On a recent trip to the UK I found myself getting up in the morning and swearing not to drink anything alcoholic that day. I’d had quite enough the night before, thank you very much. That is the pain and pleasure of catching up with old friends. By six pm, if not earlier, this resolve was as empty as the glass in front of me. The experience got me pondering the question, what should you drink (I mean alcohol, rather than flat lemonade, Gatorade, coffee, or whatever) when nursing a hangover? Nothing, is one answer, but that would be the end of this article, so let’s start with why people don’t accept nothing as the answer.

The ‘hair of the dog’ is a shortening of the phrase ‘the hair of the dog that bit you’ which originated as a cure for something far worse than a hangover – rabies. If you had the misfortune to be bitten by a rabid dog you took one of its hairs (and risked getting bitten again)  and you made a potion from it to cure any resulting rabies. There is no scientific evidence that this worked, but there is a reason why something similar seems to work with a hangover.

A hangover is alcohol’s version of cold turkey – you are suffering from withdrawal. Those incremental highs we experienced with those last few shots have been replaced by some severe low, the lowest of which happens when your blood alcohol level drops back to zero. In theory – and I have to say in my experience in practice – if you have a drink at this point and your blood alcohol levels begin to climb, then you start feeling better. At least momentarily as all you are doing is postponing the inevitable. That dog will have its day.

But there’s still the question of what is the best drink?

I can remember my first ‘hair of the dog’. It was the day after my 17^th birthday party and I was in desperate need of a cure. We’d had a Toga Party – this was around the time of the movie Animal House – and it had been quite a party. A salmon, which my mother had bought for the birthday dinner had disappeared from the fridge, along with a leg of lamb. My trousers were also missing – a cherished pair of Levis 501s. I was feeling green in every sense, oh foolish boy. But my parents were very understanding. We went for a drink in a pub on the Cam and I had my very first Bloody Mary. It was bloody amazing. I’m sure the vitamin C and tabasco helps.

Beer. Beer is always an option. Particularly in London and on this visit, I found Fullers London Pride to be a reliable friend around lunchtime. I can remember a holiday in Greece when a Lowenbrau was the answer at breakfast time. Presumably too much Ouzo the night before.

Had it been warmer I would have considered an Aperol Spritz. It has a medicinal touch, like a Bloody Mary, and you can reduce its potency by using soda water instead of Prosecco.

On our last morning we found Champagne was the perfect remedy. In this case a Marks & Spencer one called Louis Vertay. It wasn’t too dry, had light citrus fruit and a biscuity farewell. Twenty pounds if I remember rightly.

But Sake is not the answer. On a recent business conference someone put this evil brew in the water jug and I fell for it. Two months on, I can still taste it.