fantasy?

If what you were appreciating were the alcohol, you wouldn't need the hops, grapes and barley.
posted by DU at 6:12 PM on March 2, 2010


DU, I like the taste of alcohol more than I like the effects.
posted by octothorpe at 6:15 PM on March 2, 2010


If what you were appreciating were the alcohol, you wouldn't need the hops, grapes and barley.

Yes, and if you truly appeciated vitamins, you wouldn't need vegetables.
posted by jonmc at 6:18 PM on March 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


Agreed on saline being great, the one time I was drunk enough to end up in the hospital I felt great the next day (aside from the stitches in my head and the bruises and swelling on my knees).
posted by ghharr at 6:23 PM on March 2, 2010


Yes, and if you truly appeciated vitamins, you wouldn't need vegetables.

Then we are agreed.
posted by DU at 6:24 PM on March 2, 2010


DU, meet stick. No, that's the wrong end. No, seriously.
posted by unSane at 6:49 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I've never heard a single person honestly say they actually like the taste of alcohol.

Pure alcohol, no. But the taste of a fine wine or a good beer? Heck yeah, they're delicious! Give me a non-alcoholic version that's just as tasty and I'd drink it all the time!
posted by Neekee at 6:50 PM on March 2, 2010


The closest thing to pure alcohol I've ever had, Everclear from Hyder Alaska, at 190 proof (95% alcohol) TASTED LIKE BURNING.

But man, it did the job.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:53 PM on March 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Where my Trekkies at?

With Scotty, rocking the Saurian brandy
posted by device55 at 7:03 PM on March 2, 2010


Hangover cure? Tequila shots.
posted by clearly at 7:05 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I love the taste of rum specifically sipping rums. Same for whiskeys. I also have this fondness for shots of 151, blame my dad. So...yeah. I mean I love the effects too don't get me wrong, but yeah some of do like the taste, sir.
posted by lizarrd at 7:10 PM on March 2, 2010


I've never heard a single person honestly say they actually like the taste of alcohol.

I have to agree that people behave in mysterious ways. I've never heard a single person honestly say they actually like the taste of pussy. But, with no nutritive foodstuff value, they keep eating it. I just don't get it.
posted by digsrus at 7:13 PM on March 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


I've never heard a single person honestly say they actually like the taste of pussy. But, with no nutritive foodstuff value, they keep eating it. I just don't get it.

Best diet ever!
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:21 PM on March 2, 2010


I've never heard a single person honestly say they actually like the taste of alcohol.

I've liked beer ever since my daddy let me sip it from the rim of his Budweiser can when I was a little girl.

And that was Budweiser, so you can imagine how much I like really good beer now.
posted by Evangeline at 7:21 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oddly enough that Jinro soju pictured always gave me the WORST hangover when I lived in Korea.
posted by Brittanie at 7:33 PM on March 2, 2010


There's an even better cure than this: Don't drink at all. Not only a guaranteed cure for hangovers but also keeps you from having to taste the vile stuff.

and

I've never heard a single person honestly say they actually like the taste of alcohol.

I've drank a glass of whiskey that had been left untouched for a day or two until most of the alcohol had evaporated. I suspect others here have done the same. It has all the flavor of whiskey but without the taste of the alcohol. It doesn't taste correct, or good.

In conclusion, take your judgement and shove it up your ass.
posted by nathancaswell at 7:38 PM on March 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


I got some moonshine from a student (I was teaching a math class for the Chrysler plant; the student was 50-something). Roughly 180 proof. I certainly can't chug it, but nips of that stuff are *good*.

There's also a bit of an expensive-tequila finish. I'm told it's because there's potatoes in the mash.
posted by notsnot at 7:43 PM on March 2, 2010


The absolute best hangover cure is exercise, which would support the oxygen claim. It feels horrible the first 5 minutes or so, but even just a 30 minute jog will cure the worst hangover. All that's left is feeling tired. The nap afterwards alone is worth it.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:45 PM on March 2, 2010


And some other cures.

Liv.52? What the heck?
posted by Evangeline at 7:46 PM on March 2, 2010


DU, all the delicious smells that make whiskies, wines, and all the rest taste so wonderful are due to the aromatization caused by the alcohol.

Saying that no one actually likes the taste of pure alcohol is meaningless. If you like the taste of, say, wine, you like the taste of alcohol; the two things are completely inseparable. There're really no such things as non-alcoholic wines, much less non-alcoholic whiskies, because those are contradictions in terms.

