The Guinness World Record Pub Feat That Featured An Unlikely Beverage

If you've ever engaged in a pub crawl, you know that after a while things can get a little hazy. One beer here and another beer there can really add up after a full night of going from one bar to another. And the more doors you darken, the more inebriated you become. Pretty soon, the whole night's a blur and you're hanging your head over the toilet, swearing off booze forever. 

So how do you go about breaking the record for the "most pubs visited in 24 hours" — the Guinness World Record you probably didn't know existed — without completely losing track of the task at hand? If visions of spending your days in an alcohol-induced coma or suffering the hangover-from-hell are currently staggering through your head, you will be happy to know that breaking this record does not require you to experience any of the above. Yes, Gareth Murphy of Cardiff, UK managed to break this record by visiting a whopping 56 different drinking establishments without becoming the least bit tipsy (via Food & Wine). While Murphy admits to losing count of how many bathroom visits he had to make, this had nothing to do with liquor consumption (per USA Today). 

How on Earth did Murphy drink at 56 pubs without getting drunk? It turns out that he found a Guinness World Record loophole that may surprise you. 

According to the people at Guinness World Records, a pub is "an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic beverages on premises." So the record-breaker is required to visit each establishment and consume one drink — but the drink need not contain alcohol. As long as the individual has a video recording of the complete process and an employee at each pub has signed that a beverage has been both purchased and polished off, they are all set. And said beverage can be anything on the menu. 

While orange juice was Gareth Murphy's favored drink, he actually consumed an array of beverages. Food & Wine explains that Murphy's liquid consumption of 18 pints (36 cups) consisted of orange juice, apple juice, lemonade, Diet Pepsi, Coke, Tango, cranberry juice, blackcurrant cordial, and a sampling of Guinness. Hence, the multiple washroom breaks. Murphy explained that Cardiff's city center was the ideal spot to undertake this task as it has "the highest density of pubs, bars, and clubs in the entire UK" (via Guinness World Record). Food & Wine adds that while he had 24 hours to break the existing record of 51 pub visits, he actually completed his task in under 12 hours (from 10:00 a.m. to 9:26 pm). 

So now you know the secret to going on a pub crawl without suffering the morning after. Keep your head away from the porcelain and opt, instead, for a Gareth Murphy-inspired beverage list.