Save Yourself The Hangover And Order This Cocktail On A Night Out

Let's just get this out of the way: There is no alcoholic drink that won't give you a hangover. Your own personal tolerance will vary, but alcohol is quite literally toxic (we mean this as a value-neutral statement), and that's going to have some effect on your body no matter how cute you get with it. That being said, there are certain drinks that will give you a really rough hangover and others that won't leave you feeling like you just got flattened by a steamroller. So, if you want to have the best odds of waking up fresh as a daisy, you might want to drink a vodka soda — both because of hydration and because of something called congeners.

Despite what your party-hardy college roommate told you, a hangover is not just a matter of being dehydrated. It's true that alcohol dehydrates you, but the idea that you can counterbalance the effects of alcohol with sips of water simply isn't borne out in reality. (In fact, there is no cure for a hangover.) With that said, drinking water certainly won't hurt you, and the soda water in this cocktail might be able to stave off the symptoms of dehydration that make a hangover worse.

Generally speaking, the more alcohol you drink, the worse your hangover will be. While the amount of alcohol (or ethanol) you drink is the primary factor behind how bad a hangover is, there are some spirits that cause worse hangovers than others. This is thought to be because of congeners, chemical byproducts from the fermentation process that remain in the alcohol. Bourbon, the American whiskey that's especially popular in Kentucky, contains the most congeners and as such gives people the worst hangovers. At least, that was what scientists found when they examined the topic in a paper published by Current Drug Abuse Reviews. Vodka, on the other hand, contains almost zero congeners. As such, it gives consumers a milder hangover (granted that the same amount of ethanol is consumed).

Once again, if you're drinking alcohol, there's no way to get around a hangover (yes, even natural wine causes a hangover). But, if you want the best chance of avoiding the worst of it, a vodka soda should be the drink you order on your next night out. Or, if you're a homebody, make sure to add Kirkland Signature's seltzer version of a vodka soda to your home bar.