Water is the single most important drink for a hangover, but it’s not the only one worth reaching for. A combination of water, electrolyte-rich beverages, and certain juices can address the multiple things going wrong in your body at once: dehydration, low blood sugar, nausea, and lingering alcohol byproducts. Here’s what actually helps and why.
Why Hangovers Make You So Thirsty
Alcohol suppresses the hormone that tells your kidneys to hold onto water. As your blood alcohol level rises, your body flushes out large volumes of fluid while retaining electrolytes. By the time you wake up, you’ve lost far more water than you took in. This is why your mouth feels dry, your head pounds, and you feel generally wrecked.
But dehydration is only part of the picture. Alcohol also disrupts blood sugar regulation, irritates your stomach lining, and triggers an inflammatory response. No single drink fixes all of this, which is why the best approach combines a few different options.
Water With Electrolytes
Plain water is your starting point, but adding electrolytes speeds up rehydration. Sports drinks, electrolyte powders, or even a pinch of salt in your water help your intestines absorb fluid more efficiently. The key minerals you need to replenish are sodium, potassium, and magnesium, all of which can be depleted by alcohol-induced diuresis, vomiting, or diarrhea.
Coconut water is a natural alternative. It contains potassium, sodium, and manganese, and some evidence suggests it rehydrates comparably to sports drinks. The advantage over sugary sports drinks is that coconut water typically has less added sugar, which matters when your stomach is already unsettled. Either option works. The important thing is to sip steadily rather than gulping large amounts at once, which can trigger nausea.
Tomato Juice
Tomato juice has a surprisingly strong case behind it. In a controlled study with 12 healthy men, drinking tomato juice with alcohol significantly reduced blood alcohol levels compared to drinking the same amount of alcohol with water. The effect came from water-soluble compounds in tomatoes that help the body process alcohol faster by improving the turnover of enzymes involved in breaking it down. Interestingly, the researchers tested glucose and fructose separately and found neither had any effect on alcohol metabolism. It was something else in the tomato doing the work.
Tomato juice also delivers potassium, sodium, and a small amount of natural sugar, making it a reasonable all-in-one recovery drink. A Bloody Mary, on the other hand, defeats the purpose entirely because the added alcohol just delays and worsens recovery.
Ginger Tea for Nausea
If your main hangover symptom is nausea, ginger tea is one of the most effective options. The active compounds in ginger, particularly concentrated in the dried form, have well-documented anti-nausea properties across multiple types of nausea. Most research suggests that 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of ginger per day, divided into smaller doses, is effective. For practical purposes, that’s roughly two to three cups of ginger tea made with fresh slices, or a strong brew using dried ginger.
You can buy ginger tea bags, but steeping a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger in hot water for 10 minutes gives you a more potent drink. Adding honey provides a small glucose boost, which can help if your blood sugar is low.
Juice and Blood Sugar
Alcohol can cause reactive low blood sugar, which contributes to the shakiness, fatigue, and brain fog of a hangover. A glass of orange juice or apple juice provides quick glucose to bring your levels back up. However, you want to pair sugary drinks with something more substantial. Drinking juice on a completely empty stomach can cause a blood sugar spike followed by another crash, which just prolongs the miserable feeling.
A better strategy is to have juice alongside a small meal containing protein or complex carbohydrates. Toast with eggs and a glass of juice covers more bases than juice alone.
Korean Pear Juice (Before You Drink)
Korean pear juice is unique on this list because it works best as a prevention tool, not a morning-after cure. In a clinical trial, participants who drank Korean pear juice before consuming alcohol experienced a 16 to 21 percent reduction in overall hangover severity the next day. Trouble concentrating, sensitivity to light and sound, and memory impairment all improved significantly in the group that drank the juice beforehand.
The catch is that the benefit varied by genetics. People with certain variations in alcohol-processing enzymes saw clear improvement, while those with a different genetic variant did not. Since most people don’t know their enzyme genotype, it’s worth trying if you can find Korean pear juice (sometimes labeled Asian pear juice) at a grocery store. Drink it about 30 minutes before your first alcoholic beverage.
Coffee: Helpful or Harmful?
Coffee is complicated. Caffeine constricts blood vessels in the brain, which can relieve the throbbing headache that comes with a hangover. It also blocks the brain chemicals associated with drowsiness, which is why a cup of coffee can make you feel more functional. But caffeine is also a mild diuretic, meaning it pulls more water out of an already dehydrated body. And if you’re a regular coffee drinker who skips your morning cup, you may get a withdrawal headache on top of your hangover headache.
The practical takeaway: if you normally drink coffee, have a small cup alongside a full glass of water. If you don’t normally drink coffee, it’s not a great hangover remedy because your body isn’t adapted to it, and the stomach irritation may make nausea worse.
What Not to Drink
The “hair of the dog” approach, having another alcoholic drink, is the worst thing you can do. It temporarily masks symptoms by raising your blood alcohol level again, but it forces your liver to restart the entire breakdown process and deepens dehydration.
It also helps to think about what you drank the night before. Dark spirits like brandy and whiskey contain high levels of congeners, the chemical byproducts of fermentation that contribute to worse hangovers. Brandy can contain dramatically more congeners than vodka or gin, which have extremely low levels. This doesn’t help you the morning after, but choosing clearer drinks next time can meaningfully reduce hangover severity.
Do IV Drips Work?
Hangover IV services have exploded in popularity, promising rapid recovery through intravenous fluids, vitamins, and sometimes anti-nausea medication. The fluids do rehydrate you faster than drinking water, but medical experts at the University of Rochester Medical Center point out that IV fluids are not recommended unless a person cannot keep any liquids down. For most hangovers, drinking fluids by mouth is just as effective and far cheaper. IV drips also carry risks: bloodwork should ideally be checked before administration, and in some people the fluids can cause complications. For the average hangover, a sports drink and some ginger tea will get you to the same place without a needle in your arm.
A Simple Hangover Drink Plan
- Immediately on waking: 16 ounces of water with electrolytes, sipped slowly
- Within the first hour: ginger tea if nauseous, or tomato juice if your stomach can handle it
- With breakfast: a glass of orange juice or coconut water alongside food
- Throughout the day: continue drinking water steadily, aiming for pale yellow urine as your benchmark for adequate hydration
Most hangovers resolve within 24 hours. The drinks above won’t eliminate symptoms entirely, but they target the specific deficits that make you feel terrible: lost fluids, depleted electrolytes, low blood sugar, and a stomach that needs calming down.