"Oh, just a few fingers at a time. You don't have to add any hydrocarbons, but I like the effect it has on anything that's been aged with transition metals--they all end up with a sharper finish than I really prefer. You should probably try yours straight first and see if you like it."

As she spoke, she was pouring about three fingers of engex into each glass--proportionally speaking; Megatron got a bigger serving than she did, what with being almost twice her size. She added several sweet-smelling drops from the smaller bottle to her own drink and swirled the mixture around in the glass.

"Body heat volatizes some of the aromatic compounds, meaning that the bouquet hits your nose before you taste anything, making the flavor more complex." Nautica was in fact holding the glass just under her nose and quite noticeably not drinking out of it. "Getting it too hot will catalyze the breakdown of any hydrocarbons or esters. At best it'll flatten out the flavors, and at worst create some nasty-tasting byproducts."

Who knew getting drunk was so complicated.