Under the Influence of Alcohol Attitudes Around the World
Defining your own drinking culture
This is The Metamorphosis Map, where I explore change in life and at work, through the lenses of my passions: travel, sketching, culture, nature and learning.
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🍸The Aperitif
My attitude to alcohol over the years has changed. A lot.
Shaped by ageing and my body’s increased sensitivity, but also knowledge, experience and exposure to other cultures.
There is always more than one way of doing things.
Including drinking alcohol.
But we didn’t order any food!
Ragazze, se non mangiate vi ubriacherete. (Girls, you’ll get drunk if you don’t eat.)
The waiter looked concerned as he served a plate of small sandwiches along with the bottle of wine.
It was early afternoon. The sun was still high over the Piazza della Repubblica.
We just looked at each another, puzzled.
Well, yes!
We were students celebrating living in Florence for a term of immersion in Italian language, culture and hopefully romance.
I don’t think we touched the food, but the vino went down a treat. And it wasn’t just the alcohol making us giddy with excitement.
Signature drinks
My impressions of drinks and habits from around the globe:
🇬🇧 UK 🍻
In the UK, alcohol is part of the social fabric of life. Many people drink to get drunk. Not everyone, but that behaviour is treated as fairly normal, even if not a great idea.
The modus operandi is to start as early as possible and not eat. Even if there’s no special occasion, it’s normal to have a few drinks after work on an empty stomach. Unless you count crisps or nuts as a meal.
But, if you haven’t grown up in that culture, it can come as a bit of a shock to witness the results. Recently, my daughter, who has never lived in the UK, was appalled to see how many adults were rolling around city streets early on a Saturday evening.
Brits also have the reputation of overdoing the alcohol on holiday. They are not the only tourists who end up urinating in a fountain in Croatia, scrawling on the Colosseum in Rome or fighting in Spain - but they are some of the worst offenders.
Thankfully, not everyone behaves like that. And, increasingly, people are moderating their drinking or turning away from alcohol altogether, mainly for health reasons. Especially since it’s become clear that there is no actual safe level of alcohol consumption.
As a result, there have been interesting developments in non-alcoholic drinks. Not only sweet soft drinks, but bitter, aromatic and more sophisticated flavours to sip and savour. On my last visit, I found lots of options in UK supermarkets and many pubs and bars.
🇫🇷 🇮🇹 France & Italy 🥂
Europe has always had a more sophisticated approach.
Savoring wine with food is normal in countries like France & Italy. In most bars you will be served snacks with any alcoholic drink. Of course, some people overdo it, but it’s not as common or acceptable as it is over the Channel.
Years ago I was surprised and impressed to discover that a guy can walk into a bar in Italy and order a glass of milk, without losing any aura. That would not happen in an English pub. Italians take their non-alcoholic drinks seriously, especially chinotto, made from the fruit of the citrus myrtifolia tree.
Long lunches with table wine were unremarkable when I worked in France. But people did not overdo it and simply had one small glass and a lot of water.
And of course, the French have the classic non-alcoholic but grown-up citron pressé. Even their fruit sirops are not strictly for kids, with refined flavours like mint, grenadine, ginger and pomegranate.
🇷🇸 🇭🇷 🇸🇮 The Western Balkans 🍷
Vineyards across the Balkan peninsula, produce some wonderful wines, for example red Prokupac from Serbia, white Malvazija from Slovenia and sweet Prošek from Croatia.
But the ubiquitous tipple in this region is brandy. Rakija is often said to be medicinal, or strength-giving. But beware.
Typically, a harmless-looking grandma will offer me a shot of her homemade pear or plum brandy. But this stuff is lethal. Often around 50% ABV. I never refuse it, because it’s a sign of hospitality and esteem. But I sip it, because if I drain it I’ll be offered another. And then I may not be able to stand or talk normally.
On the non-alcoholic side, homemade lemonade or ice tea with flavours like raspberry, ginger, and mango are delicious and available everywhere. Kombucha is also gaining popularity, and some top restaurants in Slovenia, like Tabar and Hiša Franko, specialise in making them from foraged ingredients.
