For the non-Americans in the audience, what is White Claws?
Soda water with vodka and a homeopathic amount of fruity flavoring
I keep seeing people make fun of it online but that sounds like something I’d enjoy. My drink of choice for a few years now has been the depressing combination of whatever carbonated water is available with whatever better-than-rotgut-but-only-just vodka is available.
Rotgut-tier is also fine in a pinch. But the bad stuff here will make you blind.
(I’m also a fan of “give me your sweetest, fruitiest, girliest drink”, which was great fun back in uni when all the dudes around me were ordering bitter beverages they clearly didn’t enjoy. By trying to project masculinity to the girls around us, they were actually betraying an underlying insecurity about it - and by ordering my girly drink I was gently lampshading that idea. Fun times.)
They’re delightful. I personally prefer whiskey and when I want carbonated alcohol I tend towards a beer or a bourbon spritzer (or it’s wine sibling), but they’re easy and refreshing.
And yeah, as a chick who likes neat bourbon, it’s amusing seeing men who are clearly uncomfortable with the fact that they don’t like stuff like it. Like dude, just order what you like
I really enjoy a white claw or the various similar brands. I don’t know what it is but if I drink a lot of those I have a “lighter” feeling of drunk. It feels nice, and I never get hungover from these drinks. I’m sure it’s possible of course
If you’re drinking for a buzz, then that’s the best way. All the calories you’re getting are only from alcohol. If you drink other cocktails or beer/wine, you’re drinking a lot of sugar, which adds up over time.
Source: my beer gut because I love the taste of craft beer
Vodka seltzer
Sounds good – my go-to drink at my local is a vodka and soda with a lime wedge. (Occasionally will get a vodka and tonic with a twist if I’m feeling daring.)
A can of carbonated water with a shot of vodka in it.
Just as much flavour as a typical flavoured carbonated water too
Just to clarify at least original White Claw gets its alcohol from fermented sugar. It’s basically a gluten free clear beer with no hops and fruit flavor added.
High Noon and anything labeled Vodka soda use actual distilled spirit. Those are more expensive and taste better, especially after a few.
Depends on the state, no? Many states will tax distilled spirits higher than just fermented beverages, even if the end product is essentially just a 5% 12oz can.
We need these laws to change, imo.
it does not depend on the state, white claw does not have vodka in it. high noon does.
It’s honestly really refreshing during summer to drink vodka + carbonated water. If it’s really hot (or I’m super full of food) I don’t want much taste and carbonated water does a good job of hiding away the vodka taste.
It’s a common drink in Finland, Koskenkorva vodka and vichy (water)
Sounds like the water provides the freshness and the alcohol is around only to get you drunk. Just order carbonated water.
Why order vodka if you don’t like the taste? If the goal is get drunk, just choose a drink that you find pleasant.
The alcohol is there to relax me.
Why order vodka if you don’t like the taste
It’s cheap and does the trick. And it can be pleasant, ice cold or in say carbonated water/vichy. Maybe it’s a cultural difference but just seems amusing to explain this.
idk where the other guy is from but your take is the norm here in america, also sitting here mildly perplexed at this requiring explanation… maybe OP isn’t a drinker?
a drink that you find pleasant
404 tasty alcohol not found
It’s a matter of taste but out of hard liquor not flavored after I think brandy can be genuinely tasty. Ice cold good vodka can be refreshing. Sauna and ice cold vodka is worth trying out
Summer drink is a Gin and Tonic.
Nothing is better after mowing the lawn than a shot of Pin-Sol with lime.
GT is great
Vodka sodas aren’t a global thing?
I would think they are but they’re not familiar to everyone (actually just had to explain the drink in another reply hah)
An energy drink
Found the husband!
Basically flavoured water with alcohol.
And bubbles
White claw is a drink that comes in vaguely energy-drink looking cans, tastes bad (if it has any flavor at all), and has a slight alcohol content.
