Booze, taste, society, conditioning...

Interesting discussion... As a kid my dad thought it was funny to watch my face trying Newcastle Brown Ale or 'beer' and it was horrid. I just about almost liked the beer penny sweets though, no where near as much as cola bottles mind! I turned 16 and ended up drinking anything that wasn't beer or lager, in the same night. Very drunk very pukey, this trend didn't stop, it was just too funny and too exciting and yeah slightly reckless they way I did it but with sweet drinks, ciders, spirits and stuff, apart from being a lightweight in a way the drinks were more potent. I have some funny memories, and good experiences. Will be keeping an eye on my kids when they get teenage...
Fast forward to now and I do appreciate a few drinks to really get into things, specially a wind down catch up with friends etc, or a at home on a Friday just a couple of bottles of lager, yep curiosity got me, I have got into better ciders and avoided aspartame rich Strongbow crap for years and sensitive to mega sweet Magners type, Samual Smiths organic Cider and Westons n stuff is nice for one or two, similarly clean quality light lagers are lovely, Chinese stuff or Mexican type things. Yep I'm quite sensitive to tastes and nothing else satisfy s the same. So glad I found some more nice less sugary drinks to mature into.

Your son's question is a bit like "is tea nice"....the answer is some are, some aren't. There just happens to be alcohol in them.

They say Guinness is an acquired taste. I was drinking this "old mans drink" in my teens while most people were going on about Carling or getting deliberately sloshed on Carlsberg Elephant beer. May have something to do with the fact my mother was given a bottle of Guinness a day at the hospital while she was expecting. A nice light lager really hits the spot on a warm sunny day.

Interesting comments about Whiskey. It's a funny one alright. I enjoy an Irish blended on the rocks - the first takes the breath away, but by the end of the glass there's nothing better and suddenly in the right company half the bottle is gone with fruitful discussion. Going on about some almost mythical single malt stored 20 years in a Oak cask from the Armada, distilled by a 90 year old one legged half blind man living in some remote shed under a blanket in the remote highlands is just utter rubbish and a complete bore. My taste buds tell me I would do better by munching on some wet bog covered in sheep shit and save a considerable expense.

My mum drank every night, it seamed to go in phases what she drank, the Martini phase, the gin and tonic phase and the barley wine phase, these are the only ones I remember. She would always let me have a sip, I think I was the only one of us that used to ask. I suspect this is where I got used to the taste and began to like it (canny drink Martini for all the tea in china now though).

When I left home I hardly ever drank, the odd day in a year I'd go for a few at the pub with my best friend from very young childhood, now my husband. I didn't drink much until 2010, March 2010 to be precise, I'd left hospital, during my madness, after 4.5 months and felt I shouldn't be around the children so I moved into a pokey flat in town, lived through the madness and drank like a fish Now I'm back home and I could still drink every night, I miss it dreadfully, but I stick with just four bottles on a Friday. I do like the taste of a strongish beer like Riggwelter or McEwans Champion. I always thought it odd that my mothers drinking didn't make any of us a drinker in our late teens or twenties or thirties, my siblings hardly ever do still, I have been the only one to loose the plot like my mother in the end.

As to my 20 year old, he hates the taste of all alcohol, never liked it and probably never will, he drinks with his mates, get's totally totaled with them when they get together during the summers, but he's had enough, he hates feeling that he has to join in to be part of the party and get as drunk as his friends, I think they've seen the last of James going on 18-30 holidays and heavily drinking all night and clubbing.

Alison

Didn't like alcohol as a kid because when you're that young your taste buds are far more sensitive and everything tastes stronger than it does as you get older...

...when I was 18/19 on a Saturday night in the St Helier Arms we'd have a couple of pints of Red Leg (Red Witch across The Pond), double Pernod in a pint mug (remember those?) with a can of Special Brew and half a pint of Strongbow, then fall over! Also discovered Fosters when it first appeared on these shores.

Couple of years down the line I had a taste for Ruddles (can't abide the stuff now, tastes like dishwater!) or, God help me, Light & Bitter! After that came Schlitz, Breaker and John Smiths.

These days I like a nice red wine; I could also quite happily sample every single malt on the shelf of any good pub with an open fire and a good menu.

Penderyn Welsh single malt; nectar of the gods!

So yes, different alcoholic drinks taste 'nice' at different stages of your development (decline? :shock: )...

As well as acquiring a taste some some stuff I definitely un-acquired the taste for a few in my youthful over-indulging days. Even a sniff of brandy can make me retch.

As to smoking, I started quite young at school, didn't have any friends at so when someone was interested in talking to me if I smoked with him seamed a good payoff, when I was 22 I thought God, these taste like shiite and I feel so crap in the morning, can hardly breath and am a physical wreck, so I posted the pack of 18 I had left in the poor old student's house next door and never looked back, I mean let's face it ciggies do taste like shiite.

Alison

Kerplunk":18majo3b said:

As well as acquiring a taste some some stuff I definitely un-acquired the taste for a few in my youthful over-indulging days. Even a sniff of brandy can make me retch.

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Still can't face Bacardi and only started being able to manage cider again last year - both from incidents aged around 16!

rosstheboss":43tbdtky said:

Kerplunk":43tbdtky said:

As well as acquiring a taste some some stuff I definitely un-acquired the taste for a few in my youthful over-indulging days. Even a sniff of brandy can make me retch.

Click to expand...

Still can't face Bacardi and only started being able to manage cider again last year - both from incidents aged around 16!

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Apart from the Martini, I will never be able to drink home brew due also to my 16 year old experience of it or potato wine, I was blind from that the whole of the next day.

Alison

My mate once brought along a bottle of his brother in laws homemade damson wine for us to sample before we went to a party. Serious not quite ready, sieve through your teeth and wipe the tears from your eyes when you swallowed stuff. We had a few swigs then decided to dump the bottle in a hedge as the bus was about to turn up. At 2am when we returned we were far gone enough to spend 15mins searching for the bottle and finishing it as a night cap. Its not fun trying to pretend to your mum that you feel ok the next morning when you've got pins and needles in your face. My mum, god bless her, got my mate a Beechams Resolve as he was looking very grim. 10 secs later she was running to fetch a bucket as my mate threw it straight back up. This is why people that bringing your kids up in the countryside isn't always the idyllic perfect place you imagine. But oh to be 16 again. We were back out drinking that evening, would floor me for a week now.

Woz":2s94khpn said:

Your son's question is a bit like "is tea nice"....the answer is some are, some aren't. There just happens to be alcohol in them.

They say Guinness is an acquired taste. I was drinking this "old mans drink" in my teens while most people were going on about Carling or getting deliberately sloshed on Carlsberg Elephant beer. May have something to do with the fact my mother was given a bottle of Guinness a day at the hospital while she was expecting.

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Mum mostly drank Dandelion & Burdock whilst I was on the way....guess what my preferred flavour* of fizzy pop is?

Conditioning is indeed all important to enjoying the taste of beer. Usually if preceded by the phrases "cask-" or "bottle-"....

David

*Just shades it in a photofinish versus Vimto, mind you.