Drinking culture is the notable customs shared by groups of people around the world involved in drinking
alcoholic beverages.
Although the type of alcohol, social attitude toward (and acceptance of)
drinking varies around the world, nearly every
civilization has independently discovered the process of
brewing beer,
fermenting wine or
distilling liquor.
Alcohol and its effects have been present wherever people have lived throughout
history. Drinking is documented in the
Hebrew and
Christian Bibles,
Greek literature as old as
Homer, and
Confucius'
Analects. Given its continuing popularity and the failure of alcohol
Prohibitions, drinking may remain a part of human life interminably.
Contents[
hide]
1 Purpose of drinking1.1 Binge drinking1.2 Social drinking1.3 Session drinking1.4 Competitive drinking (World Drinking Record)2 Beer festival3 Alcohol expectations4 Free drinks5 List of drinking terms5.1 Some terms describing drinks or used in bartending5.2 Drinking Terms6 Types of drinking glasses7 See also8 References9 External links//
[
edit] Purpose of drinking
Generally, people drink for one or more of six reasons; to quench
thirst, to get drunk, to enjoy a social setting (social drinking), to enjoy the taste of the beverage, to feed an
addiction (alcoholism), or as part of a
religious or traditional
ceremony or
custom.
[
edit] Binge drinking
L'
Absinthe, by
Edgar DegasBinge drinking is sometimes defined as drinking alcohol solely for the purpose of intoxication, although it is quite common for binge drinking to apply to a social situation, creating some overlap in social and binge drinking. Some researchers use a low threshold definition in which binge drinking refers to a woman consuming four drinks and a man consuming five drinks on an occasion. Because drinking occasions can last up to five or seven hours, many such bingers never become intoxicated. Clinically and traditionally, however, binge drinking is defined as a period of continuing intoxication lasting at least two days during which time the binger neglects usual life activities (work, family, etc.). The concept of a "binge" has been somewhat elastic over the years, implying consumption of alcohol far beyond what is socially acceptable. In earlier decades, "going on a binge" meant drinking over the course of days until one was no longer physically able to continue. The usage is known to have entered the English language as early as 1854; it derives from an English dialectal word meaning to "soak" or literally "fill a boat with water". (
OED,
American Heritage Dictionary)
University students have a reputation for engaging in binge drinking, especially in the
USA and even more so in the
UK and
Ireland, as well as generally throughout Northern Europe, Canada and Australia; participants include university athletes, fraternities, and sororities, particularly after final examinations, varsity wins and during
spring break. Some common reasons for this propensity for binge drinking is that many university students are living on their own for the first time, free of parental supervision, and among peers -- especially those of the
opposite sex.
In much of
Europe where
children and adolescents routinely experience alcohol early and with parental approval, such as watered-down
wine with a meal, binge drinking tends to be less of a problem. The longstanding exceptions are Britain and Ireland: as early as the eighth century,
Saint Boniface was writing to Cuthbert,
Archbishop of Canterbury, to report how "in your diocese, the vice of drunkenness is too frequent. This is an evil peculiar to pagans and to our race. Neither the Franks nor the Gauls nor the Lombards nor the Romans nor the Greeks commit it".
[1] Possibly, however, "the vice of drunkenness" was not often as easily discernible in one's own nation as in others'. The 16th century Frenchman
Rabelais wrote
comedic and
absurd satires illustrating his countrymen's drinking habits, yet was banned by the
Catholic church.
In
South Africa a large percentage of the
population between the ages of 18 - 35 engage in binge drinking.
The
Australian phenomenon of the
six o'clock swill, in the post-war years, was a form of binge drinking.
Binge drinking is also very common in
Scandinavian countries, with their long tradition of high alcohol prices and restricted access. For example, the
Norwegian cultural phenomenon known as
Russ provides high school seniors with a socially accepted venue for binge drinking. For younger people, from about 14-15 years and until leaving adolescence, binge drinking may be the main form of drinking. Reasons cited are
Viking heritage or the fact that one tends to buy alcohol in bulk, and thus consume in bulk. Yet similar consumption is observed in other Northern and Eastern European countries.
