Pick a category to see how it's made, what's in it, and which popular brands rank highest and lowest on hangover load.
Closest to neutral alcohol you can drink
Vodka rerun through a garden
Low load per can, sold by the twelve-pack
Agave, regulated, sometimes adulterated
Smoke, terroir, and unfiltered character
Sugarcane, sweet and heavy
Lower tannin, higher sulfites
Volume, gluten, biogenic amines
Honey fermented, grain free, sugar unpredictable
Orange peel liqueur, and the blue is food colouring
Lighter, smoother, often triple distilled
Light blends, with flavouring allowed
American oak, corn-led, congener-rich
Aged, peated, complex chemistry
Bubbles speed everything up
Sugar-bombs in a bottle
Bourbon rules plus a charcoal filter
Wine, distilled twice, aged in Limousin oak
Tannin, histamine, sulfite trifecta