Definition: Turbo (noun) a compressor that increases the power of internal-combustion engines found in cars, motorbikes etc. Shandy (noun) A drink made by mixing one part beer and one part lemonade (American English=soda)

Turbo Shandy: An extra-potent shandy made with one part beer and one part alcoholic lemonade, which ‘increases the power’ of the beer.

Example sentence: “If you lot have been out since 5 o’ clock I’ve got a bit of catching up to do. I’d better get on the turbo shandies right away.”

Explanation: In contrast to Japanese laws regarding the consumption of alcohol before driving, British laws are less strict about the amount of alcohol you can drink before getting behind the wheel(1). The exact amount varies depending on factors such as the person in question, whether they’ve eaten anything, the speed with which they consume the alcohol and the type of drink consumed. In the case of beer, approximately two pints is the maximum amount most people can drink before driving.

In order to prolong the amount of time it takes to drink this amount of alcohol and decrease its effects, some people in Britain drink shandy, a drink made by mixing half a pint of beer (more commonly referred to as lager) with half a pint of lemonade. Using this method two pints of beer can be transformed into four pints of shandy, making it less intoxicating and therefore more suited to consumption before driving in the UK(2).

The idea of turbo shandy came about shortly after the launch of Two Dogs and Hooper’s Hooch heralded the arrival of alcopops in Britain in 1995. These two brands of alcoholic lemonade quickly become popular and it wasn’t long before people were experimenting with mixing alcopops and beer to make a more potent mixture.

Since then turbo shandy has gained popularity but is still not as well known as a lot of other alcoholic drinks, instead enjoying something of a cult following(3). This is perhaps because – like its forerunners snakebite (beer and cider), diesel (snakebite and blackcurrant cordial), black velvet (Guinness and wine or cider) and blastaway (white cider and wine cooler) – it has a number of drawbacks that thwart mainstream appeal. These include being difficult to drink for long periods of time during a night out because of its potency and sweetness, its high cost and the notoriously bad hangovers it causes when consumed in excess.

Ironically, while shandy is a drink that minimizes the effects of alcohol, turbo shandy is a drink that maximizes the effects. Fans of the drink usually mix Stella Artois and Smirnoff Ice (two already potent drinks) together for the best effects, but in fact a combination of any beer and alcoholic lemonade can be used.

The reason why the expression ‘turbo shandy’ is useful slang for life in Japan is firstly because the drink can be used to enliven and disguise the dull taste of a lot of Japanese beers, and secondly because of the great range of turbo shandy ingredients you can buy here. A ‘richi-man (rich man’s) turbo shandy’ can be made from any Japanese beer plus Smirnoff Ice or Zima, while for those drinking on a budget the ‘bimbo (poor man’s) turbo shandy’ can be made by mixing two drinks found only in Japan:

Chūhai is a carbonated mixture of shōchū (a Japanese spirit) and fruit juice. Fortunately for budget drinkers lemon chūhai usually contains 7% alcohol (compared to the 5% of other chūhai flavours). The second drink is happoshu, a pseudo-beer that is cheaper than real beer as it has a lower malt content, therefore avoiding Japanese beer tax. The most popular happoshu is Kirin Tanrei, which makes up for its lack of malt with more sugar, more fizz and - most importantly - more alcohol (5.5%, compared to the 4-5% of regular Japanese beer). Add these two turbo shandy ingredients together for a low-cost night of drinking (and most likely a stinking hangover the next morning!).

Notes
(1) - According to the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP), the limit of blood alcohol content in the UK is 0.8mg/ml (the highsest, along with 17 other countries) whereas in Japan it’s 0.3mg/ml. Most Japanese people seem to regard this limit as ‘zero alcohol’; despite this, and stiff penalties (including heavy fines for both driver and passengers), drink driving is more common than you might imagine, particularly in rural areas.
(2) - It is also often favoured by some people during an ‘all day session’ of daytime drinking, particularly in the south of England where it is reffered to as a ‘lager top’
(3) - There’s even a website, Turbo Shandy.com inspired by and dedicated to the drink.

Check out these other beer-related articles: Beer and the Mother Tongue, Beer For Kids, Beer In Japan - Part 1 and Beer In Japan - Part 2.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 9:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Articles in English, Food and Drink, English Language and Western Culture, My Favourite Slang, Drinking in Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.