Get ready to clarify what you mean by “double shot”- alcohol is coming to more Starbucks locations!

Before you start picturing mochatinis, you should know that booze is a whole separate menu for Starbucks. And that the program has been piloted on a very small scale. The idea of adding booze to Starbucks came as the company tried to think of ways to combat the afternoon slump- business still booms in the morning, when everyone feels like death and looks like a zombie.

But in the afternoon hours, coffee is less of a draw, as everyone is either at work or napping. The company has used “treat receipts” to lure addicts back, and has expanded its food menu to get people in the afternoon, but Starbucks hopes alcohol is compelling enough to cement a more loyal base of late-day customers.

BusinessWeek spoke to Starbucks’ US VP, who said that the program is slowly expanding in a handful of states. The site explains:

The specific stores have been “carefully selected” and are larger and have more seating than regular Starbucks sites, Clarice Turner, senior vice president of U.S. operations, said in an interview today. Starbucks also is selling fruit-and- cheese plates and focaccia with olive oil at the stores that serve alcohol, she said. The company isn’t considering the concept for the whole chain, Turner said.

Pricing is in line with that of regular bar pricing here, with beers at about $5 a unit and wine at about $7-9 a glass in Oregon. The program is expanding to Southern California, Atlanta and Chicago. Would you go to Starbucks for a beer?

Starbucks, Now With More Alcohol! is a post from: The Inquisitr

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has some pretty disturbing numbers when it comes to the drinking, and binge drinking, in the United States. Now to be clear on what is meant by binge drinking the CDC classifies you as a  binge drinker if you consume excessive amounts of alcohol four or more times in a month.

Using that as the classification the CDC says that one in six American adults are binge drinkers and after breaking all the data down into segments like geography, age, and income level they say that Wisconsin has the most binge drinkers at 25% of the population and Utah comes in last with only 11%.

“Binge drinking falls into a category of risky drinking,” Dr. Marc Galanter, director of the NYU School of Medicine’s Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, told The Daily. “As someone who treats people with alcohol problems, I’ve seen people start with binge drinking and carry on to more severe alcoholism.”

The CDC report noted that half of all alcohol consumed in the U.S. is consumed during binge drinking. For young people, that rate shoots up to 90 percent.

via The Daily

The problem is that binge drinking, especially among college and university students, is considered to be socially acceptable but is also responsible for more than 40,000 death per year as well as contributing to violence and drunk driving.

Ever wondered which the drunkest state in the Union was? Now you know. is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Daily Beast has posted a revealing list of the 25 drunkest cities in the U.S., after filling up the mother of all spreadsheets with market research data.

Among the stats that were analyzed, the site examined how many monthly drinks are consumed per person, the percentage of binge drinkers in the population, and well, you get the idea. The point is: Boston, I’m proud of you, you lovable drunk swines! *raises glass, swaying*

Here’s how the site explained its methods:

“The Daily Beast first analyzed data from Experian Simmons, a leading market-research firm, which provided data on the average number of alcoholic drinks per month the residents of more than 200 cities across the country reported to have consumed in a survey from earlier this year. As well, we considered the percent of the population that are either binge drinkers or heavy drinkers for each metro area, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control. The average number of drinks was given twice the weight of the heavy- and binge-drinking population for the final rank.”

Boston took top spot with 7.4% of the population classed as ‘heavy drinkers’ and a 20.1% (!) termed binge drinkers. It was followed closely by Springfield, Mass., which took silver position thanks to a lofty average number of monthly drinks consumed per person – 14.6. Milwaukee, Wisconsin came in third.

There’s a further 22 spots to fill, so head here to read the rest. And if your city doesn’t register, bottoms up for next year!

[Via The Daily Beast]

Drunkest Cities in U.S. Revealed is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s easy to “give up” alcohol after a night of heavy New Year’s Eve drinking but experts say the “I’m gonna stop drinking” resolution could actually be detrimental to your health.

Referred to by a group of researchers as “Janopause” the doctors say people who stop drinking even for the entire month of January are performing a “medically futile” stunt which fails to help the liver over the long term.

Those same researchers also found that once someone participates in “Janopause” they end up harming their liver once they start drinking again because it piles extra stress on the organ. In many cases the pause will even lead to excessive “catch up” drinking that lasts for the rest of the year.

Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust explained to the DailyMail:

‘A one-hit, one-month attempt to achieve long-term liver health is not the way to approach it.

‘You’re better off making a resolution to take a  few days off alcohol a week throughout the entire year than remaining abstinent for January only.’

