TiU student Floris reviews ‘strawability’ of drinks on popular Instagram account

“If a straw fits in, I’ll review it, dude.” With that motto, TiU student Floris started the Instagram account @rietrecensent. There he uploads videos in which he empties a bottle of beer or wine in one go, and then comments on the “strawability” of the alcoholic beverage. Within a week, the channel already has over 1,400 followers.

Among students, it is a tried-and-true ad fundum (chugging alcohol) method: inserting a straw into the bottle and then dinking the contents in one go. The straw functions as an aid in drawing a straw chug, also called straw blowing by Floris. Because oxygen enters the bottle, the drinker empties it much faster than he would have in taking normal sips. 

Floris, a Public Governance student at Tilburg University and a member of student association St. Olof, celebrated his thousandth follower on Instagram by drinking a bottle of red wine with a straw. “The morning after I created the account, I thought: what have I done! But I soon heard from others, including those outside my own student association, that they found it funny to watch.”

How did you know there was a need for this Instagram account?

“Last week at our disco night, one of the guys told us about the NRC’s new guide to the hundred best supermarket wines. We wondered if the compilers had included strawability as a criterion, i.e. how well you can empty those bottles. Almost immediately, we saw a task for ourselves in this.

“Well I thought it would be pretty stupid to start drinking a hundred bottles of wine with a straw, but I was eager to execute the idea and immediately recorded some content the same evening.”

Is this what corona boredom does to a human being?

“Maybe so. If I could have enjoyed myself in the city at night, like before the coronavirus, I wouldn’t have done this, I guess. But there isn’t much better to do now anyway. And besides: many of the wild plans at our debates evenings are not followed up. So, it’s nice that I managed to do this.”

(Text continues below the image)

What qualities should a good straw for ad fundum have?

“Personally, I don’t like it when the drink is too bitter. Carbon dioxide also doesn’t help the strawability. In our fraternity house, we drink Grolsch as standard, but that has too much froth. The volume of the bottle doesn’t matter much, although with a larger bottle you have to have a lot of perseverance.”

Do you have any tips for aspiring straw drinkers?

“Hold your bottle straight up in the air, not that half-hearted partial raise you often see. Try to swallow as quickly as possible, and open your throat if you can. You will get better at the latter. I’m still working on my technique, too; I can’t always prevent the bottle contents from spurting out in all directions.”

What kind of straws do you use?

“Right now ordinary run-of-the-mill straws. That’s not ideal because I try to live as sustainably as possible. If a manufacturer of sustainable straws would like to sponsor me, I would definitely consider an offer.”

What will be your next ad fundum review?

“I’ve asked my followers for drink recommendations a few times via Instagram Stories. That’s how I got to the straw review of the tequila-flavored beer Corona, but that was kind of a lame one. Maybe the editors of Univers have another suggestion?”

_Advertentie.