CH3CH2OH?

When people talk about the taste of alcohol, they are usually referring to a particular alcoholic beverage. A typical first drink for an Aussie is a glass of lager, or perhaps a sip of dry white wine, both quite bitter to the young palate after a diet of soft drinks.

“Alcohol”, called ethanol, ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, or just alcohol is, in fact, a clear, colourless liquid with a characteristic, agreeable odour. When diluted with water, it has a somewhat sweet flavour, but in more concentrated solutions it has a burning taste.

Alcoholic beverages come in a range of flavours – from the very bitter, highly-hopped lagers or dry white and red wines to very sweet beers flavoured with honey or fruit (e.g., Belgian Kriek, flavoured with cherries) and wines such as Muscat and Spatlese Riesling. And then there are the sweet liqueurs – flavoured from chocolate to mint, from orange to butterscotch.

What’s Your Poison?

There is so much hypocrisy about beverages, truly one man’s drink is another’s poison. If in England a person’s rank in society could be determined by their accent, a similar case could be made for the beverage one consumes. Remember when “wino” meant an alcoholic?

Beer is often referred to as the drink of the so-called common man – generally “down market”, wine of the intelligentsia or connoisseurs – generally “up market”, as are the spirits such as cognac or single malt whisky.

Anyone ordering a glass of spirits in a round will often be subjected to a snide remark. Consider the woman who has asked for “just a glass of wine”. She will probably feel superior to her friend who ordered a gin and tonic. In Australian bars a measure of Scotch whisky or a gin is defined in law and will almost always contain less alcohol than the typical bar or restaurant serve of a “glass of wine”. She would be surprised. Who is really drinking “the hard stuff”?

Alcopops? Designer drinks?

So what about designer drinks? Alcopops? I daresay that when people refer to designer drinks they are not thinking of those vintners who are experimenting with different fermenting techniques and maturation processes, in order to produce a wine that tastes “just so”, nor of the boutique brewers experimenting with different malts, different yeast, and different additives such as honey, lemon, or even chilli!

If there is any one factor to “blame” for the popularity of pre-mixed drinks it is the rise of take-home consumption. In the recent past, someone went to a bar, ordered beer from a large barrel or keg. In order to be able to drink some beer at home there was the convenience of a bottle or a can. Another went to a bar and ordered a glass of wine, there was the convenience of a bottle or a cask to take home. A third person went to the bar and ordered their favourite cocktail; a whisky and soda, a rum and cola, a bourbon and dry, or a vodka and orange – but what to take home? Preparing the same drink at home was a chore, needing to remember the spirit, the mixer, the ice, and the glass and, “Oh, why bother?” The advent of the pre-mixed drink presented the opportunity for spirit drinkers to enjoy their favourite pub drink at home, at the barbie, watching footie on the TV, just as beer and wine drinkers have.

Pre-mixed drinks rose in popularity because of this convenience. If teenagers were really seeking “bang for the buck” in buying TDs then they were mistaken, even before Minister Roxon raised the tax, RTDs were the most expensive way to buy a standard drink. The best buy was (and still is) a cask of wine.

Binge Drinking – A modern Problem?

To believe the media and selected groups, the problems of youth binge drinking are modern societal issues fuelled only by targeted advertising and new types of drinks specially designed and marketed to seduce our innocent young.

But the problems caused by young people (indeed, of all age groups and classes) drinking to excess have plagued societies through the ages, long before modern advertising or sports sponsorship, and long before the advent of different types of drinks.

So can the solution to our current youth binge drinking problems really be as simple as banning advertising and sport sponsorships, and certain types of drinks?

From as early as circa 1900 BC in Egypt soldiers and students are cited as heavy drinkers. In around 350 BC, the Greek historian Theopompus asserts that Athenian youths engage in bouts of heavy drinking.

In The Laws, Plato proposes that in a perfect world boys up to 18 should be forbidden wine “for they have enough fire in their belly they need no further encouragement”.

Fast forward to Germany in 1275 and Konrad von Haslau attacks the coarse table manners of courtly youths, including their spilling of wine all over their clothing.

1350 sees medieval students drinking heavily. Initiation rites frequently involve heavy drinking bouts.

Beginning in the 16th Century student drinking practises need to be suppressed. Drinking is officially prohibited in French and German schools. Students drink in secret in their rooms or do all their drinking outside schools at taverns. Ordinances are passed forbidding taverns and innkeepers from putting them up.

In 1630 The Netherlands introduces new controls, closing taverns during hours of worship and after nine at night, and bans the serving of sprits to young people

1650 drinking bouts and duelling among German university students is condemned.

In 1680 in France Jean de la Bruyere expresses his exasperation at young people at court for abusing wine. And by 1750 in most colleges wine provides the third most important source of calories.

And so on. You can see the repetition.

Ah – But Young Women Drinking – That’s Different!

“They keep just as late hours (as men), and drink as just as much liquor; they challenge men to carousing” complained Senaca in Rome circa AD 65.

Through the ages we have had cycles of drinking problems. In some decades it was emperors and princes, then it was the court, then the clergy, then the military, then the peasants and labourers. And round the cycle of misuse would turn.

At various times controls have been tried: taxes, tavern controls (Paris once tried to move all taverns outside the city walls – where was Sydney’s Clover then?). Banning certain products was also tried, the English for a while banned Scottish Ale deeming it too string for the locals!

Of course, all these controls have come and gone as the battle waged between those who would dictate the behaviour of others through laws and regulations without tackling the underlying causes of the drinking problems.

Changing Drinking Culture

If we are to change the drinking culture of Australia then the first thing we need to do is to recognise that no one form of alcohol beverage is any better or worse than the other. What is important is that consumers understand how much alcohol they are really drinking and what the short and long-term effects of their drinking are. Singling our just one form of alcohol beverage for special attention is more an indication of social snobbery than it is of good public health policy or of a serious attempt to improve the drinking culture of Australia.

Cheers!