Well, as a counter, I have never in my 40 years of life come across someone who didn’t like the taste of alcohol, as opposed to not liking the taste of those alcoholic beverages they have tried. I know a lot of non drinkers, and no one has ever used that as a reason to me. As I said upthread, I did not ever think alcohol had a “taste.” Given that beer has a distinct taste that is different to that of wine and that of the multiple liquors, taste is something that I think of as applyign to the delivery system, not the alcohol.
If someone were to say it to me, my first assumption would be they didn’t like the taste of the delivery systems they had tried. If they said they didn’t like the taste of all alcohol, I’d assume they meant effect.
But poorly distilled alcohol generally has a taste one generally associates with gas, doesn’t it? And that taste (or smell, whichever, they’re linked pretty closely) doesn’t disappear, just gets less obvious with better distillation. And that’s regardless of the actual liquid being fermented/distilled.
I really find it hard to believe you don’t have any idea of what the “taste of alcohol” could possibly refer to when there is a common underlying sense (what Guns calls mouthfeel) through all different types of alcoholic liquids.
Perhaps it’s not technically accurate, a little like calling the carbonation in sodas the “taste of soda,” but I’m not sure that it’s that difficult to understand.
… really represents an acknowledgement that there is a common mouthfeel/texture/whatever, just a statement that it isn’t the taste.
I still don’t see it - any degree of commonality other than intoxication. But jsgoddess swears it is there, so I have to believe for her it is. I just haven’t come across it in anyone before. Hence my lack of knowledge about what anyone would mean by the taste of alcohol. And I think you would find a lot of drinkers and other people confused by it.
Considering your soda example, I find personally a much greater difference between, say, a tasty Bordeaux such as that which awaits me at home, and a glass of single malt scotch than I do between a coke and a mountain dew. Both pairs differ in taste, but the the sodas have the commonality I recognize, and the alcoholic beverages don’t seem to. To me. Now, I would never call that characteristic of the soda it’s taste, and I would look very oddly at someone who did.
Ooooh please please please. I want to see this. (Not kidding–I’m sure it’ll be hilarious.)
Probably because we’ve all met people like you, who claimed to “not like the taste of (alcohol in general, or beer in general, or wine in general),” only to go, “Oh hey, this is really good,” when presented with something that we thought they would enjoy. So please do deign to forgive those of us for whom each form of alcohol tastes unique who’ve had prior experiences with people who make exactly the same claim as you but mean it in an entirely different way.
Not just that–but asserting that just because I enjoy alcoholic beverages I must (a) make a vomiting ass of myself every time I drink and (b) have a problem with alcohol consumption.
Bwahahaha–they were only giving because they wanted something back, other than the warm fuzzy glow of having contributed to a good cause? For that, I’d love to donate anonymously individually, just so I could say that I chipped in more than them *and *fucked them out of their tote bags.
Honestly, at this point I’m inclined to agree with jsgoddess about the Doper exceptionalism thing, but since I’m running into the end of my personal experience, I’m not going to make any strong claims one way or the other.
I plan to try a bunch of different liquors over the next couple weekends, though, so maybe after that I can argue it more confidently. Or I’ll jump to the other side totally and wag my finger at the non-drinkers. Who knows.
Well, 10 pages have come and gone…and to no avail…Sooooo, I’m gonna bust out the heavy artillery…Next time we meet at a Dopefest, I’m gonna make any and all of you try my roasted skunk scent glands. No excuses. You’ll be begging for a 27 chasers after sampling that!
Ok, well since you are obviously open to experimentation, I am going to suggest Lindeman’s Lambic as a drink that many people who think they don’t like the taste of liquor might like. It is much more like a soda pop that mysteriously gives you a buzz than it is like any beer (which it technically is, but again, not “beery” at all). The best flavors IMO are framboise (raspberry) and kriek (cherry), but there is also peche (peach) that I have tried.
BTW, at least one nondrinker here has mentioned the experience of “trying it” by having a few shots of something strong (e.g. whiskey) and absolutely hating it. I feel like it should be pointed out that that has a pretty high likelihood of turning anyone off of drinking. I think drinking is great fun, but if I sat down and drank hard liquor until I was drunk enough to get the spins or throw up, I’d probably have one of those “I’m never drinking again” mornings the next day. Inexperienced drinkers don’t really have a grasp on the balance between nicely tipsy and obnoxiously drunk, and the aftermath of getting obnoxiously drunk can be pretty unpleasant. It is also interesting to note that that lack of understanding seems to be shared by the rabid anti-boozers here, causing them to assume everyone who drinks must drink to excess, and that’s what pisses off people who manage to drink responsibly.
