After a decade and a half spent bartending, Noam Orr believes he knows exactly where a night is headed depending on what drinks have been consumed and how.
I have more than 15 years’ experience mixing potions and delicious cocktails in some of Israel’s top bars and let me tell you, over time I have developed some very “interesting relationships” with the vast array of drinks that are available out there.
When I first started drinking, every drink or cocktail that I would knock back would take my night in a different direction with my adventures in and outside bars changing according to what I had been consuming that night. In the beginning, I thought that maybe it was only me that reacted differently to different drinks as I spent more time working behind the bar, I began to see a pattern emerge with my clients.
Soon I could predict how an evening would evolve with one of my regulars if he started off drinking wine or went straight for the tequila shots. I knew when someone was going to end the night by themselves or whether that was the night they’d get lucky and go home with someone under their arm, or whether it would all end up in one big fist fight.
Every bartender with a few years of experience can tell you that people who drink wine will inevitably be more relaxed and laid back when compared to people that are drinking tequila. People that drink vodka or gin are much better at keeping their libido in check as the night progresses as opposed to people that are drinking beer who tend to struggle to keep their sex drive under control the more pints they drink.
Turns out that my observations were not completely far-fetched and that there is actually some scientific proof to back up my thesis. In a survey that was made by researchers from the UK, 29,000 people from 21 countries between the ages 18-34 were asked about their drinking habits and how they reacted emotionally to different alcohols. Participants described their feelings after consuming different types of drinks choosing from a wide range of emotional states which included arousal, relaxation, self-confidence and a sexy feeling, as opposed to fatigue, restlessness, aggression or sadness. By and large, the results varied according to age and demographic but there were definitely signs that spirits drunk in a specific social setting tended to affect moods differently than for example wine or beer.
Based on my personal experiences, this is what different alcohols do to my emotions:
Beer- will lead to a night of long and emotional talks about life and its meaning
Gin- will make me feel sexy and the feeling that I can get any girl’s number(which usually does not happen )
- Rum- gives me the courage of a pirate and leads to unexpected adventures
- Vodka- half way into the night I will be pass out in the bathroom with no memory of what happened
- Tequila- I end up making crazy stupid decisions that often end up in me breaking some part of my body
- Whisky- makes me meet random people in the bar and make them my best friends for life
- Wine- makes me think about my past poor choices and the future and usually sends me to sleep crying
- Shots- the devil’s drink! When shots turn up I know that I am inevitably headed for a night full of mistakes!
