Why Strong Drinks Suddenly Hit Hard

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From your old go-to Jack and Coke to the punch of a perfectly made Gin Martini, the full strength drinks that we've spent years getting to know and love can pack one hell of a punch in the flavour department. But when we start to change the way we drink, something happens that we're not always prepared for. In this throwback episode, I'm sharing some wisdom from the archives as I unpack for you how your tastes change when you start drinking differently, how long it takes for your palate to respond, and what to look for in low, no, and light drinks to help you replace some of the flavours you've come to expect from your adult drinking occasions. Enjoy. You're listening to the Mindful Drinking and Moderation in Midlife podcast, where it's my goal to help you take back the power of choice from alcohol. I'm your host and mindful drinking mentor, Denise Hamilton Mace, and this is the start of your journey to a life less intoxicating. Today we're having a chat about one of those side effects that nobody talks about, but I think is really huge when it comes to changing the way that you drink, because we are talking about taste buds. That's right. I have noticed since this change in the way that I drink, my taste buds have completely changed too. And I think it's absolutely fascinating. So when I was in what I call my professional drinking days, one of my favorite cocktails was an old-fashioned. I absolutely adore them. And I could sit and sip on an old-fashioned all evening long and be very, very happy. Now, if you were a strong cocktail drinker, you'll know it and love it just as much as I did. If perhaps you weren't, let me tell you that an old-fashioned is basically just bourbon in a glass. It is a very healthy measure of bourbon or perhaps a rye whiskey. It's stirred gently over ice with some uh bitters, a little sugar. Um, but it's it's a it's a lovely drink if that's the way you like to drink. Um, and I really enjoyed them. I did. And a little while ago now, a couple of months ago, my husband and myself were out with a couple of friends and they were all having some cocktails, and one of them had an old-fashioned. I thought, oh gosh, I've got to have a taste of that. I used to love this drink. Let me have a taste. And I took a sip of this drink, and I've got to be honest with you, I nearly fell off my chair. It was so, so strong. And the truth is, the strength of the drink hasn't changed, it's always been a really, really strong drink. But what's changed is my taste buds and the way that my mouth receives that drink. So I thought today we can have a little look at how your taste buds can change when it comes to changing the way that you drink and why they make that change. Because this isn't just me. So it might be something that you are experiencing too, or that you have experienced, or that you're going to experience if you decide to carry on with your low-no or light drinking journey to whatever end you're hoping to get to. So