In fairness, my opinion of flavor should be taken with a grain of salt (lol) because I really dislike the taste of alcohol and am honestly surprised anyone could drink even a low percentage without recognizing ethanol’s horrible flavor.
Huh, you may be surprised to hear, but I actually LIKE the taste of ethanol in many drinks.
Ethanol is also grest for extracting flavours from various fruits and herbs.
Another thing that is relevant to my opinions on this topic: I don’t get drunk.
My watch confirms that my heart rate and breathing are affected, but apart from the burn going down (and a headache if I drink more than a few shots), I feel no other effects. So unlike most people I don’t have the same source of positive associations with the taste.
That being said, from a strictly flavor perspective, Jin isn’t horrible. Juniper is one of the few flavors that doesn’t clash with ethanol as much as others. Grapefruit also fits with the taste of alcohol pretty well, but apart from those… I think I’d rather a capri sun than a cocktail lol
I wonder if you and I are similar. I wouldn’t say I don’t get drunk; if I drink enough I get all of the non-fun things like being unsteady on my feet, and I wouldn’t be safe to drive. On the other hand, I don’t get any of the fun things people talk about like being more relaxed, getting uninhibited, whatever a “buzz” is, etc.
If I drink a lot I’ll also get slightly dizzy and like feel like my vision is slightly delayed, but I’m still able to keep my balance and focus. I’ll also sometimes get sick to my stomach, but food helps with that.
But yeah I don’t get any positive effects either. No buzz, no happiness, no reduced inhibitions.
Also turns out you and I aren’t the only people like this. Everytime I bring it up on lemmy some other person seems to comment that they feel the same.
Do other drugs like weed or stimulants not work too? and are you ADHD?
I never really did much in the way of drugs. When I was a kid I was given morphine in the hospital, and that made me hallucinate like crazy. When dentists used to use Novocaine, they always had to give me twice as much as they normally would. I only tried pot once, (well, twice, a day or two apart) about a dozen years ago, and I didn’t notice any effect.
To my knowledge I’m not ADHD, though I’m not sure how I’d know if I was.
How about you?
Ditto to the dentists and the weed. And I’ve not done any opiates that I can remember but my cousin, who is similar to me, said morphine did nothing for his broken leg but make him feel sick to his stomach so he just wouldn’t take it.
I am ADHD. Methylphenidate (Ritalin) helped my focus but made me like physically anxious and sick to my stomach, amphetamine (adderall) typically feels like nothing though it helps with executive dysfunction and sometimes I feel cold or sleepy.
The reason I asked is because some of the others who shared my sentiment about alcohol mentioned the same thing about weed and painkillers and had ADHD. Some of them also mentioned having red hair, but I don’t really fit that category.
Not feeling the “high” of drugs does sound like it would be related to adhd since it would imply abnormalities in reward pathways in the brain, and from what I can tell, the weed and painkiller issues seem more like dysfunctional opioid receptors. Then again I’m not a doctor lol
5% ABV, might be slight in Poland
Some people I know call anything 5% or below “bitch beers” because it’s a slight amount of alcohol.
“Hard seltzer.” fruit scented fizz water with a little booze in it, marketed mainly to women.
If a 12 oz can at 5% ABV once per day makes you feel liver pain, there’s probably something wrong with your liver, and maybe the drinking life isn’t for you.
It’s fine, I’ll just take more Tylenol to deal with the pain.
I did the same almost, bought weird new energy drinks, was about to drink one at work, looked at the can better, 5,5% alcohol. Whoops.
Drank it on the drive home instead, naturally
Why the fuck are you drinking alcohol and driving?
If god didn’t want us to drink and drive then why’d he invent those nifty beer can hats?
And this
Holy fuck, they really exist: https://thetikit.com/
yeah i got one of those and my wife got really mad at me. i mostly just drove 5 blocks to work in a 30mph residential road. if i got on the highway, i’d take it out and put the belt on
Don’t even have to stop driving to top up. I couldn’t find a picture for the one I’ve seen with bait, liquor, and ammo sold in the drivethru.
