Poll a group of bar patrons and you'll probably find that they have reasons for choosing one liquor over another, and not all of them have to do with taste. Wayne Curtis at The Atlantic found that most people believe drinking different spirits causes them to behave differently, with tequila having an especially bad reputation. Is this true?
Curtis checked in with researchers and scoured scientific studies to find out if there is a physiological explanation for this common belief. Everyone he spoke with said no, that the ethanol in hard liquor is the same no matter what type of spirit you choose. (Wine, beer and liqueurs, however, may affect drinkers differently.)
A few studies looked at the trace elements in liquor, called congeners, which may affect our mood and behavior, but no conclusive studies have been made. The most logical explanation may be that we change how we drink depending on what we are drinking.
If a drinker slams tequila back in shots, then he'll get intoxicated faster than if he were gently sipping scotch. Presto: tequila gets a reputation. That leads to the issue of self-fulfilling prophecy. If people believe tequila makes them rowdier, they may opt for tequila when they want to be rowdy.
Read more: Does Tequila Make Us Crazy? at The Atlantic
What do you think? Does what you drink dictate your behavior or is it the other way around?
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Absolutely! Especially tequila is magical in so many ways. http://7th-taste.com/2011/10/17/tequila-flank-steak-with-ancho-lime-orange-with-malbec/
I remember seeing a tv program where they served non-alcoholic beer to one table at the Munich Octoberfest (without telling them). The table behaved exactly the same as the other tables that drunk normal beer and interviewed the patrons said that they were a little bit drunk like usual after drinking several beers and behaved accordingly. When told that actually they didn't drink any alcohol at all they didn't believe it.
So if people drink tequila and behave crazy it might just be because they know they drunk tequila (or believe they drunk tequila) not because they actually drunk tequila.
This is SO interesting. I've always thought vodka made me want to stay up late, tequila makes me more chilled out, etc. Sadly, all alcohol makes me feel I'm much more hilarious/better at dancing/brilliant and insightful than I actually am. Le sigh.
I've never noticed a difference in my behavior - just a difference in how I feel afterwards. I always assumed it had something to do with the sugars/quality of the liquor.
The researchers failed to take something important into consideration: digestion! While they are right that ethanol will always be ethanol, the way in which our body accepts the ethanol may cause very different effects.
For instance, beer causes gastric emptying, which is why following it with liquor tends to lead to trouble. More sugary beverages such as rum, cane liquor..etc. increase metabolic processes which leads to faster metabolism, as well as insulin spikes that might cause more energy.. etc. etc.
Rum will make me talk about all the things I would do to your sister and/or mother.
Some thoughts from spending time as an ethnographer studying why people drink: http://borrachica.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/por-que-estamos-volviendo-locos/
"Computers have enabled people to make more mistakes faster than almost any invention in history, with the possible exception of tequila and hand guns." - Mitch Ratcliffe
Tequila takes the rap again.
For whatever reason, if I do shots of tequila, it has less of an effect on me than if I drink a margarita. I've been trying to figure this one out for years. The only thing I can come up with is that maybe I alter my diet when I know I'm going to do shots versus when I'm drinking a margarita. And shots of tequila effect me less than shots of anything else. (On the plus side, shots of tequila gave me street cred with my male coworkers. What can I say? I'm a tequila girl. And it doesn't make me crazy.)
This reminds me of "The Perfect Cocktail" episode of How I Met Your Mother.