If you’ve ever felt like you caught a bigger buzz from the first glass of champagne poured from a bottle, you weren’t just imagining it. According to professor of medicine Merlin Thomas, that first glass will get the person who drinks it drunker than the second, third, and fourth glasses poured from the same bottle and it’s all because of the power of the fizz.
In his new book, “The Longevity List,” Thomas debunks myths about our eating and drinking habits, including this one about champagne. He explains that while food can slow the absorption of alcohol into our system, drinking the bubbly stuff actually speeds it up.
Once the cork is popped, the carbon dioxide in the champagne starts to escape as gas bubbles move to the surface. When we drink it, our stomachs fill up and the fizz forces our bodies to absorb the alcohol at a faster rate. That’s why you feel more intoxicated from a glass of bubby than a glass of flat white wine.
And the first glass of the bottle has more bubbles, so that means more bubbles in your tummy, increasing alcohol absorption. The cold temperature of the champagne also gets you tipsier because it bubbles less before it hits your stomach. So warm, flat champagne would give you less of a buzz, but nobody wants a glass of that!
Source: Country Living UK