Hmm? I am curious about this one, as I never heard the belief that whiskey is “supposed to” taste nasty. I will state that for much of my earlier adulthood, whiskey had no flavor to me - it was only alcohol + burning the throat. Only in later adulthood did I overcome that experience. Now I can taste whiskeys, and discern the reputed flavor profiles. So, the “supposed to” taste nasty may be expressing a bias based on younger adult drinking experiences similar to mine.
Icarus , I think I see your point. Maybe what I was saying is related to that manly/girly thing the OP mentioned. On the continuum from harsh to smooth whiskeys, I preferred the smoother, richer Knob Creek and Old Crow. Most of the guys I knew who like to gulp down a shot before they could taste it were into Jack Daniel’s, which to my mouth was all bite and no purr.
If you notice I’m speaking in the past tense, it’s because I quit drinking 6 years ago
I think a lot of our tastes change as we mature. The OP is clearly a student, and if he’s like I was at that age, whiskey probably does burn, especially if he’s not sipping the good stuff.
Side note: I was the same way with coffee and beer, as well as scotch. My line was “I can only drink the really good stuff, because the cheap stuff is too ragged. And I can’t afford the really good stuff.”
Another thought: There’s a personality type* that has to show how “tough” they are by seeking out that ‘booze that burns’ and doing shots of it. Rotgut whiskies, cheap tequila, Jägermeister… (I mean, can you imagine someone ordering a glass of Jäger and sipping it because they like the flavor? 'Tis to laugh…)
*I call that personality type “them yahoos”, and I try to avoid them.
Regarding Jaegermeister, when I lived in Germany way back when, it was regarded as an after dinner sipper. Good for the digestion, of course. Didn’t have the do shots-get rocked connotation at all.
If you happen to like the flavor of black licorice, it is a nice after dinner drink.
FWIW I remember this exchange from several years ago… Family reunion ( well actually a post death celebration of an important family member a few months prior, but a de-facto family reunion with people coming from 4 points of the compass hundreds or thousands of miles to attend ) and was centered in a nice hotel adjacent to the deceased hometown. I would say “I digress” but it’s too late. 
Anyway, bar/lounge/lobby area. Evening. Those family members who traveled, myself included, trickle in. Due to a long day, I was quite desirous of a drink. I order a shot of Jameson, and a glass of good draft beer, and bring it to the open lobby area where we’re all reconnecting. My mother sees this and says “A shot and a beer? That’s an old person’s drink” Dryly I said, “well I guess that settles it: I’m old then”. I was 48 then.
A shot of whiskey and a beer isn’t my signature libation, and I didn’t get the stigma. I just wanted to ascend the relaxation/buzz just a bit quicker than merely a beer would allow, and ride that wave, so to speak.
I’m loving the alco-insights here, but not sure that any of us (myself included) are really helping the OP.
OP, can you explain why you asked those specific questions? Do you have binge-drinking friends and feel like you should keep up with them? Trying to impress ladies with “manly” drinks? Feeling like, as a guy, you’re expected to handle your alcohol better than women?
And your last point was “Drinking in moderation is a healthy habit to partake in.” Why include that? Do you really have some doubt about that, or is it because you have friends that don’t want you to “drink in moderation”?
When I was a student, I eventually got disappointed in how my friends acted when they were drunk, and I quit drinking more than one mixed drink or two beers when out with them. And would often make an excuse and walk home before they got too offensive/sexist/idiotic. Finally I got smart… and got smarter friends…
My go to answer when the question is, “tell me something unusual about yourself” is that I like single malt whisky, especially those from Islay, and bitter liqueurs, such as Cynar. After a heavy meal, a Jägermeister is a nice change.
My opinion? If you like it? Drink it. But not too much. And drink water to prevent hangovers.
If you don’t like it, or don’t want to drink? That’s okay.
Shaming people for their beverage choices is not okay. If someone gives me a bottle of something I normally wouldn’t drink, I either re-gift it or try out cocktail recipes.
That. It’s like a really herbal Sambuca. Nowhere near as bitter as say, Fernets. Or Malort. I’d rather sip Lagavulin, but I’ve sipped Jager when I was younger.
