Champagne, the drink of parties and celebrations alike. It can be tough to tell just how much Champagne you’ve drunk one night! These drinks are so fizzy and sweet that they sometimes feel like drinking juice. But then, six toasts later, you are struggling to stand in one stop! So the question is, just how many glasses of Champagne to get drunk?
Two glasses of this bubbly drink in one hour are enough to classify you as drunk (over 0.08 blood-alcohol content) if you are going to drive. But, a whole bottle will get you really drunk and make the next morning a tough one! Keep in mind that bubbly or carbonated drinks tend to “hit your head” faster. Around one four-ounce glass of Champagne equals one shot of liquor, so Champagne can seem much stronger than other alcohols.
Let’s dig in further.
What Is Being Drunk Anyway?
It’s a Friday night, and you have some Champagne in your hand, toasting to your friend’s engagement. You aren’t even sure how many glasses of Champagne to get drunk for you. The first thing to keep in mind is that alcohol is technically a drug. The effects of this specific drug are very dependent on how many glasses you drink and how quickly. While some drugs act more precisely in the body, alcohol is the opposite; it only causes chaos.
Alcohol acts like a bomb or a hand grenade. Once it lands in your body, it blows up and explodes everywhere. Once you get that sip of bubbly, the ethanol (alcohol) travels to your stomach and starts getting absorbed by your bloodstream. Then it is distributed throughout your body. But, your body doesn’t need to and can’t store the alcohol, so it works really fast to remove it from your system.
Author Note: The liver starts the process of breaking alcohol down. It makes an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, which turns alcohol into acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is later broken down into acetic acid. The acetaldehyde is thought to play a big role in the hangover feeling.
If you consume more alcohol than your liver is able to process, you start to feel drunk. How fast you get drunk is dependent on many factors, such as how much food you’ve eaten that day.
Phases of Getting Drunk
While alcohol is considered to be a depressant, it really has two very different “phases.”
In the first half an hour after you start drinking Champagne or any alcohol, you will start to feel stimulating emotions and euphoria. Alcohol lowers your inhibitions and will start to dopamine – the brain’s happy molecule – so you are going to feel really good.
You decide to have some more alcohol since how many glasses of Champagne to get drunk isn’t a question with a clear answer when you’re tipsy. Then, you will start reacting to situations slower, and your vision will turn blurry. This happens when the alcohol starts to affect the other parts of your brain – causing depressive feelings.
The Science of Being Drunk
Alcohol has been proven to increase the Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) effects in the brain, which is an inhibitory transmitter. GABA is a neurotransmitter that tends to dampen body responses. This leads to slow movements and impaired speech that is a popular “symptom” of being drunk.
Author Note: Alcohol also depresses the behavioral inhibitory centers of your cerebral cortex and ends up making you more likely to do things that you wouldn’t dare to when sober.
Another common feeling when drunk is the constant need to visit the toilet. This is because your liver is working as hard as it can to get the alcohol out of your system. Alcohol blocks vasopressin, an antidiuretic hormone in your body.
This hormone is responsible for keeping the kidneys from excreting too much liquid by forcing the kidney to reabsorb some of the water. As vasopressin is inhibited, your body will excrete more liquid than you are taking in from the Champagne. This dehydration is one of the major causes of a hangover the day after drinking.
How Many Glasses Of Champagne To Get Drunk Based on Weight?
A large component of tolerance comes down to weight! Champagne will effect everyone differently but the best judge of how much you can have before driving is based off your weight. You can use the below chart from Healthline to get a quick idea of how much you can have before getting drunk off champagne.
There is a consideration of time which isn’t shown in the image. The longer you spread out the drinks the lower the impact of the alcohol on your body.
The alcohol percentage of champagne will vary depending on the brand and bottle but it will typically have around 12%. This is approximately the same as a sparkling wine or prosecco.
By utilizing the Healthline blood alcohol percentage we can see that 5 glasses of champagne can definitely get you drunk. The only thing missing is the time component, how fast you drink the 5 glasses of champagne will change the impact.
Champagne contains 80 calories per glass. This is less than a glass of red or white wine.
Yes! The bubbles will create a reaction in your body that gets you drunk faster than wine.
Sparkling Wine vs. Champagne?
Now that we have figured out how many glasses of Champagne to get drunk, let’s get to the difference between the bubblies. Not every fizzy alcohol is built the same.
All bottles of Champagne are sparkling wine, but not every bottle of sparkling wine is Champagne.