🇯🇵 Japan 🍶
Japan is somewhat similar to the UK in that alcohol is used as a social lubricant. However, snacks usually feature heavily, too. In an izakaya 居酒屋 or Japanese pub, you always order small sharing plates with your drinks.
Beer, shochu, sake and whisky are favourites and often drunk in that order, to mark an initial toast, main event and farewell drink. And it’s traditional to keep your companions’ glasses topped up. Consequently, it’s easy to drink more than you planned to, just to be polite. It’s not uncommon to see a businessman passed out on a train or on a bench in the evening.
However, many people drink only small amounts of alcohol, especially women.
Tea is probably the best non-alcoholic choice in Japan, whether hot or cold. Favourites include matcha, sencha, yuzu, genmai (brown rice green tea) or mugicha (barley tea) and you can get them everywhere, including vending machines in out-of-the-way-places.
🇦🇺 Australia 🍹
I found the Aussie attitude quite similar to the British one, but a little more balanced. Or maybe I was just a bit older and wiser by the point I lived there.
My boss always cracked open a few tinnies from his office fridge on a Friday afternoon. Yes, you could carry on drinking until the early hours, but it was also trendy to eat at a nice restaurant and drink a good quality wine.
Australia boasts some excellent wines. The tradition of going to a Bottle Shop then taking a BYO (bring your own) and paying a corkage fee is a lot more affordable than ordering the same wine at three times the price in a restaurant.
These days, the younger generations are favouring non-alcoholic drinks, for a number of reasons, including health, being a designated driver, curiosity and ethnicity or religion. As in the UK, there is a now a wide range of low and non alcoholic craft beers, spirits and other drinks available in most bars and restaurants.
🇰🇭 Cambodia 🍵
Traditionally, Cambodian beer is weak, but in recent years breweries have increased the alcohol content. . Beer gardens are popular - combining outdoor drinking and snacks, with hostesses playing a big role in attracting and encouraging customers to drink more.
The local traditional tipple is a spirit made from rice or sugar cane. It is used in religious and other ceremonies. But it is often homemade and can be extremely dangerous if poorly prepared. While we were living in the country, scores of people died after drinking it at a wedding, then more succumbed at the subsequent funerals. More recently, foreign tourists had similar tragic experiences in neighbouring Laos.
Fruit juices and smoothies are tempting but can also be also risky due to poor hygiene. We were careful where we bought them. The safest non-alcoholic drink in the countryside is often Chinese tea, made from boiled water. Hold the ice, though, if it’s chipped off the back of a block lying on a lorry flat-bed.
🥃The Digestif
I’ve experienced the gamut of attitudes to drinking and seem to have settled on my own blend, influenced by bits of each culture.
I don’t drink to get drunk. But I do sometimes appreciate an alcoholic drink with a meal, or as an act of hospitality. Although these days I’m more aware of the effects, both good and bad.
I’d rather pay more for a single glass of natural wine where I don’t taste additives, than a cheap, industrially produced bottle.
And I’m more likely to turn down a second glass for a homemade lemonade, iced tea or kombucha instead.
❓How have your attitudes and tastes in drinks been influenced by places you have visited or lived?
Life is a journey and everyone’s map looks different. 🗺️
Thank you for the global tour Lisa.
In Trinidad, alcohol is often tied to celebration and food. Think ponche de crème at Christmas or a cold Carib with bake and shark. But like you, I’ve evolved. I still love my cocktails on the weekend, but I’ve learned to listen to my body.
I hope you are having a good weekend.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you drank whatever was cheapest. In China, that meant baijiu, or "rice wine." This was basically moonshine/rubbing alcohol. Peace Corps volunteers...tend to drink heavily, and by the end of our time in China just the smell of baijiu made most of us nauseous as we remembered unfortunate overindulgence! On a more serious note, one person spent months in and out of the hospital before the doctors concluded that he'd drunken some contaminated baijiu that had messed with his system--the cheap stuff is often cheap for unfortunate reasons