Author Archives: tipsygrrl

Taste the Difference

TipsyGrrl on why you have a favorite vodka…

You know it’s true. I know it’s true. Although the recipe for vodka does not vary, you have your favorite brand.

You like the way it tastes. You like the kind of buzz it gives. You like the way it doesn’t give you a hangover. (Except that one time when… well, usually.)

And you have the brand you absolutely will not swallow, because it gives you memories of college parties that went outside the keg, and ended up outside of your memory.

But what is it that allows mixtures of 40% pure ethanol and 60% pure water to taste so different from one another?

Chemists (with TipsyGrrl-approved priorities) believe they’ve discovered what gives. Seems vodkas are not simple solutions of ethanol and water, but hold a more complex structure within their liquid. Continue reading

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Study: Cleverer Women Drink More

TipsyGrrl ponders the odd connection between doing well on tests and drinking more.

And no, unfortunately, the London School of Economics study did not draw the inverse causal connection: that drinking more leads to being smarter. (Which was my first thought when I saw the headline. Back to reality…)

As reported by the UK Telegraph, what this large study (with between 9,500 and 17,000 subjects) did find was that better-educated women are the ones who engage in high levels or high frequency of alcohol consumption. Women with higher-ed degrees were found to be 86% more likely to “engage the most in problematic patterns of alcohol consumption” than those less educated. Continue reading

Kabbalah Schmabbalah

TipsyGrrl hunts for the truth about the vodka made with babies…

My response alternated between amused and appalled when I came across this the other day.

“Kabbalah Vodka — with Christian Infants” first appeared on the entertainment blog English Russia this past December. Accompanying photos show each bottle of the premium distilled spirit featuring a pouty handmade glass infant sculpture inside.

The tag line and bottle design play off the old wives tales and myths that ancient Jewish rituals required the blood of non-Jewish children. (Kabbalah is a philosophy dealing with mystical Orthodox Judaism. It is the religion practiced by Madonna, Britney Spears, Barbara Streisand and several other celebs.) Continue reading

Dilemma: Eating When Drinking

TipsyGrrl delves into the science of getting drunk…

If I order a cocktail when I sit down at a table in a restaurant, I want it brought out before my appetizer. I don’t care if the bar is packed, or if the kitchen is rushed. I have been known to walk out on spots that don’t follow this etiquette. I want to drink a bit before I eat.

While taste and flavor are perfectly good reasons to enjoy a glass, the point behind drinking alcohol is — at least on some level — to get a buzz. Which brings up a question that faces all tippling persons: when should I supplement my liquid with food? Continue reading

Welcome Tipsygrrl!

Here are PG, we are thrilled to welcome Tipsygrrl, the latest writer to grace the site. Tipsygrrl is a Philly girl who’s had a little too much to drink. But in a good way. We think. Not sure, we’ll let you know how that AA  intervention goes.

Well, yes. I am a bit tipsy writing this post. Cliche as it seems, a bit of alcohol helps loosen things up. Clichés exist for a reason. And there are many things I’m not that bad at after I’ve had a drink. Or two. (After three… well, see this James Thurber quote.)

Drinking alcohol is pretty widely accepted in American culture, and indeed, in all Judeo-Christian societies. In Europe even more so, where adults readily give their kids sips of wine at their 10pm dinner hour. Jesus is worshiped for turning water into wine (among other things). For Muslims, the Qur’an presents a journey of thoughts about drinking, starting with a note that “the sin is greater than the profit” and ending with a call to total abstinence. Continue reading