Genes definitely play a role. I have some russian genes in me and up till the age of 30 I could drink at least twice the amount of alcohol than all of my bulgar

Genes definitely play a role. I have some russian genes in me and up till the age of 30 I could drink at least twice the amount of alcohol than all of my bulgarian friends. And Bulgaria has quite the drinking culture itself, so they were no slouches for sure. More than that, the high school we were at had (still has?) a reputation for producing alcoholic software devs, so drinking culture was big even before legally allowed drinking age. And with all that I still had to drink at least twice the amount of alcohol just to get to the same buzz level like everyone else. And next day I would experience none of the symptoms than all my friends reported, to their endless dismay. I think the idea was that some people from russia have a gene for more efficiently processing alcohol in the liver, but whatever it was, after 30, I just became a regular joe drinking wise, which is quite nice since I don’t have to spend so much money if I want to have a buzz. Though I do a lot less of it now, as I also have a hangover the next day.