Alcohol guide for freshers

TSR Wiki > University > Student Life > Alcohol guide for freshers

Alcohol is an issue for a lot of people when they begin university. Many have not drunk much before, and others just wish to economise. TSR seems to have a page on student food for freshers, so I thought I'd write one on this more important issue. Whilst there are many people who don't drink, the vast majority do, so I hope this page will become a database of advice for people. --Musicbloke 22:29, 17 September 2008 (BST)

Ways people drink

What people drink often depends on the situation. These are a few 'categories' of drink with regard to strength and situation; for actual types of drink see below.

Most people will drink before getting to a club, since club prices will be high. Student bars (run by student unions) tend to be cheap as far as bars go, and are the best place if you like draught beer, but will still be more expensive than buying in supermarkets. That said, they tend to be good places to meet people, and pints can last a long time if you drink slowly. Spirits are best bought from supermarkets as all bars (even student ones) inflate the price massively.

Served

Pints - a pint is 568ml under the UK system, and less than that in US measures. Pints (half-pints are also available) are most commonly drunk in pubs, but also sometimes in restaurants or bars. They're unlikely to be found in clubs, since they're heavy and easy to spill.

Wine glasses - pretty obviously, wine is drunk by itself in wine glasses; you'll find these in pretty much any venue. Normally, you can either ask for a small glass (~175ml) or a large glass (~250ml).

Shots - a small measure (around 25ml) of a strong spirit by itself. These are drunk in one go, mostly before or during a night out. 'Shooters' are the shot equivalent of cocktails, usually made with brightly coloured liqueurs layered to look pretty.

Straight spirit - the same quantity of alcohol as a shot (might be a double), but in a short tumbler, and meant to be sipped rather than downed. 'On the rocks' means with ice, which cools and slightly dilutes the spirit (a good thing).

Spirit/mixer - also known as a 'long drink', these consist of one or two measures (a 'single' or 'double') of a spirit, topped up with a non-alcoholic drink, usually either fruit juice or a soft drink, with ice. Some long drinks tend to come with a slice of lemon or lime (lemon with coke, ginger beer, lemonade; lime with cranberry, diet coke; there are battles fought about what goes best with tonic water).

Bomb - most commonly seen as a Jägerbomb (Jägermeister and Red Bull), this is a shot dropped into a non-alcoholic drink, but short enough that it can be downed in one. There is an opinion which says that alcohol (a depressant) and caffeine (a stimulant) can be dangerous together, but the proportion of the student population that is still alive suggests you won't be in any immediate danger.

Cocktail - this is an entire world which can't be summarised easily. Cocktails include pretty much everything with more than one spirit in it, and a few that are really just long drinks. As a rule of thumb, drinks in Y-shaped martini glasses are very strong, drinks in tumblers are a bit less strong, drinks in tall glasses (including the funky 'hurricane' glasses) are less strong than that. A cocktail menu should list the ingredients of each drink, so pick things that sound tasty, and aim to try new things. Cocktails are generally fairly expensive.

A note on ordering

Most pubs/bars/clubs will have house spirits and wines, so rather than asking for a specific brand you can just say 'vodka' or 'white wine' and get their cheapest. If you want a higher-end spirit or a different wine from the list name it ('Grey Goose' or 'the Sauvignon Blanc'). If you're ordering beer or cider you'll be expected to name the type; you'll generally be able to see what they have on the taps at the bar or in the bottle fridge behind it.

Bought

Wine - generally the cheapest way to get drunk. Alternatively, good wine can still be affordable, but can be brought for dinner to seem much classier.

Spirit/mixer - buy a bottle of spirit and a (larger) bottle of mixer. Allows you to change the strength of each drink if you need to.

'Cider' - available cheaply in very large bottles, blamed for encouraging binge drinking; can be even cheaper than wine (but will probably taste much worse).

Types of drink

The following is a very brief overview of different drinks and what to expect with them. Drinks are actually fairly interesting when you get into them, but this is not what this article is about.

'Pints'

Beer - different types exist, with lager being the most popular (and usually the cheapest), and what you'll most often see on tap in pubs. Other types include ales, bitters and draughts, and they taste fairly different, but are generally all made from some kind of fermented grain. Stronger beers come to around 5% ABV and the weaker ones are around 3.5% (you can also get alcohol-free beer, which is alcohol-free). Lager with lemonade in equal proportions is called a shandy.

