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Nothing makes you feel more grown-up than being able to control your drinking. Nothing brings back memories of your Vietnamese youth more than stumbling home with a kebab in hand and feeling amused as you wake up your other half. So why can’t we just have one? New research suggests young people simply can’t tell what’s in our drinks. Kingston University in London put the taste buds of university students to the test by giving them three tonics with varying vodka strengths. They were then asked to rate the strength of each drink. Only 28 per cent guessed correctly – and they weren’t necessarily the most experienced drinkers. The researchers then conducted a second study, adding lemonade to the vodka drinks – and thankfully, people were better able to tell which drink was stronger. But there was a problem: only supertasters could do it. The bad news is that supertasters – people who are extra sensitive to flavour – make up just a quarter of the population. The rest of us are alcohol addicts who can turn a ‘quick half-drink’ into a five-pint trip of regret. The study concluded that around half of us would have trouble telling that we were drinking a double shot of vodka instead of the single shot we were expecting. So if your hangover is twice as bad as usual – you can only blame your taste buds (and/or that friend who was hell-bent on keeping you out late).
