RSA Course Online

Category: Blog

  • Crystal Head Vodka takes Top Australian Award

    Crystal Head Vodka, the quadruple distilled and triple filtered vodka has been awarded the top award in the 2012 Australian Liquor Industry Awards.

    Actor Dan Akroyd, is the founder of the popular vodka which took 2 awards at this year’s ceremony, held in Luna Park.  The vodka has grown in popularity since its release and in fact is one of the growing ultra-premium vodka brands on the market. The vodka is made by filtering it through Herkimer diamond crystals and presented in a glass skull. It is made from water sourced from a glacier lake in Newfoundland, Canada and it sugar, glycerine and citrus oil free.

    The crystal skull vodka doesn’t come cheap, but it you can’t tell a cheap vodka from a premium one, there are a few points you should learn. Vodka is a good liquor to drink because it does not cause a hangover as severe as a darker liquor would. Also because it is fairly tasteless, it’s excellent with mixers and cocktails, because it lends itself well to the other flavours and doesn’t over power the drink although most vodka lovers in the Eastern Europe region prefer it neat.

    Choosing a vodka may be confusing, should you choose a triple distilled, double distilled, what does that even mean?

    Well according to vodka experts, triple distilled vodkas are the best and the most expensive because it goes through the process of distilling 3 times. Distillation is the process of heating a liquid that has alcohol in it to the point that the alcohol (which boils at a lower temperature than water) evaporates and is captured before it condenses back into the liquid from which it came. Second and third distillations heat the captured alcohol under narrower and narrower heat ranges so that only the alcohol remains. Many impurities are removed by this process and the result is much smoother liquor and a much higher alcohol content.

    There are a number of ways to choose a vodka, based on various criteria,

    Price. Selecting a vodka based on price will ensure you get a drink that suits your pocket. If you have deeper pockets it will ensure you get a good quality liquor. For a party you may want to opt for a mid-range vodka.

    Region. The majority of vodkas come from Russia, Poland and other Eastern European countries but nowadays there are good vodkas coming from all over the world. If you want a traditional vodka, Russia, Poland and Eastern Europe are the best, their vodkas are usually only distilled once.

    Alcohol content. This can range from 30 per cent to 60 per cent but most are around 40 per cent alcohol.

    Ingredients. Cheap vodka is made with cheap ingredients like sorgum or corn. Premium vodkas are made from a single ingredient such as wheat or potatoes.

    Flavour. Nowadays vodkas come in a variety of flavours and infusions. These are a good way to may speciality cocktails.

    The best thing about vodka is that there is a brand for everybody. If you can’t afford the Crystal Skulls varities, there’s always something a bit more in your price range.

  • Recognising the Symptoms of a Hangover

    Everyone who has over indulged knows the feeling of dizziness, thirst and headaches experienced the next day. Although hangovers are common in the morning they can occur at any time of the day or night. Depression is also a sign of a hangover, even though most people think it is just related to the physical feeling of sickness that they feel depressed but alcohol is a stimulant and as the person comes down off the stimulant they begin to feel depressed.

    How bad the hangover is and how long it lasts is related to how much alcohol is consumed and whether the person has had enough water and rest. Dehydration, caused by the alcohol, can make the effects of the hangover even worse.

     

    Normally the hangover will subside within 24 hours but this is not always the case.

     

    Symptoms are not pleasant and include unquenchable thirst, headache, bloodshot eyes and even nausea. In some cases people suffering from a hangover can include anxiety, aching muscles, diarrhoea, dizziness and an accelerated heart rate. Vomiting is a common hangover effect and can last several hours.

    Hangovers are definitely something you want to avoid. The only way to do this for sure is to drink responsibly and in moderation to save yourself from the unnecessary, self-induced sickness of a hangover.

     

  • Recognising a Problem Drinker

    Alcohol servers as well as everyday people should be able to recognise the signs of a problem drinker. If you are a bartender or waiter you want to be able to tell if a person has a problem and if you notice these signs in a friend or family member, you should take action for their wellbeing.

