What's the most potent: Beer, wine, or cocktails?

Many of us remember Richie Cunningham's first drunk: 72 Dixie cups full of beer, the equivalent of 12 beers. Young Cunningham apparently forgot how much liquor he was consuming because of the small serving sizes. When cocktail imbibers are similarly sideswiped, they tend to blame the drink, not themselves. I won't go into the human species' innate ability to concoct such creative alibis, but I will explain the common misconception that sipping merlot is safer than Martinis.

The bottom line, of course, is that if you're drinking alcohol carelessly - whether it's wine, beer, or distilled spirits - you will become Aviation has the same amount of alcohol in it as a 6-ounce glass of wine (with 12 to 14 percent alcohol) or a 12-ounce beer (with 6 percent alcohol).

In the Aviation, 1.5 ounces of the liquid is maraschino liqueur, which is 30 percent alcohol. Lemon juice and water make up the remaining 2.5 ounces, or 56 percent of this drink.

The entire concentration of alcohol in a cocktail is typically about 17 percent. With any drink, if you multiply the concentration of alcohol by the number of ounces in a typical serving, you'll come up with a potency that shows cocktails to be dead even with wine and beer in their standard serving sizes.

 4.5 x .17 = .765 for a cocktail

 6.0 x .14 = .84  for a glass of wine

12.0 x .06 = .72  for a bottle of beer

I suspect the reason people naïvely assume that cocktails have more alcohol is because they enjoy drinking them more, and the smooth taste of cocktails lets the imbibers sip them more briskly than other drinks. In general, only one or two cocktails should be enjoyed at one sitting. Also, it's a fallacy that drinking a variety of cocktails will make someone more drunk. The fact is, if you drink five Rob Roy, you'll be just as bombed - and just as foolish.

One must be careful serving and enjoying these tasty treats. When mixing drinks, never disguise the taste of alcohol for your guests (especially the rookies), unless you want these folks at your house for a slumber party.

Typically, I offer a glass of soda or still water with each cocktail that I serve. When garnished with a slice of citrus, the water is a pleasant, elegant aside to any cocktail, and will help keep your friends from becoming dehydrated. A glass of water between cocktails will not only ease the potential for a morning headache, but will do less damage to your budget.

Here in San Francisco and in some other parts of the country, there's a ridiculous tendency to serve cocktails, usually Martinis, in enormous 12-ounce glasses. Leave it to us Americans to show the world how to screw up a good thing. There are few things as barbaric as "enjoying" 8 or 9 ounces of Martini in one glass. Either you make a spectacle of yourself trying to gulp the drink before it reaches room temperature, or you're left with lukewarm gin and a mushy olive.

When James Bond said, "I enjoy one cocktail before dinner, well-made and rather large," he understood a large cocktail to mean 4 ounces, not a fishbowl. Before the '60s, a typical cocktail serving was 2 to 3 ounces.

There is a tasteful and fully sanctioned variation for lessening the amount of alcohol in a cocktail. To increase the volume of almost any drink - thus slowing down the refills and saving your guest from extremes - transform your drink recipe into a fizz. Pour your mix into a tall glass filled with plenty of ice, and top with soda water. The drink will be more diluted, but no less tasty.