Crimes Against Alcohol

[NulloModo]

Your body metabolizes alcohol before any other fuel source.

What is your basis for this?

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I have seen this quoted in a number of sources, but here is a site that explains it a bit:

http://www.foodcounts.org/Index.cfm?Method...es&Thread_ID=41

[Tengrain]

One of my sisters ordered a single-malt scotch and Diet Coke in front of my father, and I thought the man was going to disown her on the spot; he spent the rest of the meal just staring at her glass and shaking his head.

[easternsun]

things i see often:

ice cubes in red wine - is this something only japanese people do?

(they also chill reds)

stirring champagne with wooden chopsticks "to reduce the bubbles"

knowing that they frequently chill reds, i asked the staff at an upscale restaurant to serve a bottle of red that had not been chilled - they microwaved it! i wish i was kidding!

my own personal crimes:

i love a red eye (beer & tomato (or clamato if you are in canada)). fabulous hangover cure. yes, the raw egg is chock full of vitamins and protein!

this one is going to put me in the hall of shame:

girlie-friends nights out when we were all still single, our favourite shot to start the night was vodka, a little raspberry liquer and a few dashes of tabaso

[MarketStEl]

Any mixed drink that is designed to mask the taste of the alcohol.  If it doesn't at least taste a little bit like the liquor that fuels it, whats the point?

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So it's important that you taste the vodka?

[Tess]

So it's important that you taste the vodka?

I've been thinking about this. For me, yes, even with vodka, in a sense. That is, I don't care for drinks that taste like soft drinks or slush concealing alcohol. Why not just have the soft drink, unless you don't like alcohol but you're trying to get a buzz on?

It's not so much that the flavor of the vodka should predominate as that the drink should taste alcoholic and the alcohol should interact with (or potentiate) the flavor of the rest of the drink. The last vodka drink I made was vodka and Meyer lemon juice in a glass topped up with soda. You would not have mistaken that drink for plain lemonade.

Again, this is my personal taste.

[slkinsey]

Any mixed drink that is designed to mask the taste of the alcohol.  If it doesn't at least taste a little bit like the liquor that fuels it, whats the point?

So it's important that you taste the vodka?

Vodka has virtually no taste. Certainly not one that is capable of being detected in the presence of other ingredients with a strong taste. Flavor (not the same thing as taste) is comprised of several different sensory perceptions such as taste, smell, temperature, texture (aka "mouthfeel") and something called "common chemical sense." For a fuller explanation of flavor and a discussion of how it relates to vodka, see my post here. Suffice it to say that vodka has very little taste, and indeed very little flavor -- relying on texture and "finish" (common chemical sense) for most of its distinctiveness.

This is one reason that vodka is so commonly used in modern drinks: it adds alcoholic kick to just about any combination of flavors without bringing anything else to the table. This is the exact reason vodka is not highly favored by mixologists of the "new old school" with a more classical approach. This is one reason that using an expensive vodka in a Cosmopolitan is a "crime against alcohol." When you add vodka to a mixture of lime, cranberry and triple sec, all you're really doing is adding alcoholic kick. You can do this with just about anything, Take your favorite mix of fruit juices, maybe add a liqueur to sweeten it up, add plenty of vodka for alcoholic kick -- congratulations! you have created a popular new cocktail for the twentysomething set. If you use gin or rum instead, then you're adding flavor. Tess's remarks speak more to wanting to sense the presence of alcohol rather than tasting the vodka.