    These are a few of the alarm bells:

    1. They only visit places, people and events where they know there will be alcohol.
    2. They suffer from withdrawal when they don’t have a drink for a few hours. Withdrawal symptoms include sweating, rapid heartbeat, anxiety and shakes.
    3. The person’s tolerance to alcohol increases meaning they need to intake more alcohol to get drunk as compared to others.
    4. The person craves alcohol and cannot rest until the craving is fulfilled.
    5. Family and friends will recognise the symptom that they often make promises they don’t keep and miss special occasions and dates, uncharacteristically. They also lie quite a lot.

    Moderate drinking is the only acceptable form, if a person finds themselves craving alcohol more than normal, they should consider a period of abstinence rather than risk developing an addiction that has the potential to destroy lives, relationships and a person’s health and may even result in death.

  • Article Posts for Week Ending October 26,2012

    Here is a list of the articles posted on our blog this last week:

    Danger of Mixing Alcohol and Minors

    Is There Any Danger Involved in Mixing Energy Drinks and Alcohol

    How to identify alcohol abuse in Teens

    Binge Drinking Linked to Alcohol Abuse

    Is Liquid Nitrogen Really Dangerous?

    Possible Solutions to Alcohol Fuelled Problems

     

  • Possible Solutions to Alcohol Fuelled Problems

    A number of suburbs around Australia are battling to find ways to combat alcohol fuelled violence and crimes that are causing major distress to residents. One such suburb is Scarborough, the beach front suburb which has been hit by a number of alcohol related incidents recently with drunken thugs taking over the area. Residents of the suburb are now fighting back and I it works this may be a solution that other suburbs could also implement to obtain similar results.

    One of the demands of the residents is that police enforce the law by confiscating alcohol from those consuming it on the beach and surrounding area. One of the other suggestions was setting up a police post on the beach during the holiday season. Residents have been attacked with bottles, assaulted and robbed and have had enough and are calling on authorities to act and help them take back their community.

    Perhaps more police patrolling the area will make a difference as an increase in police presence has been effective in other parts of the country in reducing alcohol fuelled violence.

    Alcohol retailers, pubs and bars in the area also have a role to play in ensuring that they supply alcohol in a responsible manner, this involves not providing alcohol to intoxicated patrons or underage minors.

     

  • Is Liquid Nitrogen Really Dangerous?

    Although liquid nitrogen has been identified by authorities as harmful, people in the industry disagree which led me to wonder if liquid nitrogen is a dangerous as they say or if it’s just been given a bad rap?

     

    Liquid nitrogen cocktails have become popular because they bubble and let out smoke, which adds a “wow” factor to cocktails. The use of liquid nitrogen has become extremely controversial since the incident which left a British teen in a critical condition in hospital.

    It seems the problematic issue with liquid nitrogen is that its use is not regulated which means that even inexperienced bartenders are able to use this potentially lethal ingredient in their concoctions. When used safely by well-trained bartenders, liquid nitrogen is not dangerous, but for patrons how can we tell the difference?

    The danger involved with liquid nitrogen use is that it expands more than 600 times its volume when it changes from a liquid to a gas, which can cause serious damage to the human body if this change were to take place within it (this is what happened to the girl in The UK). So basically if the liquid enters the human stomach and turns into a gas, it can explode.

     

    Although authorities are likely to ban the use of liquid nitrogen if you do decide to try a cocktail made with liquid nitrogen, do not drink it until the nitrogen has evaporated. Be careful because nitrogen has no colour or taste, so it may be difficult to detect.

  • Binge Drinking Linked to Alcohol Abuse

    It is no surprise that binge-drinking can lead to alcohol addiction but now there is a study that proves binge drinking may reduce the ability to control alcohol intake.

     

    Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) conducted the experiment with rats but could have implications for better treatment of alcoholism in human beings. It may also help scientists understand addictive behaviour in humans.

     

    Scientists believe that this early adaptation of the brain to intermittent alcohol use facilitates the move from social drinker to alcohol addict.

