About 25 years ago a horrible distillate with the label Don Emilio Tequila on it. That stuff wasn’t even cheap tequila. It was something like cheap formaldehyde. Really surprised the package store got away with selling it. Makes me want to spew just thinking about it to this day.
I must be in the wrong thread because I love Campari and Unicum. Becherovka too, but that stuff is actually good, it just makes you insane for a bit. I am afraid of even tasting Cynar cause I might like it.
MOL, snake wine? A friend of mine has a bottle but I thought it was purely for show. I didn’t know anyone actually drank it. Did you kill the bottle?
Oh yeah Green Chartreuse is another on my never try again list.
I’ve had Pennsylvania moonshine, and it was very strong, but by the time the little glass jar came out, we’d already been going strong for a while, so the authentic rural American experience cancelled out the taste for the most part. My mistake was using the peach half that was floating in it as a chaser, since there was no peach taste left in it, just more shine, so I essentially chased a shot of moonshine with a bite of moonshine.
Real czech absinthe smuggled here in a bottle of mouthwash back 2002 was breathtakingly strong and incredibly bitter, but didn’t linger too long. Wasn’t bad enough for me to stop after one shot.
Wormwood infused vodka - my own attempt at a beverage that would have a pleasant fuzzy confusion effect similar to absinthe. Blended a liter absolute with a 1/4 pound of wormwood and let it sit for 2 weeks. The bitterest thing I’ve ever tasted, the bitterness lingers for what seems like forever. Me and my college buddies finished it, but did not attempt the experiment again.
The Beast - I don’t know if the previous 3 experiences did not seem as bad at the time due to my younger selves palette being able to tolerate more than it does now, but this is truly a horrible beverage. A dark brooding beer, stronger then most wines, long lasting aftertaste. The last time I had it was about 2 weeks before I quit drinking, not that one caused the other, but still. If you feel like you must pay penance for some horrible sin, it can be found at Brickskellar in DC, or could be in 2009.
That would be salt. Supposedly it’s to inhibit the growth of bacteria that would fester in non-salted wine if it was opened and left as long as happens to cooking wine, but I’ve long been of the opinion that it’s mostly there to try to stave off line cooks from guzzling it from the bottle.
Once upon a time I ordered a Manhattan from a bar that was shy on a few ingredients. They used dry vermouth instead of sweet, and added a dash of the corn syrup from a jar of maraschino cherries because they’d run out of the garnish. I should have paid better attention and noticed the pinkish hue to my drink before slurping, but I nearly spat it out onto the bartender who had failed to inform me of his alterations. Eyugh
I think my personal winner is Buckfast. Some vile, caffeinated wine based… thing.
I brought a bottle to a 4 day festival last year, after a recommendation from a friend, who drinks it like water. The site rules would only allow one bottle of booze (no spirits) per person to be brought in, decanted into a plastic bottle, and the security were opening and sniffing the bottles- when the lady opened mine she made a fantastic face, and asked ‘what is this crap?’. It smelt and tasted vile, I didn’t manage more than a few mouthfuls despite all my friends being pissed for most of the event, and my being unable to afford alternative booze.
I’ve tasted some very nasty homemade beer, but the worst alcoholic drink I ever had was a four-pack of PartyTime Malt Liquor when I was fifteen. It was “flavored,” see, and each bottle contained a different color malt liquor – red, blue, green, and yellow (thus the “party,” I guess). Each had the same terrible overcooked broccoli taste, and what it looked like coming up was worse. Imagine if Hell had rainbows.
Absinthe. Not the crappy slightly bitter stuff that you can buy in a liquor store, but the real stuff that is 70% alcohol and 30% evil.
I’m pretty sure it’s not meant for human consumption, and is made specifically as a novelty gift for the roundeyes. I took a shot, and it was the foulest smelling and tasting thing ever poured into a shot glass.
Oh, that reminds me, I had some “homemade gin” once that I’m almost certain was just perfume.
Something Chinese from a bottle with a snake in it. I suspect it was formaldehyde. Or perhaps it was that big glass of lukewarm moonshine [del]gasoline[/del] vodka served with fresh, soft sheep fat on the side.
Aah. Memories…
Hey MOL - apparently great minds drink alike.
If there was a “like” button here, I’d press it for Poor Yorick’s post. “Imagine if hell had rainbows” - great line
yep this was going to be my contribution. Naasty stuff.
I actually quite like a bit of Buckie. Of course, I’d never admit to that, as it is renowned for being what Scottish tramps drink.
Ooo…good call on Malort. That makes Unicum taste like candy by comparison. I was both disappointed and proud when my wife, on her first taste of Malort, did not scrunch her face into a ball and regurgitate her meal. Instead, she just drank it with a straight face and said, “that’s not bad.” I like it from time to time; my father loves it (being a big fan of wormwood tea and extreme bitter flavors); my mother, too. I just wasn’t expecting my wife to enjoy it as much as she did. Part of the fun of malort is introducing it to unsuspecting people.
Had a can of Fox Deluxe beer that someone had flicked cigarette ashes into. It must’ve acted like activated charcoal because that shit tasted better that way.
Bought some mouthwash the other day. Wife said, “That has alcohol in it, you know.” Seven months sober and it had never occurred to me to drink mouthwash, but her words had the negative effect of making me intrigued by the possibility. Then I saw sodium lauryl sulfate as an ingredient and decided I didn’t want to fart bubbles, like a kid in the nuthouse did when he made it so we couldn’t have liquid soap anymore (some people will drink anything). And then I gargled with it and remembered that it makes me sick. The mouthwash is safe. And only 38 proof; less than most liqueurs. Hardly worth the barfing.
Gin and tonic. Tonic water is absolutely horrible.
Sophmore year of college. Jack Daniels and Welch’s Grape Soda. Shortly thereafter, I stopped boozing altoether.
I’m puzzled how anyone could find it “absolutely horrible”. It doesn’t have much of a flavour to speak of. I like a G&T, and will also often have tonic on its own, with ice and a slice of lemon.
I’m puzzled how you can say it doesn’t have much flavor, unless we are talking about different things. We’re talking about the stuff made with quinine. It took me years to get used to the bitterness of quinine in tonic water. Granted, now I’m a lover of bitter, but from a kid up to my late teens, I couldn’t stand it. It’s a very strong flavor, and I would have called it “absolutely horrible” in those years. And I am NOT a supertaster, either.
Step your game up to the 4 horsemen and toss in some Jamisons into the mix.