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What is your alcoholic drink of choice?
I thought it'd be fun to have a casual conversation about what we like to drink. If that's not appropriate for some reason please let me know.
I've switched from beer and whiskey to Tangeray and (diet) tonic and really feel less hangover when I drink (for whatever reason). What is your current go to on a Friday night?
Hard cider, because apparently I'm too much of a pussy to like beer. (meow)
No mead?
I don't live in a sufficiently civilized part of the US. I'm lucky to be able to find cider.
mixed drinks?
Not suitable for my use case. Once I get home from work and take care of the household business, I like to sit back with a cold one in the best Al Bundy tradition. Cider works for that, but mixed drinks are too much work.
You do realize that some mixed drinks are literally put 50% of this in a glass and 50% of this and take approximately 4 more seconds than a non-mixed drink, right? 😂
If you like the sweetness of cider you'd probably like a lot of mixers such as amaretto (nut liquors), kahlua (coffee liquor), triple sec (orange liquor), sambuca (anise), midori (melon), etc.
You have no idea how lazy I can be after working full-time, picking my wife up from work because she doesn't have a license despite being a grown-ass woman, and then doing 80% of the housework and making dinner. After doing all of that, I don't want to dick around. I just want to sit down with a cold one. Goddammit, I've earned it.
Fair enough. You're missing out though.
Not really. My father used to work as a bartender. I've tried plenty of mixed drinks. They're OK, but I can't be bothered to make them myself.
Even where we have it I usually find mead to be too expensive to be a regular drink, but not good enough to be a minor special occasion drink.
It occupies a weird spot. It’s priced on par with really high end cocktails. If I was in a place that didn’t have a great mixology culture I’d lean towards the mead, but generally if you have mead available you’ve probably got really nice, esoteric bars on hand too.
Part of this is just because I tend to go out a lot, so minor variations in price on my staple drinks can add up by the end of the month. If I was out less frequently I’d probably be more willing to drink more expensive things, but then again I’d probably be less inclined to experiment and just stick to what I know I like.
Lots of good mead in the San Francisco area.
Me too. Nearly every beer I've ever tasted I just could not enjoy. One exception, though, was Lambic. I liked that.
You're not a pussy just because you don't like something that tastes terrible.
I don't like coffee, either.
While I don't blame anyone for not drinking these things, there is such a thing as acquired taste, especially with coffee.
There is a wonderful world of sour / fruited beers that may be more your style if you dig Lambics. I would say a Boon Lambic or Kriek (essentially a Lambic aged on cherries) is a good balance between easy to find and quality. Fruited (or not) Goses or Berliner-Weisses may also hit the spot.
Duchesse du Bourgogne is a cherry Lambic-style red ale that I'll drink as a dessert. Most people wouldn't find it that sweet, but it's about as sweet as I'm willing to tolerate in an alcoholic beverage. I've introduced Duchesse to friends who don't like beer as "soda for adults", and everyone has loved it.
So the Duchess is a Flanders red, which is a semi-related Belgian style. Typically they're barrel aged in oak, and are a blend of old and young batches of the same beer (when you do this with Lambics the result is called a Gueze, and they're usually uh-mazing). Totally agree that the Duchess is a great beer though! Keep an eye out for old Rodenbach Grand Cru's -- another great Flanders
I like the Rodenbach (did I say that I'll taste anything? Should have said, "everything").
But sours are getting into the territory of wild yeast fermentations that give me food poisoning-like reactions. My spouse loves sours, so I'll take a sip of what he's having and call it a win. Jolly Pumpkin's Oro de Calabaza is an outstanding US-made oak-aged sour that I'm familiar with.
Impossible find: Vichtenaar, from the same brewery that produced Duchesse - this is the perfect beer for me.
Have to keep an eye out for that one! I actually really enjoy the wild ales (though I could totally see them missing with the gut) -- my least favorite trend is to make things as sour as humanly possible. One of the Brewers in my state does that which is a shame, because he's clearly one of the most talented Brewers around, but I can never have more than a taster of his kettle soured monstrosities :p
Oh, I am totally not a fan of beer vinegar. Spouse likes some sours that I might use to clean chrome, but they're more acid than lemon juice and just unpleasant.