If they get past a 0.07 with 1 white claw, I envy their lack of tolerance induced financial burdens and I hope they have a great time where nobody gets hurt but I also hope they know their limit and never drink and drive because we all share the road and a drunk driver probably won’t end up killing the person who doesn’t understand that the left lane is for crime that really ruins the buzz on my drive home.
I had already opedened it, what else was I supposed to do, pour it out?? How wasteful smdh fr
In the 19th century all kinds of “snake oil” mixtures were sold as pain killers and energy tonics. The vast majority were just something suspended in alcohol. Alcohol dulls pain and makes you feel a rush of euphoria. So people thought it was “medicine.”
It continues to this day. My wife was convinced that a certain kombucha was benefitting her gut microbiome in some profound way because it made her feel so great to drink it. Turns out the brand got in trouble - their process was letting through 1.5-2% alcohol (yes my wife is a lightweight).
What brand?
White Claw
Michelob Ultra
Mike’s hard lemonade
Grain Belt
Mm yup. Fruit juice.
CHIT!
GT’s, around 15 years ago
We like to talk about drugs like there’s this clear delineation between something that is and isn’t medicine… but it really comes down to the situation and the dosage.
For much of history and in most places, liquor was the most effective painkiller available. More recently, fentanyl started as a synthetic, medical grade painkiller. It’s still widely used across hospitals for that. Before synthetics, it was opium (otherwise known as heroin), derived from poppy plants.
Heroin is made from opium. It’s not the same.
It’s derived from petrochemicals but it works on the same receptors. And 50 years ago people were screeching about heroin, a completely unnatural man made synthesized drug far more potent than opium (which is roughly 10% morphine, heroin being around 2-3x stronger than pure morphine), in much the same way they are screeching about fentanyl now. “It’s a scourge, it kills people, it’s destructive” etc
All of those things can be true and fentanyl is absolutely far more dangerous given its potency (though giving someone with 0 opioid tolerance heroin isn’t necessarily safe either).
The real enemy is addiction, and the real real enemy there is a lack of resources and empathy. A lack of supports, a lack of housing, a lack of meaningful jobs and supportive welfare, a lack of healthcare, a lack of a society that doesn’t focus on punitive incarceration efforts over rehabilitative treatment and equitable respect
But keep focusing on the fentanyl boogeyman. Or tranq. That’s the problem. Just get that off the streets and it’ll all go away
No. Heroin is made from opium. From poppies. This has geo-political importance. Fentanyl is fully synthetic.
Yes I’m aware. fentanyl (it’s in my post) is derived from petrochemicals but still acts on the opioid system. The whole “being derived from petrochemicals” thing is what makes it “fully synthetic” which is just a creepy spooky nonsense weasel word that anti science nutjobs use to promote shit like anti vaccination. The fact that it is synthetically derived doesn’t make it any more or less dangerous, the fact that it’s significantly more potent does, but even with that to an experienced user it’s just a far more intense heroin, which is similar to how heroin is a far more intense morphine
Tbf I could’ve probably used the noun instead of “it’s” but I feel like the context is pretty clear if you read past the first sentence
The real enemy is addiction
With Fentanyl it’s different. It can be lethal the first time you try it. We might say addiction is one problem but lack of regulation and predictability in dosage is also a problem. Much of what’s dangerous about illicit drugs is not knowing quite what you are getting.
Heroin addiction can also be immediate, so I’d say the mere availability of the drug is a problem. It’s not just that sometimes an addiction develops and then there’s a problem.
I agree with most of what you said, just not this one part. It’s an antiquated point of view from rosier times with less dangerous drugs on the street.
Very true. The difference between medicine and poison is often just dosage.
Never been ID’ed for an energy drink.