I teach college students. They hate the taste of “Jäger”, so they slam shots of the stuff, or mix it with Red Bull, which they’ll gladly proclaim “tastes like ass”.
Or, my favorite Dumb Move: they’ll “do Jägerbombs”, where they drop a shot glass of Jägermeister in a pint (or pitcher!) of crappy beer, and chug the whole thing.
Does anyone want to visualize this and identify the dumb part? Yep, the shot glass smacks them in the face while they’re chugging. One student was very proud of his bloody nose: “I was like famous in the bar, dude! It hurt so much I dropped the glass, and there was broken glass and blood and beer all over the floor! You missed it!”"
Weekend binge drinking is common, but not universal, in college kids, but I think it’s just as common in people of that age who don’t go to college. Maybe even more so, because working kids don’t have all that crushing study load.
Yeah, I can’t imagine the kind of trouble i would’ve gotten into with my not-quite-fully-developed Twenty-Something Brain if I didn’t have homework!
Most of these stereotypes/opinions are well-known throughout the drinking world. As we learn through various drinking experiences, it makes every opinion intriguing, since a majority of Straight Dope members are older adults.
I don’t drink as much as I did during my on campus college years because I’m currently back at home during this semester doing online classes due to the virus. I also don’t drink when I’m back at home during my college breaks since I’m working regularly and I feel more comfortable drinking with peers within my age range rather than with family members since they hardly drink at all.
On an extra note, if I were to go to a party, bar, or club, then I’d drink socially among my peers rather than drinking alone or with family members.
There is not all that much extra fructose in the commonly used HFCS. Table sugar is 50% fructose. The most commonly used HFCS syrup bumps that up to 55% fructose. (Cite)
I’m not an anti-sugar or anti-HFCS zealot, but we Americans are eating a lot more sugar than we were a few decades ago. This is mostly due to the change in the way we shop and prepare meals. We’ve surrendered our sugar decisions to prepared-meal makers, who dial in more sugar than we would if we were preparing the same dishes for ourselves. Thus, whatever the source, we’re getting more fructose than we were.
I have no idea about sugar consumption now versus then. I will say that it is staggering how many foods have sugar/HFCS added, that you wouldn’t expect. Make a habit of flipping around your various food items’ containers when shopping, and note how many different compounds are listed on the label, and how calorie dense many of those items are. It certainly surprised me when I started doing it.
Depends on what you mean by “handle.” Maybe men can drink more, but I think they do stupider things when they get drunk.
I didn’t actually see a question in there.
When and where I was in college, binge drinking was certainly not an automatic part of being in college. Some people went in for it, yes; but many other students didn’t, and often thought of getting full scale drunk as a rather stupid thing to do, even if they often drank enough to get a bit giggly.
That was many years ago; and the legal age was 18. I think that raising it to 21 may well have increased binge drinking on college campuses. The context for drinking legally and moderately got removed, and it became an essentially transgressive thing to do. That didn’t stop people from drinking – 18 year olds want to be adults, after all – but it may have encouraged removing the distinction between drinking moderately and getting drunk. If part of the context for drinking is ‘sherry party with one’s professor’ (yes, they did that, with undergrads) and ‘dinner out with somebody’s parents’, I suspect people are less likely to think that the whole point of drinking is to get as drunk as possible.
Actually the myth is that whiskey/whisky is best drunk neat. Pretty much every serious whiskey/whisky tasting recommendation I’ve ever seen suggests trying it neat, with water, and maybe with ice- different whiskies are best in different ways.
The other myth that stands out to me about alcohol is that a lot of people conflate either a dark color or intensity of flavor with alcoholic strength in beer. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people talk about how “strong” Guinness is (it’s 4.2% abv, which is exactly the same as Bud Light!), or about other beers that are “big” in a flavor/gravity/hop sense, when they’re not unusually alcoholic. There’s no relationship between color and alcoholic strength, and a fairly weak one between flavor and alcoholic strength, in that often higher gravity beers are both more flavorful and higher alcohol, but that’s not a reliable relationship.
I’ve known folks who believe that drinking dark beer brings on diarrhea, but I’m guessing that was because they drank way too much, that one time when they drank some.