Beer before liquor never been sicker?

When I first began going out for cocktails and dancing, one of the first rules I learned—and probably many other US students did/do too—is “beer before liquor never been sicker”. I used to hold this as just your basic drinking wisdom along with the rule to drink tons of water before hitting the sack to keep the hangover at bay. Maybe I´m a lightweight, but I can get a hangover off two drinks, so this is always a good rule.

But here in Chile—correct me if I´m wrong—the rule is actually the opposite. They start out with beer and then they drink rum and coke or piscola or other mixed cocktails. Now this isn´t a hard fast rule, I´m sure many Chileans mix it up, but there is this general idea that you’re less likely to get sick if you start out with the light weight drinks before moving on to rum, for example. And it works.

Before living in Chile I definitely adhered to the “liquor before beer” rule, just to be on the safe side. Why have a hangover when you can avoid it? Now I believe both rules work in their corresponding cultures and I think I’ve discovered why. It has to do with drinking velocity. My experience is that here in Chile the parties last longer so in general we seem to drink at a slower rate, so as the body slowly gets beer and wine introduced to it, and quite often the alcohol is accompanied by food – an asado, choripan, anticuchos, carne…mmm, so the body accustoms to the lesser-alcohol content. And then a person can have a rum and coke, or a caipirihna or whatever. So in the end, it’s like when you warm up before exercising, you start out at a nice pace and only when your body is ready do you…bring out the heavy artillery, or something.

Though now that I´ve stated the rule, there are exceptions…like for example, the pisco sour. For those of you who haven´t tried one, it’s my favorite drink, sooo good. Because it’s tasty and generally one of the cheaper drinks on the menu. I used to prefer mojitos y caipiriñas but it’s soo much easier to order a pisco sour. Because even though mojitos y caipiriñas are often on the menu, that doesn’t mean that they actually have them at the bar you’re at. It really depends on what type of bar in what neighborhood, etc. A pisco sour is just a more reliable drink here in Chile. But I digress… anyway at a meal or for cocktail hour, the pisco sour is often the first drink served, even though pisco is a hard alcohol. But then it’s on to beer for those who drink it and after that, rum, pisco, vodka, etc.