You will find

that a lot of my posts will revolve around alcohol. I wouldn't call myself an alcoholic, as I can go days, months, years without taking as much as a sip. However, plunk one other person into the mix, and I can drink more than a thirsty band of gypsies. (That's not a slight against gypsies, as I am in awe of their ibibing powers).
HOWEVER, I will say that once I got past drinking to get drunk and falling into ditches, I got into having a drink for the enjoyment of drinking. I now break it into 3 categories:
1) Drink to see flying squirrels. I think this is the first kind of drinking that anyone gets into. The purpose of this kind of drinking is to see how many drinks you can consume before you see a flying squirrel or soil yourself.
2) Drink to euphoria. You want to keep the 'buzz' going as long as possible without hitting level one. This is a very enjoyable method of drinking.
3) Drink to enjoy the drink.


For the first level, you can drink pretty much anything, and most do. Who hasn't stolen a little bit of booze out of each bottle in your father's liquor cabinet to make a sizeable bottle of crap. Hell, I think you can drink heated shoe polish and you'll still see the flying rodents.

For the second level, I have found that there are 3 factors to keep the 'buzz' going. This is my preferred method for sitting by the pool for an entire day. You don't want to overdo it and stop having a good time. 1-use drinks with lower levels of alcohol in them. I find I can do some mixed drinks with 17% alcohol in them (such as malibu rum). I can judge how my happy feeling is going, and add or lessen the alcohol content. You can't stop drinking entirely, or upping the achohol content by a large amount to get the buzz back. 2-keep a bit of food in you. (pretty simple) 3-CRUSHED ICE. I can't stress this enough. Get a lot of ice and a good ice crusher, and keep lots of ice in your drinks. This hydration allows you to drink all day without getting tired or dehydrated. Very important for the all day glow.

For the third level. For this level you really have to spend some money. Cheap booze is designed for mixed drinks. Fine booze is designed for drinking straight, or at the most...on the rocks. For whatever reason I only enjoy expensive tequila via the tequila spoon, for everything else I really prefer a proper, crystal glass. The experience is half the enjoyment, so I like to get completely comfortable before I enjoy a great drink. Then just concentrate on the drink and the experience. A good quality liquor should have a very plesant taste, although it still takes some getting used to at first. Once your palate is accustomed to a certain type of alcohol, then you can just enjoy it.

So there's my tips for flying squirrels, from 40 years of borderline alcoholism.