Really. Why do some people cannot hold their liquor and others cannot get drunk? Exactly what are the effective ways to deal with hangovers? Adam Rogers attempted to find the answers of these, and many more regarding alcoholic drinks.
I breezed through the fermentation and distillation parts quickly. What I did not realize was the role koji played in fermentation. Yeast turned sugar into alcohol, but it was koji that turned grains into sugar.
Other than that, the first three chapters explained what everyone knew, but in much more details: fermentation produced alcoholic drinks, distillation concentrated them, the aging process added more flavors and aromas. For thousands of years, civilizations experimented with these steps to produce drinks in vast quanitity.
But we clearly did not like the taste of alcohol, an irritant that burns and tastes both sweet and bitter. We liked getting drunk and tolerated the taste of alcohol for it. That’s why civilizations spent so much effort improving the taste — the whole cocktail, or mixology, culture.
Now the answers:
- Our liver metabolizes alcohol and generates a toxic by-product which has some inflammatory effects. Genetically, some people detox faster than others. Those who blush (mostly Asians) get drunk easier.
- There is no effective way to treat hangover what-so-ever. All the urban myths — hydrating, vitamin, fatty foods, the morning “pick-me-ups”, etc. — do not work. The same toxin that got us drunk must be metabolized and removed from the system and there is no proven way to get that done quicker. Sorry.
Oh, sugar clearly makes it worse. Avoid sweet drinks if you are getting drunk.
Chinese used Hovenia (枳椇å) to alleviate hangover for hundreds of years. The active ingredient is Dihydromyricetin. When you are drunk, take the tablet before you go to bed and after you wake up. There is also an herbal tea for this. - Micro-whiskey is a controversy. Storing whiskey in small barrels and using various techniques to speed up the aging process cannot really produce the real whiskey taste. However, they produced something different than the traditional Scottish whiskey flavors and some people like them.
- The award-winning Taiwan whiskey maker, Kavalan, aged its whiskey for much shorter time than traditional Scotland. They attributed to the warmer and humid climate. They hired Jim Swan — a legendary “barrel consultant” — who probably had few tricks up his sleeves.
Alcohol consumption is good for you if done in moderation (aren’t they all). To most people, that means two servings. Unfortunately, that’s also when you feel the best and want the joy to continue and order the 3rd serving. That’s OK. Just remember not to order the 4th one.