There are many types of sparkling wines, and the most common are Champagne, prosecco, cava, and American sparkling wine. Champagne is only allowed to be labeled Champagne if it is made in the Champagne region located in northern France.
A regular Champagne or American sparkling wine is made by blending three grapes: chardonnay, pinot noir, and Pinot Meunier. If you come across a Champagne or American sparkling wine called “Blanc de Blancs,” that means it is made using only chardonnay.
Opposed to that, a Champagne or American sparkling wine called “blanc de noirs” is made using only pinot noir. Prosecco is the Italian version of sparkling wine. Prosecco or glera grapes are used to make this wine. Cava is the Spanish form of sparkling wine, and it is made from a mixture of macabeo, parellada, and xarello grapes.
Why Are Champagne Prices So Different?
The price is chosen by these three factors:
- How much work was involved in producing the wine?
- Is the land of the grape-growing region expensive?
- How many bottles were produced?
- What size bottle is it (Some like the Nebuchadnezzar are huge)
Champagne and most American sparkling wines are made with the “methode champenoise,” a very strict list of rules developed in France. This technique includes creating the effervescence (or bubbles) in the bottle when going through secondary fermentation. This is a long and complex process, and the winemaker has to handle each individual bottle multiple times.
Prosecco, and a few other popular sparkling wines, achieve their bubbles because the secondary fermentation occurs in the large tank of wine (the Charmat technique), and then the sparkling wine is filled into individual bottles. The cheaper sparkling wines will get carbon dioxide pumped into the giant tank and then are transferred into bottles, making the process less time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Do They Taste Different?
The only way to find your favorite sparkling wine is to taste them all! There are so many distinct flavors such as bready, citrusy, fruity, and more. Look at the bottles carefully, and you will notice sparkling wine labeled “brut” or “extra dry.”
Brut will taste dry, without any sweetness at all. Extra dry is going to taste a bit sweet. It’s funny how “extra dry” really means less dry and is even sweeter than brut, with a much softer feeling in the mouth.
How to Cure a Champagne Hangover?
Maybe you didn’t know about how many glasses of Champagne to get drunk, and now it’s the next day, and you can’t get out of bed. Getting champagne drunk seems fun at the moment but can feel terrible later. Here are a few remedies to help you get through the day!
Now keep in mind that these are only suggestions and not proven cures, so try them out to see what works for you.
Water
Everyone knows that drinking some water is essential for a hangover. Drinking all night leads to a lot of toilet visits, and with that comes dehydration. After a busy night, you are almost guaranteed to wake up dehydrated.
Author Note: A good way to rehydrate if you have a champagne hangover is to purchase and use rehydration sachets or effervescent tablets. You can find them in a local pharmacy, and they contain many minerals and salts, which will help with facilitating rehydration.
Ginger
Ginger is a natural anti-nausea remedy. Nausea is definitely one of the worst symptoms of having a champagne hangover. And if this is something that happens to you, drinking a cup of hot ginger tea or taking a ginger supplement can really help.
Painkillers
Painkillers that contain Acetaminophen (for example, Tylenol) and Ibuprofen (like Advil) will help stop muscle aches and headaches during a hangover. These drugs may have a few side effects, so read the packages for more details. And, of course, all of these remedies require calm and rest on the day after drinking.
What to avoid
In order to avoid making your champagne hangover worse than it already is, here are some things to avoid doing the next day.
Exercise
Working out as a cure to your champagne hangover is not a good approach. You really can’t “sweat out” a hangover, unfortunately. It is only going to stress your body out more when all it needs is rest.
Coffee
Drinking coffee when hungover may sound like the right thing to do, but it has its downsides too. It will give you an energy boost and help you feel more alert, but caffeine is a diuretic similar to alcohol. This means it is going to make your kidneys put out more water again.
Caffeine is also a stimulant that might make anxiety and cramps worse.
Drinking more alcohol
Drinking alcohol to cure a hangover is not a good idea. Hangover symptoms start once the alcohol concentration in your blood reaches zero. So, all you are doing is just delaying the massive hangover to a later time. There is no way to avoid the inevitable, so just power through it.
The Last Toast
Giving in to the sweet taste of bubbles can be easy, but watch out for how many glasses of Champagne to get drunk! Always be in control of the amount you drink to avoid lowering your inhibitions and doing something you will regret the next day; we have all been there. But a glass or two can’t hurt, right?
To living a full-bodied life,
Wesley