Significantly, Northern European countries are among the most stringent in their punishment of offenders driving under the influence of alcohol, sometimes imposing a lifetime loss of driving privileges without appeal.
Some studies have noted traditional, cultural differences between Northern and Southern Europe. A difference in perception may also account to some extent for historically noted cultural differences: Northern Europeans drink
beer, which in the past was often of a low alcohol content (2.5% compared to today's 5%). In
pre-industrial society, beer being boiled and alcohol was safer to drink than water. Southern Europeans drink
wine and
fortified wines (10-20% alcohol by volume). Traditionally, wine was watered and honeyed, drinking full strength wine was considered barbaric in Republican Rome. Fortified wine was not common until
Brandy was created by distilling
Port for transportation purposes. Nor does binge drinking necessarily equate with substantially higher national averages of per capita/per annum litres of pure alcohol consumption. There is also a physical aspect to national differences worldwide, which has not yet been thoroughly studied, whereby some ethnic groups have a greater capacity for alcohol metabolization through the liver enzymes
alcohol dehydrogenase and
acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.
These varying capacities do not, however, avoid all health risks inherent in heavy alcohol consumption. Alcohol abuse is associated with a variety of negative health and safety outcomes. This is true no matter the individual's or the ethnic group's perceived ability to "handle alcohol". The person who believes themself immune to the effects of alcohol may often be the most at risk for health concerns and the most dangerous of all operating a vehicle.
"Chronic heavy drinkers display functional tolerance when they show few obvious signs of intoxication even at high blood alcohol concentrations (BAC's), which in others would be incapacitating or even fatal. Because the drinker does not experience significant behavioral impairment as a result of drinking, tolerance may facilitate the consumption of increasing amounts of alcohol. This can result in physical dependence and alcohol-related organ damage."
[1][
edit] Social drinking
Social drinking refers to casual collateral drinking, usually without the intent to get drunk.
Social drinking plays an important (but not traditional) role in such social functions as
dating, and
marriage. For example, a person buying another a drink at a singles bar is a gesture that the one is interested in the other and often initiates conversation, or at least flirtation.
Bad news is often mediated through a drink, whilst good news is often celebrated by having a few drinks - for example, we drink to "wet the baby's head" to celebrate a birth. Buying someone a drink is a gesture of goodwill, and can be used as an expression of gratitude or mark the resolution of a dispute--to bury the hatchet, so to say. The physical act of going to a comfortable setting with friends is a large part of sharing a drink in the above situations, but the fact remains that people have found as many reasons to meet for a drink as they have to meet for
tea,
coffee, or to eat.
[
edit] Session drinking
Session drinking is drinking in large quantities over a single period of time, or session, without the intention of getting heavily intoxicated. Unlike binge drinking the focus is on the social aspects of the occasion. A session beer, such as a
session bitter, is a
beer that has a moderate or low alcohol content - in the UK this would be around 4% e.g. Carling, or a bitter which is generally weaker than lager
abv, while in the USA session beers may go as high as 5%.
[
edit] Competitive drinking (World Drinking Record)
Steven Petrosino, during his successful June 1977 Guinness World record attempt at the Gingerbreadman Pub in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He established records for 1/4 litre (0.137 seconds), and for 1/2 litre (0.4 seconds), but Guinness published only the record for 1
litre.
