How Many Twisted Teas To Get Drunk (How To Calculate Based On Body Weight)

If you’re not too fussed on beer or ale, and spirits are a little too extreme for your tastes, then you’ve no doubt considered making Twisted Tea your beverage of choice when drinking with friends.

Made with real brewed black tea, a twist of lemon, and that all important alcohol infusion, it’s a fantastic choice for some leisurely sipping, but is it actually capable of getting you tipsy, and if so, how much would you have to drink to get a good buzz going?

Well, that’s exactly what we’ll be discussing today.

I’m going to guide you through the strength of this fantastic hard ice tea, the effect it has on your BAC (blood alcohol content), the impact of carbonation on feelings of drunkenness, and, of course, how many Twisted Teas you’d need to drink to really party.

Let’s get to it!

How Many Twisted Teas Will Get Me Drunk?

Much like any alcohol, the number of Twisted Teas it will take to get you feeling a little floaty is dependent on your body weight and tolerance.

Regardless of your beverage of choice, drunkenness always comes down to your BAC, which, as touched upon a moment ago, stands for blood alcohol content.

BAC is a measure of just how much alcohol has made its way into your bloodstream and now flows around your body.

The way it’s calculated is by assessing the amount of alcohol in milliliters in every 100 ml of your blood.

This measurement is what’s used to create official scales of drunkenness that can be used to make laws and guidelines.

For example, according to Federal law in the US, a BAC of 0.08% is considered the very limit for safe driving. Anything beyond this threshold would be considered drunk driving.

Another example of its use is to determine when an underage drinker is legally drunk. For minors, the legal threshold is considered 0.02%.

Now, as I’m sure you’re aware, some people simply can’t handle their drink as well as others.

We all know someone that ends up wearing the porcelain halo after only a couple of cans, but why is this?

Well, it’s because there are a number of factors that determine your BAC after drinking, the most important of which is how much you weigh.

The reason for this is very simple: with more of you to fill, the alcohol is dispersed thinly in your system, leading to a lower BAC than your diminutive buddy after drinking the same amount of alcohol.

So, returning to the question at hand, the number of Twisted Teas it takes to get you drunk depends on your current body weight.

But don’t be disappointed if you came here looking for a specific figure, as I’m going to explain how you can figure it out right here, right now.

We’re going to be using some math for this (boooo) but it’s nothing too strenuous, so don’t sweat it.

We’ll be using a formula created by one Mr. Erik M. P. Widmark, a groundbreaking chemist of the late 1800s and earlier to mid 1900s.

Expressing the formula in words, we’ll be taking the grams of alcohol consumed, dividing it by body weight in grams multiplied by a gender constant, then multiplying that by 100.

To express this formula as an equation, we’ll refer to alcohol as A, body weight as W, and the gender constant as r.

Let’s take a look at it, shall we?

BAC = (A/(W x r)) x 100

The gender constant for men is 0.68, and for women, 0.55.

The most complicated aspect of this equation is figuring out A, but we can navigate this by utilizing a standard. The alcohol level in a typical 12 oz, 5% ABV American drink is 14 g.

Luckily, there’s a 12 oz 5% ABV Twisted Tea can that slides perfectly into this equation — hooray!

So, let’s take a look at some specific weights to give you an example of this formula in action.

I Weigh 100 Lbs

For male drinkers that weigh 100 lbs, you can expect to be legally drunk after about 1.8 cans of Twisted Tea.

As you might expect, for female drinkers, this figure is slightly lower. A 100 lbs woman will be considered legally inebriated after only 1.4 Twisted Teas.

I Weigh 120 Lbs

If you’re a 120 lbs man who likes a tipple, you can expect to be legally drunk after just 2.1 Twisted Teas.

For the 120 lbs female slurpers out there, an officer of the law would consider you drunk after about 1.7 Twisted Teas.

I Weigh 140 Lbs

It takes 2.5 Twisted Teas to get a 140 lbs man legally drunk.

A 140 lbs woman will only get through 2 Twisted Teas before she’ll have to hand over her keys to someone soberer to get home.

I Weigh 160 Lbs

For a male drinker of 160 lbs, you’re looking at something to the tune of 2.8 Twisted Teas to get legally drunk.

For a female drinker of 160 lbs, you should expect to reach drunkenness in the eyes of the law after roughly 2.3 Twisted Teas

I Weigh 180 Lbs

For a man of this weight, it will typically take 3.2 Twisted Teas before you’re considered legally drunk.

And for a woman, roughly 2.6 Twisted teas will get you there.

How Strong Is Twisted Tea?

There are two options when it comes to Twisted Tea, the standard, and the Light version. The standard Twisted Tea is 5% ABV, while Twisted Tea Light is 4%.

The Widmark BLC Calculator In More Detail

The astute readers out there will have noticed a small problem with the way in which I presented the Widmark formula earlier, and that’s the absence of time as a variable, but before we add this missing dimension to our sum, a word on accuracy.

While this formula can be accurate, it will never be dead on. We’re dealing with estimates here, so it’s best not to use it to figure out if you’re okay to drive home.

Play it safe when drinking, and take a cab or catch a ride.

Right, pop your thinking helmets back on; we’re diving back into the math.

To account for time, we have to modify the formula slightly, as, generally speaking, our BAC will decrease at roughly 0.015 an hour. This leaves the formula looking a little something like this…

BAC = [A/(A/W x r)) – (H x 0.015)

Of course, the H stands for hours in our amended formula, or more specifically, hours since imbibing that very first Twisted Tea.

Is One Twisted Tea Equal To One Shot?

Although shots are stronger, a Twisted Tea can is significantly larger, meaning it’s likely going to get you drunker than a single shot, unless that shot happens to be 1.5 oz of 80 proof spirit, which would be roughly equal.

How Many Twisted Teas Equate To A Bottle Of Wine?

The typical 750 ml bottle of wine equates to roughly 5 standard drinks, and as we established earlier, Twisted Teas are the epitome of “standard” in the US, so 5 12 oz Twisted Teas is our answer!

How Many Twisted Teas Equate To One Beer?

As a 5% drink, the same as most beers, one Twisted Tea is equivalent to one beer.

I’m Drinking For The First Time. How Many Twisted Teas Will Get Me Drunk?

One thing we haven’t really touched on thus far is alcohol tolerance. Some people have a higher tolerance for the sauce than others.

Even if they share the same BAC, the person with a higher tolerance will feel less drunk than the other.

Your tolerance combined with your body weight will determine how many Twisted Teas you should drink when getting drunk for the first time.

Remember to think carefully before you order each new drink. Assess how you are feeling. If you feel tipsy, perhaps give the next one a miss.

Will A Carbonated Drink Get Me Drunk Faster?

There is some evidence to suggest that, in the first 30 minutes of drinking, carbonated booze such as Twisted Tea will get you drunk quicker than non-carbonated booze, as the pressure of the gas in your stomach fast tracks absorption.

Either that or the gas speeds up the digestion process, getting the booze to the small intestine post haste, which is where the lion’s share of the alcohol is typically absorbed.

After this 30-minute period, there’s no discernible difference between carbonated and non-carbonated drinks in regard to speed of absorption.

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Andrew Carr

Hi, I’m Andrew Carr and I find beer fascinating. Not just drinking it (although that is a plus!) but everything about it. There is so much to learn - the fermenting process, the best glasses for each type, recipes to make at home… The list goes on!

I have been making my own beer for almost a decade now and I pride myself on my home setup. I’ve made sours, pale IPAs, stouts - you name it, I’ve probably made it in the comfort of my own home.

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