The British are known for their affinity for package holidays, but sometimes it’s worth wondering why they keep prices so low.
A British couple dared to wonder how strong their drinks were while on holiday in Turkey.
Chelsea Dickensen, who runs the TikTok account @cheapholidayexpert showed his 134,000 followers how to use an ‘alcohol meter’ in the shorten to test their fans’ theory that “cheap all-inclusive hotels dilute the alcohol.”
The couple tried gin and vodka and Chelsea joked that it wasn’t a completely “scientific” method when the alcohol percentage turned out to be lower than expected.
Chelsea, who goes by @cheapholidayexpert on TikTok, often shares her budget trips with her fans.
Chelsea and James used a refractometer to test whether their drink was strong overseas, testing their fans’ theory that this is how they kept prices low.
Chelsea said, “This is an alcohol meter because a lot of you said they water down the alcohol at cheap all-inclusive hotels.” We don’t think so, do we, James?
“We thought we should do a scientific experiment just to show you that they’re legit.”
Using a pipette, James inserted drops of gin into the refractometer, a device that can be used to measure the alcohol content in a liquid.
They expected it to detect a volume of 37.5 percent alcohol in the drink, but the results showed only 33 percent.
They weren’t surprised, however, and explained a few things that could affect the potency of the drink, with James explaining: “Temperature can vary the accuracy of this.”
So they decided to try their experiment with vodka, which should also have a volume of 37.5 percent, but again they found themselves at 33 percent.
Chelsea asked James: “What does that mean?” to which she concluded: ‘That means I don’t think they’ll dilute them.’
She confirmed his hypothesis: “We’ve literally seen them break the seal on new bottles, so I’m going to go ahead and say this place is not watering down,” and James added: “These are honest people.”
TikTok users were either big fans of Chelsea and James’ trick or not, with some of them claiming that the drink served was still so cheap that it wasn’t worth the staff skimping on it.
TikTok users were divided over Chelsea’s video, which has since racked up an impressive 1 million views: Some were very interested in grabbing their own refractometer and others considered it useless.
One user joked: ‘I need someone to do this on Spoons!’ while another chimed in excitedly: ‘A new item I need to pack in my suitcase!’
But another theorized: ‘So what? It’s all inclusive, just get another one’ and someone else stated: ‘They get it pretty cheap, it’s not worth diluting it.’
And another user felt the couple were misusing the machine.
‘It is a refractometer and needs to be calibrated every time. Temperature influences the measurement and is used to measure the sugar content of the fruit.’