Cider - made from fermented apples, often available on tap in pubs. Generally a more 'user-friendly' flavour than beer, and around the same strength (or at the higher end of the beer range). There are a variety of extremely cheap 'ciders' available in huge bottles that taste horrible and are (fairly enough) blamed for quite a lot of binge drinking. There are also much more expensive quality ciders, as well as a variety of flavoured ciders, pear being the most common ('perry' is a similar drink made from pears, but pear cider is made from apples and then flavoured, at least in theory), with others approaching the realms of alcoholic Ribena.

Wine & Relatives

Wine - comes in red, white and rosé (pink), all made from grapes. Red should be drunk around room temperature, the others should be chilled (but not too much, or you won't taste them). Can be dry, sweet, or somewhere in the middle (known generally as 'medium'); in a pub there might not be a choice of wines, whereas in a restaurant there probably will be. If you want to sound like you know wine when talking about it, there are three important bits of information about a given bottle: grape, country and year. You might not know anything about it at all, but telling people "it's a 2009 Spanish Tempranillo" will give the required impression. Even better if you remember that you actually like Tempranillos (or can pronounce the Spanish). Alcohol ranges from 7-14% ABV; white wine with equal part sparkling water (or sometimes lemonade) is called a spritzer.

Sparkling wine - (almost always) white or rosé wine, but sparkling. If it's made in a specific region of France it's called champagne, in a specific region of Italy it's prosecco, in a specific region of Spain it's cava, but they're all sparkling wine. Prosecco is generally a little bit sweeter than champagne, although any sparkling wine can range from sweet (demisec) through to dry (brut). Similar strength to wine, although some people say the bubbles will make you feel the alcohol faster.

Dessert wine - usually white, this is sweet and towards the top end of the alcohol range for wine. Drunk in minature wine glasses, if you have them.

Fortified wine - this includes sherry (usually white), port (usually red) and a few others; they're sweet wines that have been made stronger (around 20%) by the addition of a spirit, usually brandy. They're quite traditional, although port has found its way into various weird cocktails more recently. Traditionally sherry comes before the meal and port afterwards. In a formal meal the port comes in decanters which are passed strictly to the left, and there are all sorts of rules which will vary depending on the dinner in question. Vermouth is an aromatisised fortified wine, which means it has a variety of herbs added to it to produce a unique flavour. It's traditionally an aperitif (before the meal), but now is more commonly found in some classic cocktails.

Spirits

Obviously the following is nothing like exhaustive, but should include everything you're likely to come across without searching.

Vodka - neutral-tasting spirit used either for shots or in mixed drinks. There are premium brands that can be very expensive, but anything that's not crazily cheap (ie supermarket brand) will be palatable. Generally 40%.

Gin - clear spirit flavoured with juniper and herbs, giving it a unique flavour which some enjoy and others don't. Most commonly drunk with tonic water or in cocktails, it's also not bad with cranberry juice (providing you like it to begin with). Around 40%.

Rum - can be light (clear), golden, dark or spiced, made from sugar cane. Spiced rum will be a bit sweeter, often with vanilla flavours. Found as shots or in mixed drinks. Around 40%.

Tequila - Mexican spirit made from agave (kind of cactus), has a very distinctive flavour. It's found in some cocktails, but most commonly taken as shots, which for those in a theatrical mood also involve salt and a slice of lemon. Remember the phrase "lick, sip, suck": lick the salt, drink the shot, suck the slice of lemon. There's a variant that involves snorting and damaging your eyes, but we won't go into that here. Around 40%.

Whisk(e)y - spirit distilled from grains, there are a few varieties. Scotch whisky (no 'e') is made in Scotland, and will either be a blend (made from the products of many stills and mixed to produce a certain variety) or a single malt, which some consider to be the finest drink in existence. Single malts will have strange Scottish names, and connoisseurs can taste what the area was like from the whisky. Drink good whiskey straight, or with a few drops of spring water; asking for a single malt with coke might offend the bartenders. There are also Irish whiskeys, which people tend to be less snobbish about. Outside the British Isles the most popular drinks are Bourbon, made in Kentucky, and the closely related Tenessee whiskey, which includes Jack Daniels. Canadian whiskeys feature in quite a few cocktails, and Japanese whiskeys are apparently the new big thing in the industry. The rule of thumb is not to risk anything too expensive if you want it with a mixer. Around 40%.