I like cider. Strawberry, Raspberry, Pear. Apple not so much. IDGAF whether people think that's a "pussy" thing, I have zero problems ordering the girliest of drinks available while hanging out with the manliest group of dudes I know. If anyone gives me shit about it, they're not someone I want in my life.
With that said, claiming beer tastes terrible is … well, in bad taste. I don't specifically like beer but a lot of people do. I despise bell pepper but I don't claim it tastes terrible, either.
I find the one attitude just as weird as the other.
I probably should have put an /s after that.
Hello fellow pussy! I also hate beer, and will only drink it if everyone else is and nothing else is available - which is to say, very rarely. I always liked drinks though only recently started to not care about what people thought and started to embrace the fruity goodness that is girly drinks! I also recently realised I'm actually not a man after all so it's fitting I guess though lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I like dry red wines for the most part, especially Cabs and Malbecs.
For beer, I'm a stout kinda guy. I like dark beers and brown ales more than IPAs, but I still like IPAs well enough.
For liquor, my go to is always the gin and tonic. It's simple, easy, and always appropriate.
Any strong preference on the selection of gin or tonic? I haven't strayed from Tangeray but tried FeverTree tonic water and while it's nice, it's not worth the price.
bombay sapphire is pretty good too, doesn't taste as strongly of juniper berry
I'm partial to Beefeater in my G and Ts, myself.
I've got no strong feelings on the tonic. I usually get Canada Dry because that's what the liquor store has. As for the gin, I usually go for Beefeater or Bombay Sapphire.
i like damrak gin. a lot of bars around here use hendrick's, which is ok.
I usually drink beer, but I'm not super into trying fancy craft beers or anything. I usually just drink Labatt Blue.
Though, since weed became legal here I've been getting more into cannabis again and drinking less. I actually prefer weed, but can't handle high THC strains. Now that it's legal I can finally get lower THC high CBD strains and I can enjoy it without getting paranoid.
Been a long time since I've had a Labatt Blue. I burned out on craft beers several years ago. I don't need a mouth full of Christmas tree with every drink (looking at you Sierra Nevada). When I drink beer, it's typically Miller Light. No over powering taste and highly drinkable.
I agree, I can't stand 'hoppy' beers. If I want something with a little more flavour I'll usually go with a dark beer. I find most light beer to be too watery, but definitely easy to drink - especially on a hot day.
It's definitely my "mowing beer" :)
In order:
I also like good tequila and vodka, but rarely bother. I don't do cocktails or any form of mixing. At best something might get a splash of water.
Heh. Back in the college chemistry days, the boys and I used to drink a combo of 50:50 Blue and peach schnapps, mixed up in a 1 L Erlenmeyer flask. We called our protococktail, "Liquid Sky". Good times, until the next morning!
Oh man, the experimental college drinking days. I remember my favorite for parties at my fraternity house was to make what we called a Bubbledriver - a screwdriver with tiny cubes of orange jello shots at the bottom that were the size of boba balls that we served with wide straws. Delicious and fun, but oh so dangerous.
Wondering if anthropologists have studied the cultural architectures built around drinking rituals! And contrariwise, I've got a few Moslem friends and acquaintances to query about what intoxicants, if any, they investigated in their young and stupid days.
The evil conspiracy of rootless cosmopolitans has more fun.
It was a less sophisticated time; we weren't thinking "delicious beverages in funky glassware" so much as, "we've got all these leftover parts from the SuperBong, what do you think of this?"
The B-54 sounds great, but the triple sec makes the B-52 sound foul.
orange does not belong with coffee
I despise Triple Sec so have always just went with straight Kahlua + Baileys... but replacing it with Amaretto is something I never thought to do and sounds amazing! I am going to have to try that.
I always associate this sort of drink with going out with the girls after work - sweet high-alcohol '80's era cocktails named things like "B-52" or "Screaming Orgasm", where having enough sugar and synthetic flavor to choke down wretched bar alcohol was important.
I've cut back a lot on my drinking over the past few years, but my go-tos when I drink anymore:
I almost never drink hard liquor anymore (I found out that the horrible sinus congestion and hot feeling I get after more than a couple drinks is an alcohol intolerance, not normal hangover effects, and hard liquor is the worst for setting that off IME), but whiskey and coke and rum and coke will always be my go-tos on that. I've also got a love for well-made Bloody Marys, but sadly that's one I almost never get to indulge anymore.
