Bourbon Gives You Worse Hangovers
I don’t exactly know why this study out of Brown University is getting so much press, aside from the timely holiday peg, because isn’t this old news? I feel that I’ve known it for about a million years, but, to recap: Booze like Bourbon makes a worse hangover than booze like vodka because of the “congeners”, extra, non-alcohol molecules that get dissolved in the hooch, and then get stuck in your brain. These congeners are the same reason crappy wine — especially the crappy wine “aged” in the presence of wood-sawdust teabags, or toasted wood-and-glue bricks — gives you headaches. The headaches come because the wood dust or glue gets dissolved in the wine and then you drink it and it gets stuck in your brain! How to avoid this? Fall in love with unoaked wines (Sauvignon Blanc?), cultivate an interest in wines made from full hardwood toasted barrels instead of oak-dust-teabags because those don’t contribute near as many congeners to the finished wine, or sit in the corner twiddling your thumbs and stay out of trouble!