     

    Basically alcohol dependence causes changes in the brains such as overactivity of stress-related circuits and a weakening of the prefrontal executive control circuits that normally act as a brake on emotional reactions and impulsive behaviour.

     

    The research confirmed that the rats with intermittent access to alcohol drank drastically more alcohol than those with continuous access after only six weeks.

     

    Binge drinking in the rats showed lowered memory which is an element of executive control and showed withdrawal symptoms which can be likened to cravings in humans.

     

    What can be deduced by this study is that binge drinking is more dangerous to human health than moderate regularly drinking.

     

  • How to identify alcohol abuse in Teens

    Although it is illegal to serve alcohol to minors, teenagers do find ways of getting around laws and some parents do allow their children drink. However this becomes problematic when teenagers develop alcohol addiction problems, which is why recognising the signs is so important.

     

    While the symptoms can be similar or exactly the same as adult alcoholic’s symptoms, some of the most common symptoms of alcohol abuse in teenagers include lying, making excuses, breaking curfew, staying in their room, becoming verbally or physically abusive toward others, having items in their possession that are connected to alcohol use, the smell of alcohol on their breath or body, mood swings, stealing, and changes in friends.

    Teenagers often suffer from alcohol poisoning because they don’t know when to stop and their bodies are not fully developed to cope with the amount of alcohol they may put in it. This is the potentially fatal result of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time, the body is not able to process the amount of alcohol introduced to it.

     

    While parents play the biggest role in influencing teenagers, peer pressure is also a major cause of drinking. Parents can’t prevent their teenagers from experimenting with alcohol, but they can encourage sensible drinking habits and display a good example for their children to follow.

     

  • Is There Any Danger Involved in Mixing Energy Drinks and Alcohol

    Energy drinks are often used as mixers with alcohol however recently there has been some concern about the safety of these concoctions. This combination carries a number of potential dangers that drinkers should be aware of beforehand as documented by a number of researchers and scientists.

    Energy drinks are stimulants and alcohol is a depressant. The effects of the stimulant/ energy drinkhides how intoxicated the person really is which prevents them from realising just how much alcohol they have consumed. Fatigue is also masked and this is one of the ways that people often tell that they have had too much to drink.

    The energy drink’s stimulating effect can give the person the impression that they aren’t impaired however it should be remembered that regardless of how alert you feel, your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is the same as it would be without the energy drink.

    This presents a problem when people misconceive their ability to perform complex tasks like driving. Once the stimulant effect wears off, the depressant effects of the alcohol will remain and could cause vomiting or respiratory depression which can be fatal.

    Energy drinks and alcohol both have dehydrating effects which can hinder your body’s ability to metabolize alcohol and therefore increase it’s toxicity and effects of the hangover the next morning.

  • Danger of Mixing Alcohol and Minors

    In addition to the hefty fines that serving alcohol to minors carries under Responsible Service of Alcohol law, there are social consequences that are much greater.

    Some of the problems associated with underage drinking include teenage drink driving, teenage pregnancy and teenage violence.  Perhaps the most serious and common danger associated with drinking in general is the amount of people that get behind the wheel while intoxicated. This is not limited to teens, but still remains a leading cause of death in teenagers in Australia.

    Alcohol Abuse is the most concerning issue associated with underage drinking, because teenagers are not developed socially, physically and emotionally enough to control the effects alcohol has on them.

    Teenagers are also more susceptible to peer pressure and alcoholism. Alcoholism is a substance abuse disorder in which the sufferer has problems managing how much alcohol they drink, and their lives as a result. Because teenagers are not fully matured they can become easily addicted to alcohol and make other bad decisions that can have life-long consequences.

    People need to think about the negative effects of alcohol on teenagers and the legal consequences of serving minors. Serving alcohol to a minor may affect the rest of their life or cut it short, for example, if they are involved in a car crash or a deadly brawl. Those in a position to serve alcohol to underage minors need to be aware of the consequences of their actions, not only for themselves but for the young person involved.