I don’t get beer
Stealing keystone light from your parents in 7th grade makes all other beer taste amazing except for Miller light
the trick is to be 15 and get started with a 40 of colt 45 that your friend’s mom got for you and your friend for helping with yardwork. choke that down just for the buzz and then actual craft beer is like candy
THe trick is to be 10 and your family allows you a little pony beer (old 8 oz glass bottle) 1-2 times per year. It takes away the mystery and when I was older, I didn’t feel a need to go get alcohol behind anyone’s back. And when I was 21, I drank occasionally, like with pizza sometimes or spaghetti, or a mixed drink socially or something.
Of course, for those that are alcoholics or otherwise get addicted to the alcoholic effects, it can be a struggle, but not really probably relating to when you start drinking in such cases.
How old are you? (this is a legit question, not trying to judge or anything). Do you drink coffee? If so, how do you like it?
Late 20s, never got into coffee except for mocha on rare occasions
I have a working theory that the availability of sweeteners has altered drinking preferences over generations.
When I was growing up everybody drank coffee and beer (and smoked cigarettes, which is probably a little related but a different story).
Coffee and tea were the only feasible way to get caffeine. Sure, cream and sugar was available and used, but as you get more acclimated to the taste you can forgo the stuff and just drink it black.
Likewise, beer is what you had. That was it. There were no sweetened alcoholic drinks in the can or 12 oz bottle form. With the exception of wine coolers but that was marketed more towards older women. And those usually only came in 4 packs. You could do wine or hard liquor with a mixer, but that was expensive and/or likely to get you hammered too quickly. If you wanted affordable casual drinking with friends you were drinking beer. And there weren’t even craft beers or microbrewers, just watery chilled donkey piss like Budweiser, Coors, etc.
Most people who started drinking did so with beer. By the time you had a year of sneaking beers with your buddies you were already used to the taste. Hell, I remember when Zima came out and it was a big deal (it was one of the first widely available easy to drink sweetend adult beverages, probably malt, I would guess).
And weed wasn’t common either, except in very secretive circles, so if you wanted a buzz, you were drinking.
Anyway, now you’ve got a whole cornucopia of alcoholic drinks that are easy to sip, caffeine that tastse like a soda, and vapes that taste like candy.
Nobody has to ever acquire a taste for bitter things again.
It’s a nice theory, but you’re forgetting about ciders and drinks like mead, which can be very sweet.
As for caffeine, I found that if you started drinking it with sugar, you have to actually want to give up sugar to switch to black. There’s no need to ever drink it black otherwise. I gave up sugar in my 30s and had to acquire a taste for black coffees. I gave up milk around the same time, which also dulls the bitterness. My parents, who are now in their 60’s and 70’s still drink milk and sugar. My gen z brother also prefers black.
Also that doesn’t explain things like german marzipan, which is bitter AF, and used in desserts. Same goes for cocoa, or dark chocolate. They’re entirely optional bitter products that are still popular.
Additionally, new craft beers are selling their bitterness as a feature in the form of IBU listings. (Successfully, I might add, I’m a sucker for a high IBU beer)
Bitter is just another flavour profile, and some people like it, some people don’t.
Did you grow up in a renfair? 😛 I never even met anyone who had ever drank mead until I was in my late 20s and hanging out with DnD nerds.
Since the 1970s, in the US beer consumption has steadily gone down 20%, wine up 40%, spirits took a deep dip but came up to 105%.
Growing up I definitely had friends that very quickly switched to mixers as soon as they could or wouldn’t drink beer but I’d say, as a whole, a general trend, less people in today’s times have grown up with bitter profiles being a necessary part of their imbibing, be it alcohol or caffeine, so when they do get that first sip of some old skunk beer they understandably recoil. Since they have no reason to continue drinking it when there’s a Mike’s or White Claw next to them… that’s that. I hear way more people say they don’t like the taste than I did 20 years ago. But it’s just a pet theory, might be other factors going on, too.
You’re on to something about choosing flavor profiles though. After about a year or two drinking sugary creamy coffee I gradually switched to black. I like the flavor, as well as dark chocolate and stout beers. I think some people are wired for it, like in the examples you provided. Interestingly, I’m not super crazy about sour, and I’ve met a few people who absolutely love it. Candies, drinks, etc.
Ha ha ha, no I just had some devious friends coming up. Mead is probably the easiest thing to make yourself at home, and you can do it with really unassuming ingredients. Bread yeast, and store bought honey will make a perfectly serviceable mead. Just buy flour and bake some bread at the same, and no one suspects a thing… until you overdo it, and get violently ill in the living room lol, tends to be a give away. I actually think the friend who started it was part of a DnD group, so it may still have started there.