Speed drinking or competitive drinking is drinking small or moderate quantities of beer or ale over the shortest period of time, without the intention of getting heavily intoxicated. Unlike binge drinking the focus is on the competition, or establishment of a record. Typically speed drinkers consume lighter beers such as lagers and allow their beer to go warm and lose its carbonation to shorten the drinking time. The
Guinness Book of World Records (1990 edition, p. 464) lists several records for speed drinking. The first is for 2
litres (3.5
imperial pints, or about 66.7
U.S. fluid ounces) set by
Peter G. Dowdeswell (born London, July 23 1940) of Earls Barton,
Northants, England. Mr. Dowdeswell consumed 2 litres in 6 seconds on February 7, 1975. Steven Petrosino of
New Cumberland, Pennsylvania (born November 1951) consumed
1 litre (33 ounces) of beer in 1.3 seconds to set a world drinking record at the Gingerbreadman Pub in
Carlisle, PA on June 22, 1977. Neither of these records had been defeated when Guinness retired all drinking records from their compendium in 1991.
Former Australian Prime Minister
Bob Hawke held a record for the fastest consumption of beer, he consumed 2.5 pints in 12 seconds.
[2][
edit] Beer festival
Main article:
Beer festival[
edit] Alcohol expectations
Alcohol expectations are beliefs that individuals hold about the effects they experience from drinking. They are largely beliefs about how the consumption of alcohol will affect a person’s emotions, abilities and behaviors. To the extent that alcohol expectancies can be changed, it may be possible to reduce a major social and health problem, that of alcohol abuse (Grattan & Vogel-Sprott).
If people in a society generally believe that intoxication leads to aggression, sexual behavior AKA "
beer goggles", or rowdy behavior, they tend to act that way when intoxicated. If the society teaches that intoxication leads to relaxation and tranquil behavior, it virtually always leads to those outcomes. Alcohol expectations vary within a population so outcomes are not uniform (
Alan Marlatt & D. J. Rosenow).
People tend to conform to social expectations and a common belief in most societies is that alcohol causes disinhibition. However, in those societies in which people don’t believe that alcohol disinhibits, intoxication virtually never leads to unacceptable behaviours because of “disinhibition” (McAndrew & Edgerton).
Alcohol expectations can operate in the absence of actual consumption of alcohol. Research in the U.S. over a period of decades has shown that men tend to become physically more sexually aroused when they think they have been drinking alcohol, even when they haven't. Women report feeling more sexually aroused when they falsely believe the beverages they have been consuming contain alcohol, although a measure of their physiological arousal shows that they are physically becoming less aroused.
Men tend to become more aggressive in laboratory studies in which they are drinking only tonic water but believe that it contains alcohol. They also become relatively less aggressive when they think they are drinking only tonic water, but are actually drinking tonic containing alcohol.
Drinking Alcohol and Bad BehaviorThe phenomenon of alcohol expectations recognizes that intoxication has real physiological consequences affecting perceptions of space and time, reducing psychomotor skills, disrupting equilibrium and a number of other behaviours (McAndrew & Edgerton).
The manner and degree to which alcohol expectations interact with the physiological effects of intoxication to yield the behaviour that results is unclear.
[
edit] Free drinks
Free drinks is a ritual which has existed in various institutions at various times and within various cultures and
traditions. The social effects of this ritual, however, have more to do with
sociology and
psychology than the more temporary physical effects of the event itself.
For example, during a
wedding, free drinks are often served to guests during the reception, as a matter of celebration, or at more serious functions, free drinks may be offered in order to entice greater attendance. Interestingly enough, this phenomenon combines the human need and capacity for
ritual societal gatherings and basic
greed. Free drinks are also commonly offered to
casino patrons to entice them to continue
gaming. Free drinks can assume an almost
mystical status in the minds of everyday people, who are accustomed to paying for their drinks.
Further examples include the more recent policy of "ladies drink free" at bars; a fairly transparent ploy designed to hopefully bring a bar more female visitors, and hopefully, to thereby bring in more male patrons. Many military bases, as well as large corporations, (especially in
Japan) have favoured bars, often locations specifically catering to these institutions; private functions arranged here, while providing free drinks, can often be obligatory. Another view of the free drinks phenomenon is far more basic: the simple act of sharing one's beverage with another, be it from the same container, or bringing a cold
beer from the
refrigerator for a friend.