The Taste Bud Science Behind It

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we're going to jump into the some of the science behind why this happens. I'm not a scientist, don't worry, it's not going to get too geeky. You don't need to put on your lab coat and your goggles for this section, just to give you some basic understanding of the biology behind why this happens, because it's really interesting. Well, I think it's really interesting, but I am a bit of a nerd. Um, so we have in our mouth approximately, depending on which website you visit, anywhere from two to ten thousand taste buds. Now, I think that's quite a wide range, and I found it a bit odd that so many websites disagreed with each other, but the average general consensus seems to be that we have somewhere around about the 6 to 10,000 taste buds mark in our mouths. And these are all over our mouth. This is on your tongue, in your cheeks, on the roof of your mouth. As you know, if you taste something, you taste it in lots of different places depending on what it is. Now, these taste receptors, uh, just like the rest of your body, regenerate. And your taste receptors regenerate every 10 to 14 days. So about every two weeks or so, you have brand new taste receptors in your mouth. But what happens is when we're drinking alcohol on a regular basis, that alcohol consumption starts to dull those taste receptors and makes them less effective, if you will. It's very similar, in fact, to how smokers have dulled taste receptors. So, what happens is that alcohol acts as sort of a mild anesthetic inside our mouth. Uh, in fact, it was one of the first anesthetics that we used to use. And so, regular consumption of alcohol can erase your sort of, should we call it your threshold for flavours and tastes, meaning that you need stronger and stronger flavors to have the same taste impact within your mouth. Making sense? You with me so far? Okay, great. So as you become accustomed to stronger flavors over time, you start to uh drink more intense flavors and then you start to enjoy things like old fashions or really strong margaritas or really, really deep, heavy tannic wines. But what happens when we start drinking less is that the numbing effect starts to dissipate, right? So as the taste receptors rebuild, we're not having as much alcohol, we're not dulling them down as much as they were. So they become more sensitive to the way things taste. Our perceptions of all the different flavors, uh, particularly sweetness and acidity, changes quite dramatically. So things that we used to enjoy beforehand now can seem really intense and really um impactful, in some cases almost sort of aggressive. Um, another point to note is that it's not just what we are tasting with our mouth that impacts what we think of a drink. Okay, so bear with me because 80% of what we perceive as taste is actually from the smell of the thing that we are consuming. And alcohol significantly impacts our olfactory sensitivity, our noses, basically. Um, have you ever seen that study or that that experiment that people do? I've seen it on telly a couple of times, in which they're trying to get people to describe the taste of chocolate. And what happens is if you give somebody some chocolate, uh, whether it's a sort of a strong, dark chocolate or really creamy, sweet milk chocolate, and you ask them to taste it, people will report the normal tastes that you expect them to say. But then they would repeat the experiment and have the person um hold their nose or they put something on the nose so they couldn't smell the chocolate. And every time they did that, the people who would taste the chocolate would say it didn't taste as bitter or it didn't taste as creamy or it wasn't as sweet. And that's because they're not smelling the chocolate before they're eating it. So what we smell has a huge impact on how things taste. And alcohol impacts that olfactory sensitivity. As I said, it impacts our noses and it impacts everything that's going on in that sort of ear, nose, and throat cavity. And so what happens is when we start to reduce the way that we drink, we get all of those senses back, all of those sensations back. So all of our taste buds start to come back and become a bit more sensitive. They can pick up flavors that perhaps they would have been missed if they'd been masked by the alcohol. Our nose and our olfactory system starts to work better, so we can notice these smells and add that into the tasting experience. And the good thing is that this isn't just applicable to drinks, right? So this applies to food as well, and it's great. I don't know about you, but I I love food. Love food, perhaps a bit too much, but that's okay. I'll live with that. Um, but you know, being able to notice greater depth of flavour in your favourite meals, being able to notice the delicate nuances of tastes in some fresh sushi and that sort of thing is absolutely wonderful. So choosing to reduce your alcohol intake for a prolonged period of time can have a really interesting impact on your experience of going back to taste and going back to flavors. So,