In the meantime researchers continue to preach the same type of sensible practices they always have, warning alcohol drinkers to avoid large amounts of alcohol (binge drinking) while not partaking in alcoholic beverages every single day of the year.

Do you find that you feel better after a month of not drinking or light drinking? If nothing else the lack of hangovers for some people might be a welcomed Janopause side effect of it’s very own.

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

New Year’s Resolution To Stop Drinking Could Be Bad For Your Health [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well here’s one for the old DUH! column.

It seems that scientists wanted to see if there was any validity to the old saying that drinking too much can lead to having unsafe sex, and potentially an HIV infection, so they got some grant money and conducted some research into the matter.

What had researchers confused over the issue it seems is the whole cause-and-effect thing. Was it too much alcohol that caused unsafe sex that could lead to HIV or was it more about personality traits in individuals where a disposition to risky behavior in general that was the cause.

The results of the research was published in the January issue of the journal Addiction and summarizes the results of 12 experiments that tested the cause-and-effect theory in a systematic way.

As anyone with any common sense would have surmised they found that alcohol consumption does indeed affect decision-making and the effect rises with the amount of alcohol consumed.

The more alcohol that participants consumed, the higher their willingness to engage in unsafe sex.

In these experiments, study participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups in which they either consumed alcohol or did not. Then their intention to engage in unsafe sex was measured. An increase in blood alcohol level of 0.1 mg/mL resulted in an increase of 5.0% (95% CI: 2.8% – 7.1%) in the indicated likelihood of engaging in unprotected sex. This result remained stable in sensitivity analyses aimed to correct for a potential publication bias.

via MedicalXpress

Like I said – DUH!

Hey folks it’s official – drinking too much alcohol leads to unsafe sex is a post from: The Inquisitr

Drinking a glass of beer, sipping on some wine or having a bourbon three times a week can cause a slight increasing in breast cancer in women according to a recent study of more than 100,000 U.S. nurses.

The association between drinking and breast cancer has been studied for years however previous studies found no link between the often deadly disease and light alcohol consumption.  The new breast cancer research conducted over a 30 year time period is the most extensive of it’s kind to date.

It should be noted that the study only shows an association between light drinking and breast cancer and not a direct link to the disease. The study did find that light drinkers tend to be less active that nondrinkers and they tend to have less healthy diets, both aspects that could bring about an increased risk in breast cancer.

The study also revealed that women who consumed three to six drinker per week had a 15 percent higher chance of developing breast cancer than their non-drinking counterparts. Research then showed for that every 10 grams of alcohol consumed daily over those amounts the chance of breast cancer increased by an additional 10 percent.

In any case drinkers must weigh the potential risks against the potential benefits, for example various studies have shown how red wine can help reduce the risk of heart disease.

The study took into account various risk factors for breast cancer in women including family history, weight, menopause, etc.

Interested parties can pick up the full study in this Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. 

Do you believe alcohol consumption leads to an increased risk of breast cancer?

Image via @ShutterStock

Study Associates “Light Drinking” To Breast Cancer Risk is a post from: The Inquisitr

Whether you’re sitting at a beer pounding down beer after beer or shot after shot or sitting in your office completing a productive day of work you’re still paying an extra $2 per drink even if you aren’t drinking.

A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that binge drinking in 2006 cost Americans $224 billion, equivalent to $1.90 per alcoholic beverage consumed. That additional cost comes from a loss of work productivity, car crash-related property damage and incarceration for alcohol-related crimes.

The study says that while federal, state and local governments covered 80 cents for each $1.90 extra the rest was incurred by drinkers, their families, employers, victims of alcohol-related crimes and private health insurers.

The study calls binge drinking any occasion when the drinker consumes four or more beverages in a single sitting.

According to the director of the CDC:

“Binge drinking results in binge spending.”

I personally would be interested to see how much of this cost is associated with college students who tend to binge drink on a regular basis.

Does it surprise you to learn that the cost of binge drinking on society has become so high? Should more alcohol taxes be assessed to lower the real world expenses paid out because of binge drinkers?

Binge Drinking Costs Everyone $2 A Drink [Even If You Don't Consume Alcohol] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Gwyneth Paltrow who turned 39 on Tuesday partied like it was her 21st birthday and the next day she took to the web to talk about her hard partying night.

Paltrow tweeted:

“Nursing a horrific hangover at the jfk,” while adding, “Nothing like starting an overseas flight dehydrated. Where is the dog, I need the hair.”

After her tweet gal pal Ali Wentworth tweeted back:

“Happy Hang-over!!!! Heard it was CRAZY! Next year Paris!”

