I had been curious about 2-methyl-2-butanol for a while after reading that it was reportedly 20-40 times more potent than ethanol by weight. The appeal was the claimed lack of hangover due to it supposedly not producing toxic metabolites like acetaldehyde.
I measured out 3ml and put it in a shot glass with some cream soda to mask the taste. Plugged my nose and knocked it back, then chased with more cream soda and a swig of hot sauce to kill any lingering taste. The flavor was bad but not as horrific as people had warned. More of a chemical solvent taste than the burning of high-proof ethanol.
Within one minute I felt initial depressant effects. By five minutes it felt like three beers. By ten minutes, more like five beers. The onset speed was remarkable compared to ethanol. At twenty minutes I was feeling great and tipsy, so I decided to take another 3ml.
By the thirty-minute mark after my second dose, I felt equivalent to about eight beers deep, but the quality of intoxication was noticeably different from alcohol. My head felt clearer. There was no cloudy nausea. I felt warm, disinhibited, and glowing, but could still think relatively clearly. The closest comparison would be a cross between a benzodiazepine and alcohol.
At forty minutes I was thoroughly impressed. The body feel was superior to ethanol in every way. Less gastric distress, less mental cloudiness, more of a clean warm buzz. My coordination was definitely impaired and I could not walk straight, but cognitively I felt more present than I would on an equivalent amount of regular alcohol.
The experience lasted several hours and I woke up the next morning feeling genuinely fine. No headache, no nausea, no grogginess. Whether this holds up over repeated use remains to be seen, but as a first impression, 2M2B delivered on its promises.