The fishbowl is a college bar staple. Perfect for sharing or for downing yourself while chilling at the bar with your friends. A typical fishbowl is a brightly colored combination of anything between two and five alcohols and mixers, ranging from juices and soda to fruit purées. While the drinks may go down easily (not to mention make great features in an Instagram feed), what's actually in them might make you stick to shots (or even, *gasp* beer).
The Recipe
A fishbowl recipe, courtesy of Guy Fieri, provides the boozy breakdown of exactly what you're drinking when you're downing your fishbowl of choice. His recipe calls for the following ingredients: ice, three ounces of coconut rum, three ounces of blue curaçao, three ounces of vodka, pineapple juice, 1/2 cup sweet and sour mix, lemon-lime soda, and some lemon and lime slices as a garnish.
Boozy Breakdown
Calories
Alcohol: 611 calories — the rum clocks in at 188 calories, the blue curaçao at 216, and the vodka at 207.
Mixers: 145 calories — with 100 calories from the sweet and sour mix, 20 from the pineapple juice, and 25 from the soda.
Total: 756 calories
Sugar
Alcohol: 37 grams of sugar — 22 grams in rum, 15 in blue curaçao, but on the bright side, 0 grams of sugar from the vodka.
Mixers: 32 grams of sugar — 21 grams of sugar in sweet and sour mix, 4 grams in pineapple juice, and a final 7 grams of sugar in lemon lime soda.
Total: 69 grams of sugar
Total
As you can see, that comes out to 611 calories from the alcohol alone, and when you account for the mixers, your drink comes out to 756 calories with 69 grams of sugar. That means any buzz you might feel after finishing one could just be the result of a sugar high, rather than a party vibe.
About that pregame...
It seems shocking at first, but when you break down other popular methods of drinking, the results don't seem too bad. A standard shot is considered to be 1.5 ounces (that's 104 calories if you're drinking vodka, 105 calories if you're tossing back tequila, and 108 calories if you're getting fiesty with Fireball).
Factor in at least an ounce of chaser per shot, and you've got the additional 16 calories of Coke or 11 calories of Sprite, making those three shots at the pregame equate to around 357 calories (a little less than half the calories of a fishbowl).
But, hey, try not to sweat it too much
Basically, that means that no matter what you're drinking, the calorie count will be higher than ideal. But, hey, what's a few extra calories here and there on the weekends (and maybe a few Tuesdays)? Everyone knows calories don't count if you don't remember them anyway.