What happens when you mix alcohol with coffee? Is it safe to drink?
Times of India
January 13, 2022
01/6 What happens when you mix alcohol and coffee?
Mixing and infusing alcohol with coffee or caffeine based drinks has been an age old practice, right from making aromatic cocktails with Rum, Scotch or Jagerbomb, all these drinks are often infused with caffeine to amp up the experience, but is it safe to mix the two? Also, there are times when we often indulge in a hot piping coffee right after alcohol to stay alert and sane. Is that actually safe? If these questions have made you ponder over your drinking habits, then here’s an insight on why you should or should not mix alcohol and coffee!
02/6 What happens when you mix alcohol and coffee?
Both alcohol and coffee are two different drinks that work differently when consumed separately. While coffee is rich in caffeine, which acts as a stimulant and can instantly boost your energy levels and make you feel alert. On the other hand, alcohol too can lift up your mood instantly, but it acts as a depressant, which makes you feel sleepy and relaxed rather than making you
Alter and active. But what happens when you end up mixing the two and how your body reacts to it?
03/6 What happens when a stimulant and depressant are combined?
Whether you consume one after the other or just combine caffeine and alcohol, the impact will be more or less the same. Usually, when a stimulant is mixed with a depressant, the stimulant can often mask the depressant’s effects, which indicates that the even after combining the two you may feel more energetic, alert and active, but is good?
04/6 Is it good when two are combined?
The instant effect of mixing caffeine and alcohol may seem very positive and will make you feel more energetic, but it hardly has any impact on the level of alcohol in your blood or how it flushes out the alcohol from the body. Since, mixing the two keeps you alert, chances are that the intake of alcohol is more in such a case, which may have other effects on the body like alcohol poisoning.
05/6Should you be mixing the two?
The answer to this may still remain subjective, as adding energy drinks or caffeinated drinks or combining coffee with alcohol has been a common practice since ages, but according to experts, this combination may have other effects on the body like intoxication, alcohol poisoning, liver and kidney issues in the long terms. According to FDA the addition and amalgamation of caffeinated drinks and alcohol is considered unsafe.
In 2010, the FDA released a warning to four beverage producing companies that the caffeine in the drinks was an unsafe food additive. As a result of this directive, these companies removed caffeine and other stimulants from beverages. .
06/6 In a nutshell
Mixing the two instantly does not have any negative impact rather in most cases it keeps you energetic and alert. But according to experts, it is not a great idea to mix the two.
However, in context of some drinks, which are mostly consumed with energy drinks or caffeinated drink combinations, like Rum and coke or Irish Coffee or Vodka, it is suggested to either avoid or stick to a very small quantity of the drink as mixing the two can instantly spike up the energy levels in the body, it also leads to instant release of sugar in the bloodstream, which may affect the body in several ways. Thus, it is better to avoid or else stick to a small quantity, but certainly these two ingredients together aren’t a good combination.