A Tall, Dark, Handsome Headache

zaca    hangovers     dark and light liquor

Baby, it don’t matter if you’re black or white, unless you are alcohol and I am the next morning.

The deliciously tall, dark, sexy beverages like red wine, bourbon, and brandy owe their rich, bold color to congeners, impurities produced as a by-product of fermentation.  While congeners produce the fine aromas and tastes to the rich bodies of dark liquors, they are also liable for the more undesirable attributes to alcohol, such as hangovers.

Acetone, more popularly associated with nail polish remover, acetaldehyde, the key culprit in liver damage from alcohol abuse, and tannins, which give red wine it’s astringently dry pucker, are just a few of the chemicals more present in dark colored alcohol.  Lighter liquors, like gin and vodka, contain less of these impurities, and as a result reportedly result in less uncomfortable hangovers.  The lack of congeners in such liquors is also why historically vodka and gin have been appraised for their “mask-ability,” leaving little smell on the breath and easily disguised in mixed drinks.  This difference is mainly attributed to the distilling process, as clear liquors will be distilled sometimes multiple times to strip these impurities, where darker liquors do not face such a dramatic distilling process, since congeners are a key facet in determining taste.

But the tale of the congener isn’t the whole story when it comes to alcohol consumption and hangovers.  According to a study conducted by Boston university, after sending 95 men and women on an alcohol binge until their blood alcohol content reached .11, the participants who had been given bourbon, which contains 37 times the congeners of vodka, had reported feeling a whole lot worse.  Before you resign to a vodka only diet and assume you can drink 3 shots of gin per every one shot of bourbon in an evening, take note that all participants when tested on daily tasks had the same level of impairment the next morning when their blood alcohol level returned to 0.0.

So next time you plan on going on a party spree the night before a nine-to-five at the office, keep in mind impairment is inevitable, no matter how you pick your poison.  Because alcohol is a diuretic, dehydration is the key factor, and when alcohol is consumed in a fashion higher than the standards of moderation, everyone is culpable for a hangover.

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