How Long Palate Changes Take

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how long does it take for you to start noticing these differences? Now, the caveat going into this is that everybody is different, so of course it might be slightly different for you. Um, but within the first seven to ten days of going alcohol-free, so say for example, you're doing a dry January, a sober October, or I'm recording this now in April, so perhaps you're doing a sober spring, uh, any of those sober months or challenges or whatever it is, if you're taking a prolonged period of time off drinking, within the first seven to ten days, you probably won't notice that much of a difference. I don't know, that's annoying because we uh demand instant gratification in everything that we do, but you're going to have to just be a little bit patient. Within two to three weeks, you'll notice, or perhaps you know, it's it's subtle, but you start beginning to detect um subtler flavours in food and drinks. So in about two to three weeks, the first starts changes start to be noticeable. And that makes sense if you consider that it takes 10 to 14 days for your taste buds to regenerate, then two to three weeks is about right for you to start seeing and tasting and noticing slight differences. Uh, in about three to four weeks, you'll go through what has been deemed the revelation phase, uh, where lots of people start to report significant taste changes. So you can really start to pick up flavours, then you're really starting to get a whiff of the smells that are coming in, and you'll really be able to dive into the layers of flavor and to what you might be consuming. Then in about one to two months, you'll start to develop new preferences and new aversions. So you'll start to recognize that there are things that you like that perhaps you didn't like before, and there are things that perhaps you did like before that you no longer want to uh imbibe or partake of or eat in any way, shape, or form. And this is a good thing and a bad thing, depending on what it is, you know. Um it's very personal, and the connection that we have with the drinks and the flavours that we used to like before is often harder to break than the taste relationship that we have with it. But as your taste buds change, what you want and what you enjoy is going to change as well. And so after that one to two months, we're into about a three-month period, and by the end of that three months, your taste buds have had pretty much a complete uh recalibration, a rejig. You know, they've zushed themselves up and they've come out, they've had their makeover, and they're feeling fabulous, and they are taking it all in. So it is a long journey if you're wanting results straight away. But in the grand scheme of things, you know, three months is not a very long time for you to completely overhaul the way your drinking appreciation shifts when it comes to experiencing low no and light drinks. Now, as I said before, everybody is different. So it might happen quicker for you, uh, it might happen slower, it will depend on other things. So, for example, if you do still smoke, then that's going to have a huge impact on your taste buds, and this timeline is going to be a lot, a lot, a lot longer and perhaps won't fully be um impactful for you until you decide perhaps that you don't want to smoke anymore. So it's one of those areas that I think doesn't get enough attention. Um, everybody talks about whether alcohol-free drinks taste the same as alcohol-full drinks. Everyone talks about wanting deep, complex flavours and wanting tannins and wanting hops, and wanting this, that, and the other. But actually, what we want is going to change based on how we drink and how often we still imbibe full strength alcohol. I know that now that I've been a sober curious, a mindful drinker for a few years now. Um, as I've said on the show before, I've got no issue with tasting alcohol, but I can't handle the taste of it anymore. Whether I wanted to have a full strength uh drink throughout an evening or not, my taste bud just couldn't hack it anymore. It's not pleasant. Um, my best friend and I love day drinking. We used to love to sit in a lovely beer garden, uh, get a couple of bottles of rose, and we sit there and rose all day to our heart's content. I saw him this weekend, and we all went for a picnic in the park with the kids, and I bought a selection of alcohol-free cans with me. Uh, he bought his own drinks, and one of those was a bottle of rose wine. And so I said, Oh, let me have a taste, let me see what you're drinking. And I had one sip, and honestly, it tasted awful. Uh, and it was a good wine, but the alcohol taste in it was so, so strong that it was unpleasant for my palate now. And that might happen to you, you know, and you might want that to happen, you might be looking forward to it, you might be saddened by it. But the good news is that there are so many low-no and light alternatives that you can have and that I now enjoy in place of the full strength versions. And because I now know that that full strength version isn't actually enjoyable for me, I'm left far more free to enjoy the alcohol-free versions that I want to dive into.

