Jaegermeister tastes like a more palatable form of Unicum, which isn’t saying much. Either would make a good insecticide.
Hungary has a wide variety of palinkas – fruit brandies – that are not for the faint of heart. They will put hair on your chest. Your tongue and teeth, too.
My wife and I saw these (possibly NSFW) in Prague:
Didn’t try them. My guess is they taste…creamy?
Wild Irish Rose, tequila, and any kind of whiskey make me deathly, deathly ill, straight, diluted, or mixed. No can do. I like everything else, within reason - a shot of straight vodka, going down and exploding in my brain is a wonderful and powerful experience (for about 10 minutes and then I regret it, so I haven’t done that in years.) I like expensive gin - gin, lime, and tonic - too much, so haven’t done that in years, either. (I would have been a real alkie back in England in the olden days, when the taverns advertised ‘drunk for a half penny, dead drunk for a whole penny’). I digress. If I had nothing alcoholic available to drink except tequila, I would be a complete tee-totaller - what is in that stuff???
Dammit, where did I put that time machine?
These sorts of brandies can be found throughout Europe under various names. For example, kirschwasser, slivovitz, grappa, schnapps in general (but not the sweetened stuff that is more well-known in America.) These are actually some of my favorite alcoholic drinks (especially slivovitz), but they can be a little surprising when you hear something described as “apricot brandy” and you’re expecting something sweet and fruity.
Campari. It looks like it would be delicious, but it tastes like kerosene.
I quite like the taste of Jager. I find it quite refreshing.
Uhhhgg… I’d forgotten about Campari. It’s like cough syrup with quinine in it. Medicinal and overwhelmingly bitter.
I had a Campari & soda in Italy, when I read that’s something that Italians typically do, and figured I’d give it a shot.
That’s the only time I’ll ever do that.
My evil dad’s drink was a dry martini (4 parts gin, 1 part dry vermouth). I couldn’t stand it. Later, I figured out that I love gin, and I hate vermouth. I could go with a Hawkeye Pierce dry martini. That’s two ounces of gin, and you show it a picture of the man who invented vermouth.
Most vodka is simple grain alcohol, watered down to proof. It’s filtered until it doesn’t taste like anything. Actually, gin is the same thing, flavored with juniper berries and some other stuff.
If you like straight vodka, you might like Indiana vodka. After all the filtering, they add some of the toasted corn flavor it originally had.
Many Americans came out of Prohibition, and all the way through WW II, thinking of whiskey as something nasty that you slugged down with squinted eyes and gritted teeth. It was even passed down to my generation. That’s a shame, because there are delicious whiskeys out there that you can savor and appreciate.
Even today, guys get together and “do shots.” They knock back shots of whiskey or tequila so quickly, they can’t even taste what they’re drinking. If that’s the point, you might as well slug down Everclear, which is nearly straight grain alcohol.
You might wonder why Everclear isn’t sold as 200 proof, 100% alcohol. A chemist told me, pure alcohol absorbs water vapor from the air. A glass full of pure grain alcohol will overflow with absorbed water until it reaches about 190 proof.
My evil dad’s drink was a dry martini (4 parts gin, 1 part dry vermouth). I couldn’t stand it. Later, I figured out that I love gin, and I hate vermouth. I could go with a Hawkeye Pierce dry martini. That’s two ounces of gin, and you show it a picture of the man who invented vermouth.
Most vodka is simple grain alcohol, watered down to proof. It’s filtered until it doesn’t taste like anything. Actually, gin is the same thing, flavored with juniper berries and some other stuff.
If you like straight vodka, you might like Indiana vodka. After all the filtering, they add some of the toasted corn flavor it originally had.
Many Americans came out of Prohibition, and all the way through WW II, thinking of whiskey as something nasty that you slugged down with squinted eyes and gritted teeth. It was even passed down to my generation. That’s a shame, because there are delicious whiskeys out there that you can savor and appreciate.
Even today, guys get together and “do shots.” They knock back shots of whiskey or tequila so quickly, they can’t even taste what they’re drinking. If that’s the point, you might as well slug down Everclear, which is nearly straight grain alcohol.
You might wonder why Everclear isn’t sold as 200 proof, 100% alcohol. A chemist told me, pure alcohol absorbs water vapor from the air. A glass full of pure grain alcohol will overflow with absorbed water until it reaches about 190 proof.
Actually I’m surprised how many of them don’t even know what it is. One of my siblings loves these, yet usually only gets them when they’re home made.
I don’t like syrupy sweet stuff, especially if it’s fruity. Sweet is ok if it’s countered with bitter (like Campari…mmm burnt tires) or mixed (I’m not going to drink a glass of Cointreau.)
I don’t really do shots; I’d rather have something delicious to drink slowly.
In fact, you can’t even get over 95% by distilling a water/ethanol mixture. Azeotropic distillation with benzene is often used (don’t drink this!) Molecular sieves will also mop up most of the remaining water.
I also hate Ouzo. I don’t think it helps that the first time I tasted it, I’d brought a date to Umberto’s and the waiter paid us the favour of bringing us hot chocolate spiked with it. The idea was that it discreet - this was unmentionable decades ago, we were underage, and nobody would look twice at teenagers drinking hot chocolate. But seriously, ouzo? Rum would have been better. Vodka, something neutral. That shit may as well have been laced with dry cleaning fluid. Blecccch. Anyway, I suppose it’s possible that I wouldn’t hate ouzo shots as much as I do today if not for that… but I doubt it.
Cointreau also tastes like something that might be found at the bottom of a Christmas stocking that’s had a couple of oranges left in it, recovered from the attic some time in July. Vile.
Cointreau is another one of those liqueurs that’s usually meant for mixing*; I’ve never heard of people drinking it straight, and it’s not even the primary ingredient in any cocktail I’ve heard of.
For me it’s absinthe, even with water and sugar added that anise flavor gags me.
Moonshine runs a close second. Can’t beat that flavor of rubbing alcohol with overtones of skunky hard cider.
The absolute foulest thing I have ever tasted in my life is Cynar - artichoke liqueur. Tastes as good as it sounds.
I have also once had the unpleasant experience of drinking habanero tequila, which had the amusing effect of going down relatively smoothly, then detonating like an atomic bomb in your stomach. My buddy served it at a party he threw where people kept trickling in, so a new wave would arrive and we would have them each take a shot (since they hadn’t seen it destroy the people who tried it before them), then take pictures as they slowly started to unravel. One guy threw it right back up, after one shot, almost immediately. Ahh memories.
Gin is misunderstood. You don’t ‘acquire a taste for gin’. Gin kills off all the tastebuds that complain.
Yes, central Europe is home to many semi-poisonous spirits. Apricot palinka is sweet and fruity exactly the same way formaldehyde is sweet and fruity. Truth be told, I am a fan of the stuff, but for the uninitiated it can be an ordeal.
Drinking palinka is like frying bacon in the nude – the end result is sublime, but there is serious pain along the way.
I ordered one, (same place as above) and was initially told they were out of mix. Collins mix is essentially sugar, water, lemon juice, and club soda. The people around me were ordering various combinations of the above.
I had Chartreuse once, just to say I did (the yellow, I think). Ouf. Definitely a winter drink.
I saw one tonight called “Colorado Cider”.
A shot of apple Schnapps
A shot of Brandy
A shot of Firewater 100 proof Cinnamon schnapps
A splash of apple juice
That sounds tasty!
The problem with scotch is the barrier to entry. Anything less than 12 years and about $50 IS awful stuff.