# Has there ever been a "connoisseur culture" about any drug other than alcohol? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 25, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-connoisseur-culture-about-any-drug-other-than-alcohol/977076 "2022-12-25T15:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 29
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2022, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-connoisseur-culture-about-any-drug-other-than-alcohol/977076/29 "2022-12-26T15:17:01Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I would raise the question of whether you’d have loved those same qualities about beer if they hadn’t been reinforced by the drug experience. Yes, I do believe at least eventually there was a feedback loop of sorts. I’ve liked the taste of non-alcoholic malt beverages (like malta, and there’s this Polish one, too) and bitter herbal teas (like wormwood) or sodas (like quinine), since I was a kid. Or even more recently Moxie, which I don’t particularly find bitter, but people talk about it like a vile substance. So malt + bitter botanical was kind of a natural pairing for me. I used to love sipping Old Style from my dad’s can of beer as a five-year-old because I loved the taste, and obviously not in amounts enough to get me the least intoxicated. But, sure, I eventually discovered the alcoholic and social aspect of it, and the two eventually must have reinforced each other. Thankfully, these days, there are a good number of NA beers that I would take over alcoholic beers because they just taste better. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-connoisseur-culture-about-any-drug-other-than-alcohol/977076)._