Sweet merciful crap Gaoliang is the absolute worst tasting shit I’ve ever had.
It’s made from fermented sorghum.
Makes Malort taste like a kiddie fucking cocktail.
I’d say “Cheap chardonnay mixed with Pine-Sol”, if I had to describe the retsina I’ve had. I took a swig of Ouzo to get the retsina taste out of my mouth. Really a fairly horrible end to the drinking at what had been a epically awesome Greek Easter party. But retsina doesn’t hold a candle to the worst alcoholic thing I’ve had.
For me, the hands-down, worst alcoholic drink I’ve had was a small sip of Cynar, which is an Italian bitter liqueur made by the same people that make Campari, whose main flavor is that of artichokes. Truly godawful- kind of like some unholy blending of Jagermeister, Campari and rotten artichokes. Bitter and nasty at the same time.
My Beloved says that back in the day she used to gag on Annie Greensprings, then she asked me how much worse Cisco could possibly be. “My Dearest”, I said, “Once you take a sip of Cisco you will look back at your Annie Greensprings sipping days as the most wonderful days of your youth.”
That’s a pretty popular drink in the tropics. I much prefer them to Gin & Tonics, especially when I’m at the beach.
Really??! I did not know that - I had never even heard of it being an actual drink! Cool - I learned something today! 
A friend once insisted on pouring me a “Screaming Nazi” shot (Goldschläger layered with Jägermeister). It was thoroughly vile, but then again, so is Goldschläger, and on its best days Jägermeister is barely drinkable as well.
Another vote for rauchbier, as well; I once got a Rogue Smoke Ale and it was absolutely disgusting. Like drinking a liquefied sausage that had been left outside in July for too long.
My fiancée got me a cocktail book for Christmas and I’ve finally started going through it and mixing up drinks that sound interesting. Results have been mostly positive so far, but I’ll be back here in case I stumble on any catastrophes.
Ouzo. Or anything in any shape or form that has a licorice flavor. Disgusting.
I’m use to good old peppermint schnapps on a cold winter day. A nice little drink. That’s NOT what you get in Germany. The waitress laughed at me when I ordered peppermint schnapps. So I just asked for whatever schnapps they would recommend. Good lord it was horrible. I have know idea what (if any) flavor it was.
I won’t name the brand my wife and I tried, but hard cider. I think one of the reasons I was so turned off was I was expecting a beer, and got… uh… quite a surprise. Once I figured out what it was I still couldn’t get it down. Neither could my Wife.
For anybody wondering, Malort tastes like rotton grapefruit rinds and leaves an aftertaste in your mouth like you just finished puking up the stuff you just drank (and everything else you’d put in your stomach that day).
Might I suggest that if you have to choose between a case of that and a sip of the Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate, Banana & Peanut Butter Ale, you gladly take the case and not look back?
Not a lotta love for the smokey beers, huh? Gotta say I loved the Rogue/Voodoo donut beers, especially the bacon-maple ale.
Of the three, that one was…drinkable.
This seemed to be the Summer of the Shandies around here. Not that I have anything against them, they are often refreshing on a hot day, but I have yet to find one that doesn’t start to have a citrus-chemical taste after the third or fourth bottle.
Last weekend I finally had to go out and buy a case of beer flavored beer.
Drinkable? It was delicious!!! That was my xmas present beer to a bunch of friends that year.
That’s pretty close, with the qualification that it isn’t fresh urine.
Ouzo to take away the taste of retsina is like trying to soothe a burn with battery acid.
There is a German liquer named Killepitsch that is moderately nasty, but not offensive because it is sold sort of on the premise that it is good for you. You are supposed to take a shot of it after the drinkinig of much beer. If you drink enough beer first, it is tolerable. Unless a friend from Germany brings one a bottle, and one’s dear wife decides to try it mixed with 7-Up[sup]TM[/sup]. She couldn’t finish it, and I (did I mention I had been drinking much beer?) decided not to let it go to waste. It was like drinking Lysol, but fizzier.
In high school we used to drink a mix of Southern Comfort, blackberry brandy, and beer. It tasted of a mixture of cough syrup and snot. Probably a wise choice for the beginning drinker, since it teaches one to pace oneself. It takes ten or fifteen minutes to repress the memory of the taste of the first shot and work up the nerve to take another.
And one experience of barfing up Annie Green Springs wine cures one of a taste for alcoholic Kool-aid, for life.
Regards,
Shodan
It’s good in exactly one drink- a Catalina Cooler. (The vodka plus Collins mixer, server very cold with lime).
My worst? Creme de rumpope.
I didn’t like Campari when I first had it straight up, or even on the rocks. Yuck. But then I tried a dash of it in some other pleasant drink and it adds a really nice “adult” flavor to it.
When I was in highschool towards the end of the school year there was this basketball game or something going on in the gym and us students had lots of opportunity to wander around on our own and get in trouble. A friend got his hands on a bottle of his parents’ Jack Daniels. The day was really hot and sunny and we were probably half dehydrated anyway - I don’t know. But we chugged straight, warm JD. I then got violently ill and to this day, decades later, I still can’t stomach the taste of any kind of scotch, whiskey or bourbon. My stomach seizes up and the heave reflex starts.
Anything licorice or anise. Bleh!
Not sure if this should be limited to intentional flavors, but I once bought a couple of bottles of wine from the liquor store that were pure vinegar. It taught me that it probably wasn’t a good idea to buy wine that was a) $2 a bottle b) arranged in a shopping cart c) beneath a hand-written sign saying “ALL SALES FINAL.”
One of the worst alcoholic drinks I’ve ever had was a Michelob Ultra. It was exactly like club soda.
A number of beverages already mentioned I wouldn’t call bad in themselves, but they aren’t my thing: Ouzo, Galliano, Jager, absinthe, Pernod, Ricard, etc. Just not a big fan of licorice/anise flavor.
This is never a good sign.
Fortunately, my beloved father taught me three wisdoms
[ul][li]It is not necessarily the case that the older, the better[/li][li]Red wines should be drunk relatively young[/li][li]You can make a good wine better by aging, but you cannot make a bad wine good.[/ul]Regards,[/li]Shodan
That’s not a bad description, actually. It’s basically reminds me of grapefruit pith (the white part), except even more bitter. It’s made from wormwood, so if you know what wormwood tastes like (I know most of you don’t, but there may be some who have had wormwood tea or used wormwood for home brewing), that’s exactly the flavor. Also in the same ballpark of bitterness is gentian root. It’s easily the most bitter liqueur I’ve ever tasted (although I do like it.)
The worst I can recall is scotch and soda – inspired by the Kingston Trio song of the same name. It was many years before I ever tasted scotch again, only to discover that single malt, straight up or on the rocks, is very good stuff. So then I tasted Laphroaig and almost changed my mind again. I’m sure it has its fans, but to me it tasted like dirty sweat socks – not that I know from personal experience what dirty sweat socks taste like!