I still do it as a hobby but with proper yeast and nutrients etc. now. Plus I actually know about things like stabilization and back sweetening! Muuuch nicer end product!
My point was more that sweeter options have always been available. I don’t know what it’s like in the US, but you can always find cider here. Doesn’t matter how small or backwater the pub is, there’ll be one on tap.
As for beer consumption going down in the US: You can get some really dry wine that’s quite bitter too. (And ciders and meads too come to think) and conversely you can get some really sweet, easy drinking beers too. Also, alcohol consumption across the board is down globally, so while I don’t dispute that beer consumption is down everywhere, I’m just not sure it can be entirely blamed on being bitter. Things come in and out of fashion. My personal working theory is that it’s become too expensive to drink casually.
I’m not super crazy about sour
Oh I love sour! I make my own hot sauces too, and while I do make them quite hot, I also add straight citric acid to them, and many people find my sauces to be pretty gross lol! Guess I’ll stick to my day job ha ha ha!
Sweet is actually the flavor I could take or leave. Not saying I hate it or anything, it’s just kinda low down on my preference list. I’m very much a savory snacker!
i use a non-dairy creamer for mines, and the low cal options. i use the non-aspartame sweetener.
i like dark chocolate too, but i prefer mostly 85%-90%+ anything lower than that is just to milky and sweet.
We must be the same age. Zima was a revelation, especially with the jolly rancher in it. Then in college it was just Beast Light because that’s what was available to me.
You just need the right beer. Sam adams and Octoberfest. Cali squeeze blood orange tastes like orange hi-c. Devils gap Jalepeno ale. There are some good tasting beers
Sure, but kinda ALL beer is an acquired taste, and frankly I don’t think I’ve ever thought, “I sure do want a tasty beverage and don’t care about the alcohol content” and ended up drinking beer. Even if you’re not getting drunk, the alcohol is the point, and everything else is mitigation.
That said, when I am feeling like a little bit of alcohol, I like a nice malty dark beer, stouts of course, but even a simple schwarzbier dark lager can do the trick. A very dry cider is even better though, edging close to the point where I might actually pick it purely for taste.
If they taste good because they taste like something else, why not just drink that something else? /hj
All beers are bitter, things humans evolved to stay away from (bitter signals poison). If you like beer, it’s because you’ve become accustomed to it, not because it’s a good flavor to humans.
Not exactly true.
What’s weird is ciders exist that taste just like juice yet they are the niche drink.
I can drink a lot of beer and I can drink a lot of apple juice, but I can only drink a couple of ciders before I am done.
It is possible that you just haven’t had one you liked yet. The are a lot of different flavors and styles. I like some but not others. Then again, why bother since drinking isn’t really all that great for you anyway. 😄
Well I do like ginger joe, so there’s that
All diet drinks. Whatever sugar substitutes they use taste awful no matter what. Now there are products I can’t consume because the default version has fake sugar as well. Nasty stuff.
Part of it is just getting used to it. I used to hate the no sugar versions of Coca-Cola®️. Other than the taste the viscosity is also ‘wrong’ in Coke zero. The sugary versions is much thicker.
I switched anyway because I was drinking too many calories.
Strangely though, real Coke now tastes weird to me. There is this strange aftertaste that I never noticed before switching to zero.
It also helps with the Zero-style ones that they use a couple of different sweeteners.
One of the tricks I found is that when I occasionally want sweet tea, I’ll take a packet of Equal, sucralose, and stevia and add to my glass. You get more of the sweet but without enough of each one that the bitterness or other weird taste you get when you use enough to make it super-sweet doesn’t happen. It just tastes sweet.
im the same with diet “soda”, now the sugary ones is just too sweet and you know you feel bad drinking it. i think mexican coke, aka cane sugar is the best one from what ive heard.
Totally agree. Since they have a super tax here all the drinks have gone either fully diet or reduced sugar and added sweeteners to it.
I can’t stand it. Coke is basically the only hold out left and the full sugar version is getting less and less prominent in supermarkets.I like it better. I can’t stand regular coke or pepsi, it tastes like syrup. Diet ones are better. Nowdays I’m enjoying Pesi Black, really nice taste.
aspartame, is the most common amongst diet sodas brand names. people dont like stevia soda, because some people apparently taste it differently.(the brand names like zevia, makes it sickly sweet)
Monster energy drinks. Tastes like what I imagine dumpster juice is like.
And any drink with Stevia in it. Instant dealbreaker if I see it in the ingredients.
The smell too. Idk what it is about the smell of Monster when it gets warm, but it’s god awful.