Regardless, it is possible to like the taste of alcohol itself. I don't just like whisky. I like the way it burns my mouth if I let a sip mull around in my mouth for a minute or two before swallowing. Sometimes a glass of icy cold vodka is refreshing in its fiery stillness. I prefer strong beers to weaker ones because of the effect the alcohol has on its taste (on the other hand, I prefer wines under 14% alcohol because greater concentrations of alcohol tends to overwhelm wine).
posted by J-Train at 7:57 PM on March 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Ditching the alcohol is key to ditching the hangover.

Fixed that for you.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:18 PM on March 2, 2010


Very pure alcohol is surprisingly sweet-like

I toured a tequila distillery in, well, Tequila and got to sample some of the stuff off the fermentation tank before it is diluted and bottled, or barreled and aged.

It was better than 60% alcohol. They pulled a sample from the drum, poured into a small snifter and passed it around for everyone to try.

Just a sip barely touched my tongue before it seemed to evaporate and fill my head with a sweet aroma. Did not burn even one little bit.

Alcohol, as J-train mentioned, is a solvent and breaks down some chemicals such that aromas and flavors that would be undetectable in water are released to party.

In this way alcohol is much like salt. Salt, in water, dissolves into ions (charged molecules). The electrical properties help the nerve endings in your taste buds pick up flavors. Salt by itself is just salt. Salt with crinkly skinned roasted potatoes is heaven.

Very pure alcoholic beverages with little or no 'flavor', like vodka, are traditionally consumed with foods. One would take a bite of pickle, have some vodka. Take a bite of egg, have some vodka. Take a bite of fish, have some vodka. In combination, magic happens.
posted by device55 at 8:19 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Instead of drinking, you could just try Pepsi Purple
featured in Conan O'Brien monologue, yunnoh, the opposite of Red Bull :
Drank: Slow Your Roll.

It's like The Stuff. You eat it and you keep on eating it.
posted by at the crossroads at 8:50 PM on March 2, 2010


I've never heard a single person honestly say they actually like the taste of alcohol. They like the effects and culture and combinations of other flavorings with other foods. But alcohol itself as a foodstuff? No.

Me likey the taste to enhance foodstuffs. You have obviously never cooked w/Marsala, sake, any number of wines, tequila, bourbon...

The booze even has the good sense to cook itself out.
posted by mazola at 9:43 PM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Just don't get drunk on the summit of Everest.

Stay up there too long and you won't need to get drunk; cerebral edema will make you loopy as Hell.

And then kill you.
posted by bwg at 3:27 AM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


With Scotty, rocking the Saurian brandy.

McCoy: "That's right, and in this derivative, mixed with alcohol it merely deadens certain nerve inputs to the brain."

Scotty: "Oh, well, any decent blend of Scotch'll do that."

McCoy: "Oh? Well, one good slug of this, and you could hit a man with phaser stun, and he'd never feel it, or even know it."

Scotty: "Does it make a good mix with Scotch?"
posted by bwg at 3:31 AM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


In conclusion, take your judgement and shove it up your ass.
posted by applemeat at 4:51 AM on March 3, 2010


I wish the cure for a hangover was exercise; it isn't. I say that as someone who has many times mountainbiked furiously in an attempt to shake one off. It never works.
posted by unSane at 5:22 AM on March 3, 2010


I was a lifeguard for a couple of summers and it was well known amongst the staff that the only reason we needed an oxygen tank was to cure hangovers before going up in the stand.
posted by cmj at 6:32 AM on March 3, 2010


There is an alternative cure that almost no one ever considers: don't ever sober up! It's a bit expensive, getting places can be a pain, and you'll quickly alienate yourself from work, friends, and family, but on the plus side, no hangover!
posted by quin at 8:29 AM on March 3, 2010


Drank: Slow Your Roll

Holy SHIT, 'purple drank' is now an actual thing? And not just a name for dranks which happen to be purple? That's like coming out with a brand of liquor just called 'Rail'.

And yes, I had to google to check and see if there was an actual liquor called 'Rail', just in case. There is not, as of yet... I smell an opportunity. "Don't just drink rail... drink Rail."

the word rail really starts to sound funny after a while
posted by FatherDagon at 12:02 PM on March 3, 2010


we all pretty much know, drinking at least a pint of water before you go to sleep after a night or day of drinking will help stop that annoying hangover from getting you down in the morning!
posted by Mike Brains at 6:58 AM on March 4, 2010


If it doesn't hurt it's not real....
posted by illy at 6:58 AM on March 4, 2010


Sadly, I could not find any of the 02 stuff, so it was Friday beer as usual last night.

And I am, predictably, pretty hungover. Ah well.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:14 PM on March 5, 2010


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