To which Paltrow replied:

“I was over served, its not my fault. Or is it?”

The tweet is a bit amusing since back in 2006 Paltrow told The Guardian:

“I’m not really a drinker. Like the last time I got drunk was on holiday in Spain three years ago,” and “I think it’s gross. I really don’t like drunk women; I think it is such a bad look. I think it’s very inappropriate and I don’t like it.”

Apparently she isn’t much of an adult since she also said:

“I don’t really have drunk friends. My friends are kind of adult; they have a drink. But they hold their liquor. I think it’s incredibly embarrassing when people are drunk. It just looks so ridiculous. I find it very degrading.”

I wonder if she found her own birthday to be “incredibly embarrassing.”

What do you think about Paltrow going out to have a few drinks for her birthday? I just want to know what she had to drink to have a “horrific hangover” since she’s not typically a big drinker.

Gwyneth Paltrow Tweets About “Horrific” Post Birthday Hangover is a post from: The Inquisitr

From the Ludacris reference to the Z-day assurances, I think this bar has all the bases covered.

Bar Marketing: Doing it Right is a post from: The Inquisitr

I wonder why this type of thing only seems to happen at chains and not small, mom-and-pop joints? (Actually, theory unlocked.)

Perhaps the chain instances are a bit more high-profile- children have gotten accidentally sauced at locations of Olive Garden, Chili’s and Applebee’s scattered around the US, and now an Outback Steakhouse has been accused of inadvertently helping a toddler get their drink on.The fourth known incident of way, way, way, way way underage drinking, occurred at an Ohio Outback Steakhouse.

Unlike the prior incidents, this one doesn’t seem to involve a kid-sized cocktail, but rather those small samples provided to waiting diners until their table become available. Diner Kelly Kerwin describes the incident- which in fairness to the restaurant, seems like a simple and rather harmless scenario:

“My sister asked if there was alcohol in them and she said no and so we all took one and the kids had a couple… I couldn’t believe it… I thought they were serving alcohol-free samples and I called over the manager and before I said anything to him my first question [was] ‘Is there alcohol in these?’ and he said ‘Yes.’”

Kerwin says that the manager apologized profusely, and even offered to make a donation to her sister’s church. But when she called to follow up, the manager went back on the offer and referred Kerwin to the chain’s legal department. The chain addressed the incident in a statement, reading in part:

“We sincerely regret this mistake and we have terminated the server’s employment.”

Do you think this was an honest mistake? Should someone lose their job for it?

[via Consumerist]

Another Child Served Booze Slushy at Chain Restaurant is a post from: The Inquisitr

…should be like this. Seriously, what does a newly back to school teacher need more?

All Back to School Sales… is a post from: The Inquisitr

One of my small pleasures  in life is to chill out with a nice glass of Glenfiddich scotch on the rocks. The only problem is that the damn ice cube melt on me and dilute a small piece of heaven in a glass.

Well no more, thanks to a post over at Lifehacker I have the perfect solution – Whiskey Stones.

Yup, you heard that right – Whiskey Stones. They are made out of soapstone and can be thrown in the freezer until you need them, at which point you take out a couple and put them in that drink instead of ice cubes. When you’ve finished up your drink just run them under water, dry them off, and throw them back in the freezer until the next time.

The nice part of this is that no water molecules are injured in the process and you can get a set of nine for $19.99 over at ThinkGeek.

Tired of those rotten melting ice cubes ruining your drink? Whiskey Stones to the rescue! is a post from: The Inquisitr

After drinking to the point of blacking out a 17-year-old boy in Altoona, Iowa was run over by a train, only to receive minor injuries.

In what is most definitely a one-in-a-million outcome the boys hand, which was run over by the trains engine and first car received only cuts and bruises after being examined by a doctor at a local hospital.

The train was thankfully stopped after two Iowa Interstate Railroad engineers realized that the teen was blacked out on the tracks and pulled the trains emergency breaks.

After being taken to the hospital police on the scene said the railroad was pressing trespassing charges against the teen.

Teen Gets Run Over By A Train, Suffers Only A Few Cuts And Bruises is a post from: The Inquisitr

Not everywhere, but the trend of combining alcohol with fast food is on a steady increase.

Some locations of Sonic, Burger King and even Starbucks are getting in on the concept, shilling beer and wine alongside their value combos, coffees and lattes. One restaurant consultant familiar with dining trends and patterns says the push helps fast food joints compete with the “casual dining” sector that is becoming rapidly popular:

In a tough economy, the move towards alcohol is a way to compete with casual dining — and can help boost typically slow evening business, says Ron Paul, president at Technomic, a restaurant consulting firm. “For consumers, it’s basically about having it your way — even if it’s having a beer with your burger.”