Cape Cods are good for not tasting like alcohol. Rum and coke (not diet) works pretty good too, especially using malibu or captain or another flavored rum.
I’ll have to keep those in mind, thanks. I’m actually eager to try rum, though I think ntucker’s right about strong drinks. I went right to vodka on my first attempt, and even though I had only a small amount mixed with soda, it felt like too damn much. Definitely didn’t make me eager to try again.
That’s because vodka is nasty. It tastes the way rubbing alcohol smells, and there are no other flavors to help cover that up. Dark liquors like rum and bourbon are much easier to deal with.
Really, I’m going to amend your statement to “there are rarely good vodkas available in the United States, because everyone here seems to think it’s solely a neutral mixer and shouldn’t ever have a flavor of its own.”
Yeah–I grew to like bourbon by keeping a glass of it in my hands for a couple of hours, sniffing it regularly and occasionally taking the tiniest sip. Woodford Reserve is spectacular for that: it smells like the essence of a caramel sundae, all vanilla and burnt sugar, but isn’t sickly sweet when you get that tiny bit in your mouth.
Bourbon still lasts me an hour or so a drink; it’s definitely something to savor.
I think if someone started drinking on something like Bailey’s Irish Cream they’d enjoy it a lot more than vodka (or gin - people say they like gin, and they have no reason to lie to me so I believe them, but I’d sooner drink Buckley’s cough syrup). Not to be one of those people who tries to convince you that THIS drink will have no alcohol taste, but Bailey’s in hot chocolate is pretty darned yummy.
So, after poking at Captain Morgan’s, Bacardi, and Maker’s Mark, I have to say I simply can’t see how folks can deny that there’s a “taste” of alcohol. Whether it’s rum, bourbon, tequila, wine, whatever, you can tell it’ll strip paint. Even more so once you take a taste. It evaporates and fills the mouth with vapor and made me think hard of gasoline. If I hadn’t been approaching it with an intent to like them, I’d have recoiled pretty strongly. I can definitely see how someone could just not like alcohol, and would describe the quality as a taste. Both my mother and her beau, who will happily drink anything given half a reason, had no problem understanding what the “taste of alcohol” meant. So on that front, I’m really thinking that folks denying there’s a taste are simply being tenaciously contrary because that’s just how arguments go here.
But on the other hand, the idea that there’s almost bound to be one kind of alcohol someone will like has definite validity. So far I’ve only tried Captain’s Morgan and Maker’s Mark, and I just couldn’t finish the MM (way too strong for me), but the Morgan is fast growing on me. I’m still only taking a sip every 5 minutes, but I think I could definitely grow to like it.
Just about to head out to a microbrewery for dinner, so I’m gonna try beer again, now that I’m in a mood to appreciate it.
While some people will tell you that this is anything from “inadvisable” to “a mortal sin”, I know a good many drinkers of Bourbon who dilute it as much as 3-to-1 with filtered water or ice cubes–I personally will do about a 1:1 ratio of MM to ice when I’m drinking MM most of the time.
Also, as for the alcohol taste–I noticed it more when alcohol was new to me. As I had more experience with the flavors that were intended to come out, I found the "alcohol"ishness became less prominent–but then again, even with that taste, I liked a good vodka from the start (Stolichnaya Gold for the win there, although I’m partial to Russian Standard these days)
That said, enjoy your microbrew. Have a nice pilsner for me.
(incidentally, I just can’t handle rum. Hate the stuff.)
First, a perfunctory apology to the OP for essentially hijacking this thread. That said:
So tonight I learned the difference between a brewhouse chain and a real microbrewery. When I originally sampled some beers and deemed them nasty, it was at BJ’s Brewery. Tonight I went to a local place with family (if any Tucsonans are reading, it’s Thunder Canyon Brewery) and got samples of their cream ale and wheat beers. I was shocked when both turned out to be seriously tasty and smooth. Really very good. I had a glass of the wheat beer and would have finished it off had the food not come along and spoiled the taste (barbecue sauce seriously mucks up the taste of most stuff for me, though). It didn’t taste like paint stripper at all (I’m attributing that to being no more than 20 proof, when the rum was 75 and the bourbon was 90), though more bitter than I’m used to. I’m not likely to become a habitual beer drinker, but I’m stunned at how good it was.