As mentioned, I don't care for alcohol and sugar as a combination these days, but will make a rare exception for Eisweins (the next step in concentration after Auslese) and Sauternes. These are the ultimate sweet white wines - the good ones are incredibly complicated, with just enough acidity to prop up flavor profiles that are practically symphonic. I've mulled over a sip for ten minutes or more, paying attention to evolving flavors of honey, peaches, diesel, almonds, ripe red apples, truffle, anise, melon, white pepper... They're just the peak of what can be gotten from a grape, and the complete antithesis of drinking for drunkenness' sake.
I've been wanting to try a good Eiswein, but sadly they seem difficult to find around me. Even for Auslese, I have to trek to a liquor store four miles away for it.
The flavor complexity of them, as you said, are just so sublime, it really was my first experience drinking something alcoholic and going "Woah, this tastes amazing, I just want to enjoy this for the flavor!"
As an aside, this thread made me want to get some wine (and I got the weekend off unexpectedly), so I just got back from picking up a bottle of green Vinho Verde they had on sale at the liquor store by me-- this tart, fizzy-but-not-overly-dry nature is really nice on this. Not as complex as a good Riesling, but it's nice to have a more tart wine that isn't so astringent it feels like every drop of moisture is being pulled out of my mouth.
I guess wine is the most compelling beverage for me because so many cultures have spent centuries figuring out how to extract wildly different products from something as seemingly simple and ubiquitous as the grape. When you compare a Vinho Verde or a Pinot Gris with a Barolo or an Auslese, the breadth of flavor and intensity is amazing. Then you figure in the wood aging processes - everything from Chardonnay butter bombs to Christmas tree-flavored Retsinas. Then there's carbonation...
This is what it's worth getting old for; the endless ramifications and nuances of cataloguing and comparing experiences.
This resonates so well with me--even at the depths of my most depressive days, the thought of new experiences is what kept me going.
I'd add on to that; the joy of finding new nuances and elements to the experiences you've had lots of times before as well.
I'll taste anything, but by preference, I'm a snobby Pinot Noir, Malbec, and Sauvignon Blanc wine drinker.
I dislike sweet cocktails, but variations on the Paper Plane that emphasize complex Amaro flavors are pretty tasty; I also like a good Vesper or sours like the Hemingway Daquiri. My tastes in Japanese whiskey are too expensive for anything but rare indulgence; Suntory Toki is the house bottle for occasions and guests.
Beer - it's complicated. The Belgian styles I like don't agree with me; Brettanomyces and wild yeasts cause unspeakable gut problems. Porters and stouts are lovely (seconding the Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter above - if you like Eastern European beers, try Baltika or Sinebrychoff Porters. Bell's Kalamazoo Porter and Expedition Stout are how I learned to drink...). All beers, even the light ones, are a little too filling and I'm not inclined to have more than one.
Extreme flavored beers are generally grotesque to me; I'll make exceptions for coffee, but Maple Bacon or Pumpkin do not belong in anything that calls itself drinkable. Fight me if you dare.
You know, I've always seen this attitude around about drinking wine and even took on that attitude myself when I was growing up, and it's unfortunate that such a cultural perception exists in the first place.
Enjoying the composition of a wine is hardly any different than enjoying the composition of a sandwich. Maybe you prefer sourdough or rye, disliking the standard white or wheat. But maybe you prefer white bread if you're having a PB&J. Perhaps you like all of your turkey sandwiches to be melts, but your other cold cuts to remain cold. Mayne you prefer a lighter cheese like Swiss for your turkey sandwich, but like a sharp cheddar for your roast beef. Maybe you like to have tomatoes on your Italian sub, but hate them on your burger.
The main difference is that with wine, it's like receiving a general type of sandwich and having to eat it blindfolded--you know generally what kind it is, but the exact ingredients on the sandwich are a mystery until you've smelled it or taken your first bite. You might order a ham sandwich and you don't know what kind of bread it's on, if they added any condiments, what vegetables (if any) are on it, if it's toasted, what kind of ham is used (e.g. honey smoked vs. black forest), etc. You don't know what's really in that bottle until you've popped that cork out and given it a taste.
It's silly that we're perfectly okay with people having preferences for what's on their sandwiches and noticing if there's something on their sandwich that they like or dislike, but disparage people for doing the same with wine.
