Wine a little more

The University’s view is correct, but so is ours. Thankfully, we can improve our awful drinking habits to alleviate the University’s concerns and still have fun. In general, if the drink of choice isn’t vodka with Coke, it’s cheap gin with tonic, and usually with the tonic water poured quite frugally. If not that, then the drink of choice is probably Natural Ice or Pabst Blue Ribbon. If these beverages aren’t being advertised on the basis of being cheap, they are advertised on being cold — everything but being enjoyable. Our kind of beverages is terrifying to the University, because it serves only one purpose: getting people drunk. These beverages are about neither taste, flavor nor enjoyment. When drinking is solely about getting wasted, the University gets nervous because that usually translates into business for McCosh Health Center and PMC.

In the context of room parties, we ought to encourage “classier” drinking. Not just fine wines, but also good beers and cocktails. Not only are such drinks more fitting with the snobby, elitist image Princeton already has (as exemplified by the Princeton version of the light bulb), but this style of drinking also enables people to drink for reasons other than to get smashed. Classier drinking will increase our appreciation of alcohol, and therefore even though we will be buying less alcohol for a higher price, our enjoyment of alcohol will increase.

It’s understandable that undergraduates feel the need to buy cheap, strong alcohol. Thanks to America’s strict liquor laws, there’s a preference for easily transportable, easily concealed, easily disposable liquor, for which cheap hard liquor fits perfectly. Alcohol has become like Tang powder from Outdoor Action: easy to carry, and it just needs to be mixed with fluids to make it drinkable. Thanks to the Street’s preference of free, accessible beer over-rationing on party nights, clubs tend to serve non-members two options: Milwaukee’s Best, or some more Milwaukee’s Best. While the beer affectionately known as “Beast” has its own unique qualities, it’s an acquired taste and therefore sets a rather low bar for a drink’s taste. If one is unaccustomed to fine booze, which is true of the vast majority of minors, it’s difficult to see the benefit of buying something more expensive when the standard is set so low.

The fine beer dinners, pub nights and social hours of the eating clubs and residential colleges are fantastic examples of ways in which we can counteract the urge to go cheap. The eating clubs have worked hard to provide quality beers to their members. The Butler Upperclass Social Hour and the Rocky-Mathey Taste of Belgium and Beyond night are perfect examples of how people can be introduced to better drinks without being a member of a club. Those events should be more frequent and open to all sophomores and freshmen who are of legal age because of the positive impact those events have on people’s preferences for drinking.

The U-Store should also be thanked for its wide range of mixers and cocktail ingredients. There’s margarita mix and grenadine, lime juice and tonic water. That’s more than enough to encourage healthier drinking. Whenever undergraduates switch from quickly taking shots to slowly sipping cocktails, and whenever undergraduates switch from drinking for the blackout to drinking for the taste, they will slow their rate of consumption. Slower rates of consumption of alcohol make it less likely that someone is sent to the hospital. Being drunk is perfectly acceptable, as long as getting drunk is performed in a responsible manner.

So invest in a cocktail shaker, invest in wine glasses and invest in a cocktail recipe book. When you buy alcohol, buy the expensive stuff. Get interested in scotches, wines and beer from microbreweries. Learn the various vocabularies related to drinking, because talking smartly about booze will also change our approach to drinking for the better. If those old enough to drink respect alcohol, that respect will trickle down to minors. By drinking classier and better, we will end up drinking more safely and, above all, more enjoyably.

Christopher Troein is an economics major from Windsor, England. He can be reached at ctroein@princeton.edu.