Beware: bubbles will get you drunk faster
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: Bubbles make you drunk faster.
Finally, it has been scientifically proven: champagne makes you drunk faster than an ordinary chardonnay. The research was conducted at two university parties – very scientific. Why the bubbles hit harder and faster has not yet been established.
Are you invited to a party by Dr. Fran Ridout? It’s probably a test. The researcher at the University of Surrey in Guildford threw a party for colleagues. Not just for fun, but also to investigate whether you get drunker from sparkling wine, such as of champagne and prosecco, than from the same wine without bubbles.
Bubbles knocked out
Half of the partygoers received two glasses of prosecco, the other half received the same wine, but the scientists had removed the bubbles by vigorously whipping it with a whisk. The amount of drink was adjusted according to the height and weight of the partygoers. The following week, there was another party, but the groups of partygoers were switched: the group that had to drink flat champagne then received a decent glass of bubbles. And what turned out? People who drank sparkling wine had a higher blood alcohol level than those who had to drink the wine without bubbles. The bubble drinkers also felt more of the alcohol: after the second glass, they had trouble solving simple puzzles.
Through the stomach to your head
The researchers cannot fully explain why you get drunk faster and more from carbon dioxide. Normally, part of the alcohol from a party enters your blood through your stomach wall, the rest goes through the intestines. But perhaps it is absorbed more through the stomach due to the carbon dioxide in the drink. It is still not entirely clear.
However, the scientists have a tip: from now on, drink champagne and other sparkling wines from a coupe, not from a flute. In a coupe, the carbon dioxide lingers less long, so you get less drunk from it.