Be glad you don’t live in the UK then. You have to be able to prove that you’re over 16, or 18 - I forget which. Luckily I don’t have to worry about that being 27, but it does get annoying when I forget about it and take a monster through the self checkouts. Normally I have to wait maybe 5 minutes for the overworked employee to notice me and authorize the purchase.
They did this in Sweden too. Then people stopped buying energy drinks, because most people self checkout and you had to wait for an employee to come check that you are an adult. And swedes being swedes, they would rather die than go through that.
Now they have a permanent employee checking from afar with a tablet, approving people without any intervention or interruption. I wouldnt be surprised if the energy drink brands partially pay for them.
I need to move to Sweden
I only know about Sytembolaget thanks to Nanowar of Steel
I’d be awesome PR for them if they were paying for it because waiting for an employee to check your ID for a damn energy drink while you’re trying to get on with your day sounds annoying as shit
I tolerate it for alcohol but energy drinks would be too much
Honestly caffeine should be age restricted to like 15+. Its a very addictive psychoactive drug.
Energy drinks are 14+ in my country. No idea whether it’s enforced though. Only became interested in the during uni.
Energy drinks are pretty bad for you though. Probably should do the same thing in the US.
We don’t do public health here anymore. Soon RFK will advise babies drink energy drinks.
We are like two years max from the Brawdo timeline.
Soylent green has electrolytes
Technically you dont have to, its not an actual law just supermarkets being melts
hmm, there’s gotta be some agreement or contract that makes them.
no business is going to willingly get in the way of their own profits like that. no companies id for alcohol because they’re concerned for your health lol. if there isn’t a law or legal incentive for them to do that then they have credible evidence that there will be if they don’t.
you can’t survive as a business in 2025 if you willingly do things that could show down sales for something silly like “health and safety”
Why do people have to be ID’d for an energy drink? We don’t have to be ID’d for them here
im rarely id’d for beer…
One of my American colleagues in Japan once got written up because he didn’t know chūhai was alcoholic. It came in a can with colourful fruits on it on a shelf next to the coke.
Couldn’t have been STRONG ZERO
That stuff still gives me nightmares
Do people not read the package at all for the food they consume? It says right on the front the alcohol content.
Put it near enough to the energy drink case in the convenience store, and this kind of mixup seems plausible.
Yeah that’s kind of insane. I kind of get it if you’re seeing it for the first time and someone else is holding it, but to actually buy it and not realize it’s alcohol is a completely different level.
Assuming this is real, maybe the wife bought them for herself and hubby thought, “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I started snagging these bad boys”. She notices that some are missing, asks about it, and we have our reveal.
Party pooper
“thought”
Watched my boss drink one of those and a red bull at the same time. Regular thing for her apparently.
Is this from a Trailer Park Boys episode?
This lady makes six figures for sure. Sounds like it though.
That’s a Redbull Vodka with soda water.
Like alternating between, mixed drink, or just both cans right to the mouth at once?
She had two cans open, alternating between the two. It was like watching a train wreck.
Bet he’s been having a very good work time though.
Let’s be clear here, calling white claws an alcoholic beverage is… Technically true, but it’s literally %2.5, I wouldn’t put it past someone to not notice they’re drinking with that weak sauce
They’re 5%
The blue cans are 8%.
Where are you getting that number from? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an alcoholic beverage with that low of a percentage
It’s apparently not white claws, but 2.5s absolutely exist
they’re…
they’re not?
Newp! Alcoholic seltzer!
That’s just one drink a day, not that bad for your liver. (For some anyway, I have no idea how some people drink so much.)
If one was to drink a beer first thing in the morning to get an energy boost it would be called “hair of the dog”. IMO, dude in this fictional story has a hangover and the malt liquor alleviates his symptoms.
source: reformed boozehound
If it’s in the car, it’s pretty illegal a lot of places.
Depends on how strong and how much, some comments saying 2.5% though which probably isn’t too bad.
Claws are 5%
Mango juice
Mmm yeah. Well, back to it then
Do it lady!
Ok Chit