In the United States, fraternity houses at college campuses often serve "Free Beer" to attract potential rushees and attractive women (Oleson and Larson 2004).
[
edit] List of drinking terms
[
edit] Some terms describing drinks or used in
bartendingShot - 1 or 1.5 ounces (3 to 5
cl) of liquor in a shot glass, to be drunk in one quick motion; in the mouth and immediately down the throat without tasting (shooting)
Neat - said of liquor taken alone in a short glass, no ice or water (the term "straight," "straight up," or just "Up" is often used erroneously)
On the Rocks - said of liquor taken in a short glass with ice Chug - to drink large volumes of alcohol quickly Nursing a drink - Usually derisively, to imply a patron is drinking too slowly.
Scull - another term meaning to drink large volumes of alcohol quickly Chaser - a drink stronger than the the main liquor drink, ie: a whisky following a pint of beer. Straight-up - served chilled, by shaking with ice, then straining With a twist - served with a twist of citrus peel, either lemon or lime Shaken - referring to the method of mixing or chilling of alcohol(s), using a
cocktail shakerStirred - referring to the method of mixing or chilling of alcohol(s)
In the Face - a term common to Northern England, colloquially meaning "drink up"
"Down it" - another term used that proposes the drinker to finish his/her drink quickly.
"X it" - another term used that proposes the drinker to finish his/her drink quickly.
[
edit] Drinking Terms
Beer bong - Use of a funnel, a hose, and gravity to drink large quantities of beer rapidly.
Body shot - A shot that is taken off a person's body, usually in the belly button or chest.
Cannonball/Strikeout - The act of taking a hit of marijuana on a bong or pipe, then chugging a full beer and drinking a shot. Only after both beverages have been consumed can drinker exhale what is left of the marijuana smoke.
Shotgun - A term used to describe drinking beer through a hole punched in the bottom of the can, and then opening the top. This method serves to "shoot" the beer out of the can faster thus allowing the recipient to become intoxicated faster. The same term is used to describe drinking from a bottle, using a straw to equalise air pressure inside and outside the bottle, whilst not actually drinking through the straw itself. Again the aim is to force the drink from the container more quickly. The latter definition is also known a
Strawpedo - a word play on
torpedo - or a
Snorkel in Australia.
[
edit] Types of drinking glasses
Champagne Flute - very slender, tapers at the opening; used for champagne
Collins glass Double - as implied, a double shot, or 2 to 3 ounces (60 to 90 mL).
Handle 425ml New Zealand beer glass
Highball glass - tall thin glass, used for
Bloody Marys and the like
Jug - 750- 1000ml served at pubs in New Zealand
Lowball glass or Rocks glass - shorter glass, used for sipping liquors, esp.
Scotch,
whiskey, etc.
Martini glass (more properly a Cocktail glass) - inverted cone with a long stem; used for
martinisMiddy - 285ml (10 fl. oz.) Australian beer glass
Pint - either 16 or 20 fl. oz. (473 or 568 mL resp.) glass, generally used for beer or cider (The larger glass is also known as an Imperial Pint, named for the British Empire in which it was widespread.)
Pot - 285ml (10 fl. oz.) Australian beer glass
Schooner - 425ml (15 fl. oz.) Australian beer glass
Shot glass - 1 or 1.5 ounce (30 mL or 45 mL), used for shooting straight liquor
Snifter - Similar to a wine glass, except with a significantly smaller taper at the opening. Stemware used for Brandy or Cognac. It is usually exposed to fire while the spirit is inside to keep it warm in cold weather.
Stein - large mug traditionally with a hinged lid in which beer is served
Wine goblet - shallower and rounder than a flute; used for wine
Yard Glass - an even taller vessel, often used for the sculling of beer
Hidden Containers: Flask - small concealable container designed to hold small amounts of liquor in a coat pocket