I’d say that, even aside from anything specific to Monster, most carbonated beverages are optimized for drinking cold and aren’t great when warm.
Fair enough. Tho there’s something about the smell that just permeates a car after you open Monster if you don’t immediately toss it when empty. Not that I’m even a fan of the flavor anymore. Liked it when I was in high school, but can’t stand it as an adult.
Agree on the stevia. It’s sweet but not like sugar. And leaves a weird aftertaste
Original Monster tastes like battery acid and I don’t know why I love it (especially khaotic)
Our local coffee shop only has sugar in the raw, and stevia. Blech.
there isnt much options for sweetners, its either sugar, stevia, somehow they might have ethyrthiol, but that can causes loose bowel movements, so itas uncommon
I know it’s not for everyone, but I personally prefer Splenda or sucralose.
I’ve tried a lot, and never really liked any of them, but I thought Monster was the best tasting of the energy drinks. Red Bull was by far the WORST energy drink I’ve ever had.
Coffee
I get it, it’s an acquired taste. But I sure don’t like it.
“acquired taste” = addictive chemical
It’s also bitter, which humans are evolved to dislike. So it literally is an acquired taste, because some people drink decaf.
Depending on how lightly it is roasted and brew method, it can be much less bitter and more floral and “bright”. Agree that the average coffee is dark roast and invariably bitter, however.
Could just be changing taste buds. I never made a concerted effort to stop wanting sweet things but in my late 20s I pretty much never made an effort to acquire them on my own. I don’t dislike ice cream but I’ve literally never bought it or any sweets for more than a decade now.
With that change came enjoying bitter tastes more as well.
I mean that’s fair, and there are plenty of foods like bitter squash that some people enjoy a lot with no addictive chemicals (I know of)
But at the same time, I never met a decaf fan who didn’t first like caf
the caffiene makes it bitter, people seem to like the cafestol, if they using unfiltered coffee, which apparently not good for you. its definitely acquired taste, i did not like it when i was still college, when i drank a stronger for first time.
there will be lots of personal opinions here … mine is that champagne is -not awful but still- overrated.
IMHO it’s saved by the mimosa. Throw some orange juice in that overhyped sparkling grape juice and I am IN. Great for tolerating events with people you don’t like.
Mimosa just exposes how most champagne/sparkling wine that most people are familiar with just sucks already.
If it didn’t, you wouldn’t mask it’s great taste with orange juice.
Good champagne/sparkling wine doesn’t need that. What bars put in mimosa is the cheap crap that no one should drink in the first place.
I had LOTS before I had one from a friend who really knows wines.
That changed my opinion of champagne as a whole, but most of it (especially in the US, or the Brut style) just sucks.
But that’s wine in general. I’ve had lots of mediocre wine and a few that were fantastic (to my tastes).
Consider all the varieties and vintages, then everyone’s personal tastes, and it’s no wonder opinions are all over the map.
Champagne is one of the few drinks that generally fucks me.
I can have nine or ten pints in a night and feel rubbish but function the following day. I can have a bottle or two of sparkling wine and feel like shit for the following morning, but still function.
Two glasses of champers and I am literally doubled over with a bastard of a hangover the following day.
Energy Drinks. Yes every single sickly disgusting rancid smelling one of them.
bad for your kidneys too.
Matcha. Every everyone says it’s this wonderful day and when I try it it’s like drinking blended lawn clippings.
It’s delicious. I also love sencha. Black coffee is also superior compared to the sugar bomb coffee drinks most of the country drinks.
Look, I champion black coffee wherever I can. I drink it decaf…
But I draw the line at matcha. Don’t lie to yourself.
Lmao your opinion is already compromised with the self admission of decaf coffee which in itself is an oxymoron.
It’s like saying sugar free Frappuccino!
What country? Sounds shit
USA. 99% of people drink Starbucks/Dutch Bros. Drinks that have 500+ calorie starting points before the modify them to hell and back and turn them into a 1000 calorie meal.
A large part of obesity epidemic around here is all of the empty calorie drinks.
Matcha does taste like grass, I agree, and I still like it. I guess if I ate grass I probably wouldn’t hate it, at least from a taste perspective
Flavored Sparkling water with no sweeteners of any kind. I’m looking at you Bubly
Shit tastes like someone else is thinking about the flavor
Reminds me of this.
Unironically I like La Croix, specifically lime.
However if I’m feeling splurge-y I’ll get Topo Chico Lime or Grapefruit.
Topo chico solos lacroix
It’s also waaaay more expensive than La Croix, which is why I don’t always buy it
Sorry but you’re utterly wrong
The “What Tastes Awful Decider” has graced us with their decision! Close thread
I’m just gonna go ahead and be the guy that says… all alcohols.
