Heh. Yeah 90% is too strong. The stuff I keep around for the lab (mostly at least) is 95% azeotropic ethanol, I wouldn't go to the trouble to get it rigorously anhydrous only to dilute it for drinking, about £20 a bottle, russian, undenatured. Doesn't give a foul hangover if you don't drink too much of it, but it HAS to be diluted down from 95% before you can drink it without burning the stomach (did once and it was awful) But one little teacup of the stuff filled about 3/4 full and the rest made up with some less fiery beverage of choice can easily go down in one go and be followed up by a liberal, generous and greedily gulped down pull from something like a carton of fresh orange juice, guava juice, lychee juice or something else tasty. Actually this stuff tastes better than cheap vodka, since unlike the drinks industry, for a chemical vendor, if they sell 'ethanol, 95%' (albeit written in russian) and undenatured, then that is what it must be, as far as the person who buys it is concerned, thats what they ordered and they did so for a reason. So probably better quality than cheap vodka where I just BET they collect the heads from the distillation, and the tails, and distill it down for the last, dirtiest scrape of the bottom of the barrel, before using that, maybe diluted with more, cheapish low quality spirit and selling that. I find now that I can't stand cheap vodka, people say vodka has no taste or smell but it does, it does when you've actually had both high quality (and expensive) vodka intended as a craft-made spirit for drinking, and diluted pure ethyl alcohol. And to me now it makes my gorge rise, won't drink that crap. (and why would I when I'd get one mug out of a 5th, maybe plus one shot, for about £6.70 or so, or an entire liter of azeotropic EtOH that is both convenient to render drinkable by dilution alone, is specifically intended to have water as the only other non-trace level byproduct for uses that actually NEED ethyl alcohol, not methanol, isopropanol, n-propanol, the butanols and fusel-alcohols as are found in grain spirits, especially those of poor quality, for £20 and free shipping, no sky-high rates of tax-rape either by the UK govt. If that was sold here it'd probably cost about £30-40 in tax alone, perhaps more, before the price of the goods just in alcohol duty. I don't see why they ought to profit off my back when they have done me no service, but rather, demanded money with menaces, threaten and bully their way into people's pockets.)
I can't imagine drinking 90% spirit using vodka as a diluent though, damn. No wonder that fucked you up pretty hard
This russian stuff, not intended FOR drinking but still safe TO ingest, when diluted, it really has a whopper of a kick to it. One teacup part full and with at least 1/4 full of something nonalcoholic is enough that I'll feel warm all over in a few tens of seconds, slightly intoxicated with a minute to a minute and a half, briefly incoordinated and then wake up 7 hours later. Gives you just enough time to chase it down with a cold drink, put some music on whilst laying on the sofa and to smoke a cigar and briefly, intoxicates somewhat before one blacks out. I don't drink it to get drunk, not much of a drinker actually. Rather, if in physical pain and have to wait hours before something like a med refill whilst everything is already wearing or near worn off, and there are a few hours to kill, thats the kind of reason I'll drink it, or other alcohol. To serve as a fairly predictable and effective general anaesthetic for periods of up to 5-6 hours or so once in a while, if needs must. Otherwise I tend to stick to beer, although I won't turn down a margarita or mojito especially, those have to be two of my favourite cocktails, if I had to pick three, the other would be one of my own, something I call a manhattan project; a tall, narrow glass with a layer of care+ brand codeine cough syrup (which is flavored/preserved with chloroform, which is essential to the flavour of the cocktail), this topped off with mostly tesco own brand limeade carbonated pop with a little vodka added, a squeeze of fresh lime, then at the top two slices of fresh lime are hung off the glass, poking inwards and a slice of lemon is used to make a fruit 'cage' to hold in place a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half of diethyl ether, solubilized with 30ml or so of vodka and some sugared lime juice plus a pinch of freshly grated lemon and lime zests floated on the top of that, and outside the 'cage', ideally some ice cubes floated on top of the finished cocktail.
Its getting harder to find that brand of cough syrup though so I don't often get to make it, very rare now to find a pharmacy that carries it, and whats more if they do, that will sell it; so usually it has to be bought online. And theres only enough for two cocktails in one bottle, so its a nuisance to get enough especially if more than a couple are to partake, at most it can be stretched to three servings per bottle.
The 'manhattan project' (my little pun on the manhattan cocktail, and the united states' nuclear warfare program
) does both taste pretty good and pack a hell of a punch to it, though, for all the scarcity of one of the key ingredients.
phobia.