Chugging your lager is so passé. Luckily, if you’re in London, you can breathe yours in, instead.
On the site of an ancient monastery, Brits can now get buzzed by inhaling instead of drinking, the AP reports. At a pop-up bar, Alcoholic Architecture, a humidifier pumps cocktails into vapors in an enclosed space, allowing patrons to get their drink fix by breathing in the booze, as well as absorbing it through their skin and eyes.
The menu is inspired by the location, with spirits and beers all made by monks, including Chartreuese, Benedictine, Trappist beer, and Buckfast, which the site describes as “a fortified wine so savage that Scotland’s parliament is reportedly drafting legislation to stop the caffeinated intoxicant from entering their country.”
The vapors are so strong that guests have to wear protective suits and are advised to consume only 60% of their normal alcoholic intake, says Time Out London. “It’s going straight into the bloodstream, completely bypassing the liver,” co-founder Sam Bompass of the team Bompass & Parr, told Marketing Magazine.
This isn’t the first bar to serve its patrons vaporized booze. A Chicago bar’s success with a “Vaportini” inspired it to create a version for sale online. And health authorities in the US have expressed concerns about young people and those trying to avoid the calories in drinking alcohol rigging up do-it-yourself versions at home—risking potentially deadly overdoses.
The health issue is that by passing the liver skips the “first pass metabolism,” making the vapor intoxicate patrons more powerfully and quickly than a regular drink, Dr. William Shanahan, a specialist in addiction recovery, told the AP. “This has the potential to cause serious side effects as well as brain damage in the developing young brain.”
What a buzzkill.
