What is it about cider that gets you buzzed so quick?

[jamesjensen1068]

Just wondering why a 7 to 7.5 ABV batch of cider seems to get me and my friends (who are not light weights when it comes to drinking) buzzed so much faster. Even the ones who drink hard liquor more than beer.

It's treated with campden and potassium sorbate and back sweetened. Is it something with the campden and potassium sorbate that heighten the buzz.

Anyone else experience this???

 

[cvstrat]

7.5abv, big glass, easy to drink...

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Possible sugar rush along with the alcohol?
It can also dehydrate you faster and result in some hangovers. I find mead that is not bone dry does the same to me also.

 

[RobWalker]

7.5abv, big glass, easy to drink...

This

 

[Accidic]

One of the older ladies I work with swears the more sugar in the drink the harder it hits you. I've watched them drink and this seems to make sense. Even small amounts from a vodka rocks girl high in sugar and she was loopy. Perhaps dispute over which to filter first by the liver?

 

[MeadHorn]

Even the commercial ciders at 5% ABV does it for me... Like others have said, it's probably the sweetness and thinner body (vs say a stout beer) that makes you forget you're drinking an alcoholic beverage. It's why EdWort made his disclaimer for his apfelwein recipe to not call him the next morning.

 

[Accidic]

Except I drink my vodka straight in beer glasses and I hit the same buzz with 1.5 glasses of wine vs ~1 glass of vodka. Anecdotal but still....

 

[Bush_84]

One of the older ladies I work with swears the more sugar in the drink the harder it hits you. I've watched them drink and this seems to make sense. Even small amounts from a vodka rocks girl high in sugar and she was loopy. Perhaps dispute over which to filter first by the liver?

Sugar is not "filtered by the liver." It is absorbed in your gut and used by your body. You liver can make glycogen from sugar, but I do not think that would slow down it's other functions.

 

[Insomniac]

I think it depends on what you are used too. Beer will get me drunk faster than cider.

 

[Accidic]

My understanding may be hazy here as IANAD but as I understood it the body can only use so much sugar and it will try to store what it can as fat for future energy. The rest has to be removed from the blood stream as too much sugar is toxic (or at the bare minimum arguably so) but you also need a bare minimum to function. I thought it was the liver that did this as some diabetics use alcohol in some quantities to help cheat their bsl (which I still firmly believe sounds insanely dangerous, pls don't try this without talking to your doctor). I just figured it should be able to work in reverse... /shrug

Again... I am not a doctor. That was just a rough overview of what I've seen personally and frankly I believe some of it to be adsurdly dangerous. Nevertheless, it was never meant to be more than a theory.