Comments on: Holy grail discovered

Holy grail discovered

beagle — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:53:09 -0800

Booze that [allegedly] won't give you [as big] a hangover.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:11:11 -0800

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.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:12:46 -0800

It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it?

By: Dasein

Dasein — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:13:44 -0800

I don't understand, as The Whelk says, I thought it was about dehydration.

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:16:36 -0800

Or you could just drink some Bavarian beer.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:17:37 -0800

Couldn't you just drink less?

By: selenized

selenized — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:18:46 -0800

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.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:19:29 -0800

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!

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:19:53 -0800

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.

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:19:55 -0800

Mmmmm, I have a hard time imagining bubbly rye tastes too good, so I'll pass.

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:20:45 -0800

Couldn't you just drink less? But then you're less drunk, which is kind of the point of getting drunk.

By: poe

poe — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:22:00 -0800

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.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:23:00 -0800

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.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:23:26 -0800

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.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:23:55 -0800

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.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:25:54 -0800

and an oxygen mask. Real men use amyl nitrite.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:29:23 -0800

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.

By: Fiasco da Gama

Fiasco da Gama — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:30:40 -0800

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.

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:31:23 -0800

Ditching the acetaldehyde is key to ditching the hangover.

By: vapidave

vapidave — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:32:14 -0800

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.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:36:56 -0800

Couldn't you just drink less? Communist.

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:40:11 -0800

Grain alcohol with a pedialyte chaser. Either a hangover prevention strategy or a great way to get your child kicked out of nursery school...

By: netbros

netbros — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:41:40 -0800

For drunken, hangoverless, camping. Just don't get drunk on the summit of Everest.

By: Splunge

Splunge — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:42:35 -0800

Couldn't you just drink less? Hey now. No need to use that kind of language.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:46:16 -0800

Real men use amyl nitrite. Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:49:49 -0800

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.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:50:17 -0800

PBR and Amyl Nitrate, like I'm back on Bedford Ave.

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:51:52 -0800

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.

By: orme

orme — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:53:11 -0800

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!

By: qvantamon

qvantamon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:56:34 -0800

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.

By: qvantamon

qvantamon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:59:29 -0800

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!

By: tmcw

tmcw — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:12:00 -0800

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?

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:20:08 -0800

I have my doubts as well, but at least half of the fun of SCIENCE is the experiments!

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:36:45 -0800

32 comments in and no synthehol jokes? Where my Trekkies at?

By: DU

DU — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:38:24 -0800

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.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:58:46 -0800

Some of us like 'the vile stuff,' Ms. Nation.

By: DU

DU — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:01:37 -0800

By: phliar

phliar — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:05:00 -0800

I don't know that I'd call alcohol a foodstuff, but I certainly do like the taste.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:05:36 -0800

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.

By: DU

DU — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:12:49 -0800

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.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:15:20 -0800

DU, I like the taste of alcohol more than I like the effects.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:18:09 -0800

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.

By: ghharr

ghharr — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:23:48 -0800

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).

By: DU

DU — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:24:21 -0800

Yes, and if you truly appeciated vitamins, you wouldn't need vegetables. Then we are agreed.

By: unSane

unSane — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:49:46 -0800

DU, meet stick. No, that's the wrong end. No, seriously.

By: Neekee

Neekee — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:50:45 -0800

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!

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:53:42 -0800

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.

By: device55

device55 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:03:55 -0800

Where my Trekkies at? With Scotty, rocking the Saurian brandy

By: clearly

clearly — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:05:32 -0800

Hangover cure? Tequila shots.

By: lizarrd

lizarrd — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:10:23 -0800

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.

By: digsrus

digsrus — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:13:56 -0800

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.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:21:23 -0800

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!

By: Evangeline

Evangeline — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:21:27 -0800

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.

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:33:37 -0800

Oddly enough that Jinro soju pictured always gave me the WORST hangover when I lived in Korea.

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:38:43 -0800

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.

By: notsnot

notsnot — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:43:45 -0800

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.

By: jimmythefish

jimmythefish — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:45:10 -0800

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.

By: Evangeline

Evangeline — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:46:55 -0800

And some other cures. Liv.52? What the heck?

By: J-Train

J-Train — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:57:22 -0800

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).

By: Johnny Wallflower

Johnny Wallflower — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:18:04 -0800

Ditching the alcohol is key to ditching the hangover. Fixed that for you.

By: device55

device55 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:19:25 -0800

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.

By: at the crossroads

at the crossroads — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:50:03 -0800

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.

By: mazola

mazola — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:43:59 -0800

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.

By: bwg

bwg — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:27:43 -0800

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.

By: bwg

bwg — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:31:56 -0800

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?"

By: applemeat

applemeat — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:51:27 -0800

In conclusion, take your judgement and shove it up your ass.

By: unSane

unSane — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:22:31 -0800

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.

By: cmj

cmj — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:32:22 -0800

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.

By: quin

quin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:29:15 -0800

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!

By: FatherDagon

FatherDagon — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:02:21 -0800

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

By: Mike Brains

Mike Brains — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:58:01 -0800

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!

By: illy

illy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:58:39 -0800

If it doesn't hurt it's not real....

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:14:20 -0800

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.