Brandy - spirit distilled from wine, traditionally drunk in a balloon shaped glass to warm the spirit and catch the smell. Brandy made in a certain region of France is called cognac. There are a variety of spirits with fruit flavours that are sometimes called brandy, the most prominent being Calvados, which is made from apples. If you're going to have brandy with a mixer, pick a cheap brand. Around 40%.

Liqueurs - a liqueur (not to be confused with 'liquor', which is an Americanism for things containing alcohol) is a drink made from alcohol, some kind of flavour, and sugar. Examples include amaretto (almond flavour, although actually made from apricot pits), sambucca (aniseed flavour), limoncello (lemon), Chambord (black raspberry), creme de menthe (mint, and if you know French there are 'cremes de' for pretty much anything), Bailey's (coffee, chocolate, cream), Jägermeister (herbs) and many, many others. Some are best taken as shots, others might be better in mixed drinks. Alcohol content could be anything from 20-50%.

Alcopops

These are mixed drinks, normally based on vodka or rum, with strong sweet flavourings. They're not usually very strong, around 4-5%, but it can be easy to drink more than you intend since the alcohol becomes virtually tasteless.

Non-alcoholic drinks

You probably know about most of these already, but do remember that you are still allowed to have non-alcoholic drinks; some of them even taste quite nice. Drinking a pint or so of water before you go to bed is the best way to avoid getting a hangover after you've been drinking. You should always be able to receive free tap water in places that serve alcohol.

Drinking issues

"I've never drunk before"

Just be careful. Your tolerance won't be great, and you'll get pissed quickly. Make sure to eat something before going out; you won't get drunk as quickly and are less likely to throw up. Don't be pressured into drinking more than you want to, and start slowly. If you want to 'fake drink', a coke or orange juice is indistinguishable in the glass from a vodka/coke or vodka/orange. If you don't feel like drinking then don't. There will be plenty of other great people at the Freshers' Week who won't be drinking, so you won't be alone, and you are allowed to dance/chat people up/have fun without being drunk.

"I've drunk too much"

Drink water and plenty of it. Do not take paracetamol (risk of liver damage together with alcohol); if you need painkillers, ibuprofen is a better option. If you feel like throwing up then do it at night, as evening vomit is much more pleasant than morning vomit. Open the windows in your room to get fresh air. Try to get some sleep and don't plan anything for before midday the next day. When you wake up, eat something proteinous (this doesn't mean raw eggs unless you're in the 1930's and have it with Worcestershire sauce). An excellent drink to have is orange juice with a tablespoon of lemon juice, bit of honey and an effervescent vitamin tablet, great for replacing all the good things you threw up. However if in the morning your stomach feels too odd to eat to much for fear of being sick I find very slowly eating a plain piece of bread and slowly drinking something very sweet and carbonated will help to settle your stomach. A recent scientific study showed that the best food to eat the morning after a night of heavy drinking is toast and honey. However, there have been many studies all showing different things. You may hear people refer to a method called 'hair of the dog'. This means avoiding the symptoms of a hangover by just having more to drink. This is not a good idea though, as if used regularly it can lead to alcoholism. Also, you are not 'curing' the inevitable ill effects of a hangover - simply delaying them. You will feel them eventually, and if you have been drinking the morning after, they will be worse as well.

"I did something stupid"

Regret it and wait for the embarrassing photos (or for the relationship status change request) to appear on Facebook. Actually, chances are, no-one will remember. Don't worry too much. Freshers' Week is for doing stupid stuff, and at least you'll have a story for the bar the next night.

Final advice

Experiment with different drinks and figure out what you like. For pretty much any category of drink (bar alcopops) you can get high-quality versions that make everything a little classier. Buying yourself a bottle of something decent and inviting people round is a quick way to make friends and to pass the time if no-one has anything to do, or the bars have already closed and you don't feel like clubbing.

Remember, just because everyone else is drinking, if you don't want to it doesn't mean you have to. If your ethos does not extend to getting drunk, don't allow peer pressure to force it upon you. Equally important but less often stated, you should remember that just because everyone else isn't drinking, doesn't mean you can't. People might stop hanging out with you or bitch about you or whatever, but if they're not douchebags they will be cool about it. The same applies to the specific drink: just because everyone around you is drinking one thing, doesn't mean you have to like it, and if you don't like something, you shouldn't force yourself to drink it. Try as many different beers as you can - sensibly, of course - until you find a type you like. Sometimes this will mean trying new pubs. Try "real ales". You'll tend to find these on the traditional hand pumps, and the staff at a pub with a good range will often be pretty knowledgable: don't be afraid to ask.

This applies to many things in life.