Two locations of Sonic in Florida- Miami and Fort Lauderdale- are adding extensive beer options to their menu. Burger King’s Whopper Bar locations serve beer as well, and four Seattle locations of Starbucks offer beer and wine with a fifth being added soon.

Do you think this trend should be adopted nationwide? Would you like beer with that?

Alcohol Coming to Sonic, Burger King, Starbucks? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Okay, it’s not really an epidemic, but by alarmist media standards it’s practically a pandemic. An italicized pandemic.

If you didn’t see it in the news, there were three incidents in the past few weeks were toddlers got schwasted in sucky mass-feeding trough chains like Applebee’s, Chili’s and Olive Garden when their sippy cups were refilled with cocktails masquerading as chocolate milk or juice. (And I shall pause to point out that isn’t that in and of itself kind of gross because who knows if people actually wash their kids’ stuff very thoroughly at home?)

Anyway, none of the kids suffered ill-effects, but at least one became belligerent and talked loudly, which is kinda funny. And since consumer-stuff is sorta their thing, Consumerist managed to find out why this happened three times in the period of a few weeks that we know about. It turns out, it’s not at all an uncommon occurrence, and here’s why:

Several people who work in these types of restaurants say that servers often help themselves to “happy juice” – make alcoholic drinks and put them in sippy cups so they can drink on the job.”

“I’ve worked for a few years in restaurant­s and both: servers and bartenders using sippy cups to hide their own booze is a routine mode of operation. The type of work most of these people do is both long (10-12 hours per day) and rather stressful. Many combat this by abusing alcohol, some start drinking as early as noon on a weekday.”

Sound plausible? Have you seen servers supping sangria from Handy Manny cups behind the scenes? If you were serving Poppin’ Jalapeno Zingers to the post-Walmart crowd, would you be getting hammered on the clock, too?

Consumerist explains booze in sippy cup chain restaurant epidemic is a post from: The Inquisitr

“Babies Drink Free!” seems to be the order of the month at our nation’s chain restaurants, with scandals erupting of toddlers inadvertently intoxicated at a Florida Olive Garden location and a Michigan Applebee’s.

Since the message of “you should never eat at chain restaurants unless your fridge lost power and everything else in town is closed” has not yet been absorbed, another family has witnessed their preschooler tie one on while out enjoying a family meal. Tyree Davis, mother of 4-year-old Brooklyn, was surprised to find her little girl was uninterested in finishing her chocolate milkshake at a Chicago Chili’s location Sunday night. The family claims this is because the milkshake was actually a mudslide.

Davis said staff tried to confiscate the cocktail, but the family refused and began snapping pics:

“She (waitress) tried to take the drink and leave the shake and I said no, leave the drink and go get your manager. And that’s when I pulled out my camera phone and I took pictures. And after I took the pictures, I called the police,” Davis says.

The child was treated at a hospital for an alcohol ingestion overdose. In this case, however, the restaurant “disputes” the Davis family’s version of events and has not issued an apology.

Third drunken toddler story surfaces, this time at a Chicago Chili’s is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier this week, the tale of a child served a margarita in a sippy cup at an Applebee’s location in Madison Heights, Michigan shocked the nation, as parents everywhere asked, “where is my margarita, and why was it not offered to me in a sippy cup?”

Now a report of a second child served a cocktail in a lidded cup at a chain restaurant has emerged, with the mother of a Central Florida toddler claiming her son, too, was introduced to the sauce early. The second incident, which allegedly occurred in late March, involves an Olive Garden location in Florida and a white wine concoction called a “Tropical Sunrise.”

Mom Jill Van Heest says son Nikolai got most of the way through his cocktail when it was confiscated:

“We’re eating our meals when the waiter came over and said there’s been a mistake, I need to get you a new one and took the glass and kind of scurried away,” Van Heest said.

She asked him what was in the cup and was told Tropical Sangria, a mixed drink of orange juice, pineapple juice and white wine. Van Heest spoke to the restaurant manager. “He was very sympathetic, very apologetic, but no real explanation as to how it happened, just that it was a mistake,” she said.

God have mercy on my soul, here’s where Van Heest’s account gets a bit hilarious:

“He was visibly drunk. His eyes were dilated, they were red. He was now getting loud.”

