But before you start eating burnt toast and taking more shots, tune into the advice of two San Diego bartenders, David and Tina Abott*. David and Tina, who respectively have five and six years of experience behind the bar, dished in (with their fair share of disagreement) on the specific hangovers caused by common college drinks, as well as which tricks they use to ensure a smooth recovery.

Vodka

David says that because of its purity, high-quality vodka won’t give you the nausea that other liquors will, but the high concentration of alcohol makes for greater dehydration, which, as the shots add up, will probably cause an aching headache later on. To avoid the worst, however, steer clear of the cheap stuff.

Sugary Cocktails

Both Tina and David also agree that the sugary, fruit cocktails are the worst concoctions when it comes to hangovers. “Sugar always hurts,” David said. Sugar makes for greater absorption of alcohol, and the mix of all the artificial fruit flavorings will not bode well on your stomach after the third margarita, adding nausea to the headache that has already been caused by the liquor.

Beer

Each body will have it’s own physical reaction to various brands of beer, but overdoing any brew will give you a more nauseous hangover the next day. Due to its gaseous nature and the fact that it expands your stomach as the night goes on, a beer-induced hangover will probably consist of more stomach pain and nausea than anything else. As for which brand, Tina sticks to Coors while David prefers Budweiser. It’s all about personal taste and limiting yourself to what you can handle.

Avoiding and curing hangovers

“Have some Jaeger and Redbull, and then drink water,” Tina recommends. “It counteracts the effects of the hangover. The ‘bomb’ part of it really gets you up and any caffeine helps with the headache.”
Commonly known as “eating the hair of the dog that bit you,” drinking more alcohol the next morning is generally thought to be a bad idea, succeeding only in putting off your hangover symptoms until later.

“It makes the eventual hangover go by more smoothly,” David admits, although he doesn’t personally abide by the Jaegerbomb remedy. His own trick is waking up in the morning, taking Tylenol with plenty of water and going back to sleep. “It’s good to hydrate and just sleep a lot of it off.”

Admittedly, the best way to cure a hangover is to avoid it entirely, Tina said. “If you know you’ll be drinking, get a couple Gatorades and pop them in the fridge. If you can manage to pound them in before you go to bed, you won’t wake up with such a bad hangover.” She also recommends that for every drink consumed, you accompany it with a cup of water. “When I’m at the bar and I see someone drinking a lot, I’ll just slide them a water,” she said.

Both say that the most important thing is to know your own drinking limitations. All it takes is some planning. “Be conscientious of what you’re drinking,” Tina said. “Know your limit and what works best for you, and just stick to that, and you’ll be fine.”

*names have been changed