I’ve tried beer, wine, tequila, vodka, hard liquors, spirits, fruity drinks, creamy drinks, coffee flavored rum, hard seltzer, hard cider, champagne, you name it. They don’t all taste horrible-- coffee (even though I don’t usually drink it) and fruit flavored drinks can be acceptable-- but I haven’t ever tried a single drink that tastes good because it has alcohol, it’s always because the alcohol is overpowered by something else. Just give me the something else please.
For me, it’s the smell. I always get a whiff of an underlying, rotten garbage smell underneath anything alchoholic.
I’ve never seen an opinion be so terribly wrong before.
You must be new here.
I’m gonna drink my ice water and I’m gonna like it
Most regular energy drinks. Red Bull and regular Monster taste like battery acid to me. Remember NOS? That too. Also Rockstar. All battery acid.
The flavored variants can be better though.
Oh the white peach is genuinely habit forming. One day I opened the fridge to find out hubs had picked me up one on the way home and genuinely felt myself salivate.
Oh dang. I already shared a comment above about how much I can’t stand Red Bull, but we have a slushie machine at work and last summer one of the guys filled it up with white peach red Bull, and HO-LY SHIT. I couldn’t stop drinking those things!
bawls are the only good energy drink
I’ll go one step further and say, most energy drinks in general.
It’s not even so much the flavor as it is the chalky texture and aftertaste that just about every one of them seems to have. I’m not sure if they’re all powder-based or what, but there’s a residual feeling left on my tongue that I can’t stand.
That will be IPAs for me. If I wanted to drink grapefruit pith I can think of better ways to do it.
I’ve always found IPAs more like chewing pine needles, but agreed. IPAs are fucking disgusting.
IPAs are the only beers worth drinking imo. Whiskey or IPAs nothing else really hits right.
I used to hate IPAs, but then I accidentally picked up a Red Rock IPA that snuck into a sixer of lagers and that specific beer unlocked in me whatever makes people love IPA, now it’s the only kind of beer I want to drink.
IPA’s taste like Fruity Pebbles that dry out my gums. Just give me something simple and refreshing.
Pretty much any non cocktailed alcohol. It all tastes kinda like shit except for some wines.
Add wine and beer to the list.
Gin. It’s garbage.
Depends on the Gin, I quite like Drumshanbo neat. And Gin and Tonic is my go to drink.
Don’t drink anymore but loved me some neat gin in my time. The more juniper the better. St. George’s Terroir and Never Never Triple Juniper were my poisons of choice.
More for me. I sip it straight.
Is it supposed to taste like Pinesol? Because that’s all I could taste the first and last time I drank it straight.
You and me both
Tastes exactly like I would imagine tree sap would taste.
Sour beers / goses. I keep coming back every couple of years to see if my tastes have changed and they always taste awful to me. I’m glad most brewers hopped (pun somewhat intended) on the IPA train because I much prefer them over the sour options.
Must be one of those cilantro situations, I’m the complete opposite. Give me sours all day and take away all the IPAs, blech
Fine by me, you take all the sours and I’ll take the IPAs. Cheers.
Excellent!
I don’t think I could drink a ton of sours all the time, but the super hoppy IPA trend was the worst thing to ever happen to craft beer. Give me a nice rich stout instead. Even in the middle of the summer!
I could and have drinken Guinness all day
Ah Guinness, the Coors Light of stouts. I’d love to introduce you to a Russian Imperial, or a Breakfast Stout!
IPA tastes like the bottom of a shoe.
Eggnog. 🤢
I want to get a little drunk, but I also want some pancakes
– Dave Attell
You take that back
I can’t stand homemade eggnog… One wiff of the fresh nutmeg reminds me of the time I downed half a cup of it in a moment of desperation; aka to get high. Not recommended, felt like a 48 shitty weed Brownie high mixed with a minor flu. That amount of nutmeg is the most putrid shit ever. Getting it down was insanely difficult.
Standard issue cheap grocery store eggnog on the other hand is so fucking’ tasty. Grab a gallon and drink it over a weekend and I’m my fat ass is set for the winter.
Even a consideration of consuming it again makes my stomach start rotating. Tbh I’ve never met anyone who dislikes it other than me so I always assumed it was a me thing. Absolutely rancid stuff Imo. Interesting to hear of all people’s preferences and preparations of it though.
Are you referring to eggnog or downing a cup of nutmeg?
It’s Christmas, alcohol in custard is the least boozy thing on offer. Brandy butter on Christmas pudding with brandy on fire with a glass of Bailey’s, and that’s just boxing day breakfast