Choosing Low And No Alternatives

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Speaking of which, what alternatives should you be looking for then if you're moving away from those strong, intense flavours of alcohol-full drinks to a more palatable uh low-no or light version? Well, it's difficult in this instance to give you specific brands because there are just so many of them. Uh, and I find that taste is so personal, obviously. You know, it's one of the reasons why I don't do reviews, is that taste is so personal, and what I find really enjoyable you might not like, and vice versa. There are some big brands in our space that I don't actually enjoy because they just don't sit well with my palette. It's not because they're bad, they're just not a good match for me. So instead of giving you some specific brands, I'm going to give you some general guidance on what you can be looking out for when it comes to making the change. So if you are somebody who likes wine, then look for drinks that offer complexity and mouthfeel. Mouthfeel is really important. That's that body, that's that texture that you get when you when you sip on it. Try and find wines that have a proper tannic tannin structure, so it's not just a flat grape juice, but they actually leave your mouth slightly coated in that way that uh a full-bodied red would do. We do struggle. Everybody knows that within the alcohol-free wine space, it's not as easy to find as many drinks as we enjoy in perhaps the beer or the ciders or the spirits. But if you are struggling, then perhaps you could consider looking at things like tea alternatives, fermented drinks like kombuchas and kefis, uh, shrubs are another really great place to find drinks with uh a lot of body, a lot of mouthfeel, a lot of complexity, lots of layers of flavor. Um, look out for acidity. Some of them can have higher acidity levels, which, depending on again on how you like to drink, can feel a little bit intense, but you do need a good amount of acidity for satisfaction. And again, particularly if you want this to go with food, you need something that can stand up on its own. If you're a beer drinker, hoppy IPAs might be um quite bitter for you now and quite unpleasant because when you are drinking full-bodied bitter IPAs and ales, um, that hoppiness is quite intense, but it is again dulled by the alcohol or is matched with the alcohol, so it doesn't feel quite as impactful. When you take that alcohol out, um, that hoppy flavor can be quite intense. So you might want to go for something that is a a little bit gentler on the on the palate. You want to go for something that's perhaps a little bit maltier, something that's not quite so hop forward and hop intense. Uh the big alcohol brands do make very easy drinking beers for that reason. And I think that they are a good way to step into alcohol-free beers and then to be able to branch out from them and say, right, okay, I've tasted this alcohol-free alternative of a big brand that I already know. I kind of like this, I want to find more like that. And then you can use that as a jumping-off point to finding other things that you'd like to have. And then if you are more of a uh a spirits or a cocktail drinker, the biggest challenge you're going to have is that sweetness. Some of the most popular cocktails, full strength cocktails out there are laden with sugars. You know, you have porn star martinis and mikitos, they're just hitting you over the head with a lot of sugar. And I find now that I'm super sensitive to very sweet drinks. And I know that a lot of people out there say that they don't want alcohol-free drinks that are just laden with sugar as a way to impart mouthfeel, because all you end up with is that that sort of syrupy coating around your mouth, and it's really not very uh pleasant. So try looking for alcohol-free spirits that are botanical forward, that are shouting on their production about what botanicals are in their spirit, what they're using to make them. Um, consider more aperitif style drinks that add a layer of bitterness that helps to cut through some of that sweetness and can be a real asset in creating balanced drinks and balanced cocktails.

Finding Balance in Your New Preferences

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But whatever it is that you are going for, know that the fact that your taste buds, your tasting experience, your palate changing is a really good sign. It's a sign that your body is returning to uh a homeostasis, uh a state of uh balanced being where it is experiencing things the way that it is supposed to. And if you do look at reducing your alcohol intake over time, then that's not to say that if you then go and have an alcohol-full drink that you're gonna have to go through this whole biological process again. Uh, it might actually also help you in reducing your intake if that's what you want, because I know that if I'm going out now, I wouldn't be able to drink the way that I did before, even if I wanted to, because it would just be unpleasant for me. So I kind of have a natural defense against consuming alcohol-full drinks because now not only are they not serving me in terms of feeling crappy the next day, they're not serving me in terms of they're not enjoyable to drink in the first place. If you do still find them enjoyable to drink, then absolutely that's fine. Make sure that you are drinking lots of water and you're giving your palate a chance to refresh itself, to clear out what's in your mouth in between drinks, especially if you're doing something like uh zebra striping or bookending where you're mixing your full strength and your low-no drinks in there as well. Because otherwise it's gonna be a little bit unfair uh if you have a mouthful of uh, you know, a full strength, I don't know, Jack and Coke, and then you go and have an alcohol-free gin and tonic, they're not gonna compare the same. It's not gonna be a fair like-for-like comparison. But it's a good thing, like I said, it's a good thing, and it's really interesting, and I think it's one of those little talked-about side effects of drinking less that definitely needs to be shouted about and celebrated more because it's not only about the drinking, it's about, like I said before, you enjoying other parts of your life as well. It's about you being able to taste better flavors in your food, it's about you just embracing life a little bit more and being able to make the most of it in whatever way means the most to you. Okay, that's it from me. Thank you so much, my dear, and until next time, cheers to a life less intoxicated.