A Quick Caveat

Who would have thought that calculating drinks could be so damn difficult? And by that, I mean that I stumbled across this today. The short of it: it’s a chart of standard drink sizes internationally. Most countries consider one “standard” drink as 10g of pure ethanol alcohol, whatever volume of your chosen drink it takes to achieve that. In the UK it’s 8 grams. Australia is typical at 10, and my awesome country is rocking it at 14 (only exceeded by the Japanese at 19.75 grams “standard” (Go Japan!)). This affects us and this little experiment because an Aussie shot is only 71% of a Yankee shot. The bottles of liquor here are also sized smaller (700ml vs. 750ml), AND typically have a smaller alcohol content (35-37.5% vs. 40%). For one drink that difference is basically negligible, but over the course of an entire bottle (or multiple bottles) it does equate to significantly fewer drinks. I’m judging daily drink counts (at least where liquor is concerned) based on Australia’s standard, but converted back home the numbers are somewhat lower. Wine is tougher to judge considering there is no ‘standard’ wine glass (at least not in my house) and anyway, each bottle (or box) varies in alcohol content, so I gotta eyeball those fuckers (this box is going to show me how close I am). Beer is easy to judge because it either comes in a bottle or standard glass at the pub, so as long as the alcohol content is not off the chart (not an issue, I drink the cheap domestic when I go out) I can count those with ease.

That’s just a caveat on the DOZ experiment. Considering I keep track of exactly what I drink, I should be able to roughly do the math later and see how many fewer drinks I actually had, though I must stress that in the context of this experiment it doesn’t matter. Going out and having two drinks at Rohan’s going away party at La Boheme is no different whether or not the drinks are some percentage smaller than I’m used to. It’s mostly in the context of my health that it matters. :)

I’m out, kids! Back to the tally!

Adam