Beware of These Dangerous Cocktail Ingredients When Going to Drink
While cocktails aren’t exactly healthy ( alcohol is a toxin after all), some drinks can be more dangerous than others. These risky cocktail ingredients can be found all over the bars.
Have you ever drunk gin and tonic with homemade tonic? How about soda or sour? Maybe a fun tiki drink? Maybe a glass of creepy steaming punch from the cauldron? These are all delicious cocktails, but asCarrie Allan (not a relative) of Imbibe Magazine explains , they can also be dangerous in some situations.
Home-made tonic water, for example, can contain too much quinine – usually made from cinchona bark – and cause cinchonism , a type of poisoning with symptoms such as blurred vision, hearing impairment, dizziness, and nausea. Raw eggs, used in carbonated and acidic drinks, can carry salmonella bacteria, and most tiki bar drinks actually rely on a variety of nuts to give an island flavor, which is problematic for people with allergies. Orgeat , for example, used in Mai Tais, Royal Hawaiians and most tropical flavored parties, is essentially almond syrup. And when you see a cocktail emitting some kind of cool vapor effect, it’s because of the dry ice. An overzealous drinker who is too keen on the spectacle may accidentally swallow a little and freeze the lining of his stomach.
If you are a frequent visitor to some really trendy establishments, you may have seen black cocktails or drinks listed as “infusions.” These delicate, opaque black drinks are prepared using activated charcoal , which is non-toxic but highly absorbent. It can ruin your medications, including heart medications, antidepressants, and even birth control. And these “infusions” may contain plant substances such as quinine and wormwood (which may contain toxic thujone ), or perhaps tobacco. Some bar owners use tobacco to make bitters and infusions – for example, for Manhattan or old-fashioned ones – but the amount of nicotine in these types of infusions is probably much higher than what you get when you light a cigarette. Using too much tobacco in this way can be a one-way ticket to nicotine poisoning .
That’s not all, unpeeled citrus peels, elderberries, grapefruit, nutmeg, flower side dishes, and even cannabis are possible cocktail ingredients that can turn a fun night of drinking into a less fun night in the emergency room. Most establishments put warnings about these ingredients on their menus, but let’s be honest, how many of us are going to read all of this when we just want to get a drink and hang out with friends?
However, this does not mean that you should avoid these ingredients entirely – you just need to be aware of them and how they can affect you. These items are not always dangerous, especially if you are careful and the places where you drink know what they are doing. In fact, most of the other ingredients in cocktails are not dangerous at all. If in doubt, you can check the safety of an ingredient yourself using two FDA databases: Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) and Everything Added to Food in the United States (EAFUS) . Home mixologists canlearn more about these sometimes hazardous ingredients and how to use them safely here .