Nikolai was taken to a local ER and given IV fluids until he sobered up. Olive Garden commented on the situation, saying:

“We take the responsibility that comes with serving alcohol seriously. This was an extremely regrettable accident caused by the failure of an employee to follow our strict operating procedures. We take this situation very seriously, and we are especially grateful that the child involved was not seriously harmed.

“We have absolutely no tolerance for failure to follow our operating procedures and we took swift, appropriate action to deal with this situation. We are also taking immediate steps to reinforce our standards. We offer our sincerest apologies to the family of the child, and to all of our guests, whose trust we work so hard to earn. We recognize that trust has been jeopardized by this isolated event, and we are focused on ensuring our guests experience the high standards of service that they’ve come to expect from us.”

The moral of the story? Stop eating at horrible chain restaurants. If they can so badly screw up juice in a cup, can you imagine what they might be doing to your jazzy jalepeno sizzlers that you don’t even know about?

Another toddler got drunk, this time at Olive Garden is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re not getting your drunk on, you might want to start.

Science has known for a while that drink affects lifespan in strange, variable ways. But it’s now been proven that those who tend to hit the sauce pretty much live longer than those who are totally boring, even when controlled for factors like socio-economic status.

Interestingly, abstainers tend to not even outlive those who drink like fish, which would seem to be counterintuitive. Yahoo News explains the study’s results concerning class, drinking habits and lifespan:

But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? It’s true that those who abstain from alcohol tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes, since drinking can be expensive. And people of lower socioeconomic status have more life stressors – job and child-care worries that might not only keep them from the bottle but also cause stress-related illnesses over long periods. (They also don’t get the stress-reducing benefits of a drink or two after work.)

But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables – socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on – the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who had never been drinkers, second-highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers.

So while moderate drinking is your best bet, you’re still better off as a boozehound than a Baptist:

Just over 69% of the never-drinkers died during the 20 years, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinkers died.

The study’s authors pointed out the boring stuff, like how drinking can increase your risk of doing stupid things like headstands on balconies or getting married. But it’s an interesting finding nonetheless- will the findings influence your likelihood of indulging in alcohol?

Breaking: Drinkers live longer, proven by science! is a post from: The Inquisitr

Today in “Midori sours are medicinal” news, the BBC is reporting that consumption of alcohol is linked with reduction of pain related to arthritis.

Yay! So that’s like, a green light to drink more! Says the BBC:

Experts say this should not be taken as a green light for drinking more.

Oh. The University of Sheffield study tracked 873 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and 1,004 who do not suffer from the chronic disease. Both sets were surveyed about frequency of alcohol consumption in the month before the study.

Participants were asked how often they had consumed alcohol in the month running up to the start of the study. They also had x-rays, gave blood, were examined by a nurse and answered a “detailed questionnaire.” At the close, lead author Dr. James Maxwell had this to say:

“We found that patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently had symptoms that were less severe than those who had never drunk alcohol or only drunk it infrequently.”

The harder drinking patients showed less joint damage on x-rays, lower levels of inflammation in blood tests, and suffered less pain, swelling and reduced function than their teetotaler counterparts. On the reasons behind the findings, Dr. Maxwell speculated:

“There is some evidence to show that alcohol suppresses the activity of the immune system, and that this may influence the pathways by which RA develops.

“Once someone has developed RA, it’s possible that the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of alcohol may play a role in reducing the severity of symptoms,” he added.

Of course, further research is planned to replicate the study’s results and determine what factors led to the difference in the patient sets. No word on whether they plan to pay participants’ pub tabs.

Boozing linked to reduced arthritis pain, severity is a post from: The Inquisitr

A novelty bra has captured the attention of the internet, because it not only enhances a woman’s natural curves, but it’s filled with booze.

The site shiling the item is quick to point out that it’s not meant as seriously supportive lingerie, but allows the wearer to enjoy a the drink of her choice in a variety of venues:

Take a bottle of wine, a mixed drink or even a fifth of your favorite hard stuff to the movies, concerts, ball games, even PTA meetings. Sporting a rack that will turn heads and serving a beverage that will have guys standing in line for a sip of your secret stash! With simple blow into the tube it’s easy to keep that full look even as you drink from your secret stash.

Of course, anyone using it will be drinking body temperature alcoholic beverages from a giant, attached to someone straw, which is kind of squicky. The site says the bra is “optimized for smaller cup sizes,” and that it holds up to 25 ounces of fluid. While the site touts the item as “better than a boob job, and cheaper too,” you can’t drink up a boob job while at a barbeque. The item is marked at $39, on sale for $29.

New “Wine Rack” bra boosts boobage, comes with straw is a post from: The Inquisitr