Life is too short to not slow down and enjoy the food you eat. Snobby wine drinkers unite! :)
I agree 100%, and applied the label to my own tastes facetiously.
"Snobby" with respect to wine, is a coded statement about class and ethnicity in the U S. Wines used to be substantially more expensive than other beverages (at least for anything drinkable), unless they were homemade. It's still costly to develop knowledge and a varied palate.
The ethnicities that came to the U.S. with beer were the Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and Northern Germanic ones - people from cold, dark locales where wine grapes didn't flourish. French wine culture was definitely snooty, and intentionally cultivated as a marker of elite status going back to the Founders. Italian immigrants were poor and their wines were disregarded; even more so for Spaniards, Jews, and the rest of the European wine-drinking origins.
Prohibition broke things even worse. While U.S. beer and spirits production could bounce back, the destruction of hundred-year vineyards meant that it took almost 50 years for local wine production and markets to begin a serious return of quality and diversity. I adore and promote northern Michigan wines because it's one of the few places that a hardcore community of winemakers (mainly Germans, some French via Canada) managed to hold on through Prohibition. They've kept Alsatian vines and production knowledge for Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, Gamay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and other regionally appropriate varieties. There are multi-generation vineyards and new winemakers coming to learn the techniques.
I'm delighted we live in a time when there's a massive bloom of local wineries in nearly every state (though, to be fair, not every state should make wine, and there are fruits wine should never be made from).
Yeah, I know you were being facetious. I just thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss the subject because I feel it's an important one. Especially with social pressures discouraging people from trying new things due to such unfortunate prejudices, I feel it's important to get alternative, healthier mindsets out there.
Also, thanks for the brief history lesson! I could definitely see how the destruction of vineyards would be difficult to bounce back from, and how that could drastically impact pricing and availability and result in some difficulty in changing the perception of wine as a snooty beverage.
It also doesn't help that people make some really easy mistakes with drinking wine, like chilling a good red and making it bitter as all hell as a result (I made this mistake myself years ago). That goes back to the problem of developing knowledge, and has a similar root in the lack of spreading of that knowledge--while most people know that chilling a beer is recommended because they hear it from their peers, family, and representations in media, very few people hear that you shouldn't chill red wine. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this, at least in part, were due to the social stigma associated with wine. Kind of a vicious cycle that turns into a chicken and egg problem.
I agree wholeheartedly. I'm also fortunate enough to work in a wine-oriented industry, so I have plenty of opportunities to try out wines from small local wineries, and to do so with the guidance of industry professionals and with other people who enjoy good wine. Willamette valley pinot noir is some seriously good stuff and isn't even the best that we have in this region.
I'm hoping to see the equivalent of microbreweries becoming the norm in my time :)
Wow, you just made me so jealous. Oregon Pinot is a fave.
I had the benefit of some years working around kitchens, and a really outstanding local culinary school - our beverage class was taught by a guy who made Master Somm a couple of years later.
I can be sneaky about bringing guests and friends to wine - share a sip, or haul out a bottle of something fruit-forward and crowd-friendly. I'm not a Shiraz fan, but people who claim not to like wine usually find something to like about a jam bomb.
I think we'd get along just fine :)
You've gotta try Michigan. Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsula AVAs are outstanding. Production is tiny and the state liquor shipping laws are an atrocity, so you more-or-less have to visit for the good stuff.
I'll have to keep that in mind in case I'm ever in the area!
You mentioned not caring much for Syrah, but there's a local winery here that makes an amazing one. It has good fruit, but it's not in-your-face jammy. There's a perfect balance of oak, spice, fruit, leather, tannins, and minerality that blows most of the other wines I've tasted out of the water (though I'm probably more partial to a certain southern Willamette valley cab). You taste each component, but no single component overshadows any other. Unfortunately their production for the vintage was super limited (there are only a handful of bottles left lying around), but hopefully they'll make another of comparable quality.
I'm not saying there aren't good ones, but Australian and Californian Shiraz/Syrah's tend to be overripe for my taste. French Syrah and blends are awesome, and I'm guessing the local Williamette version is the better-structured French style.
Grenache/Mourvedre/Syrah is a Southern Rhone classic (most hoity-toity version is Chateauneuf du Pape, but there's plenty of good and cheap) that I love for straight-up drinking, and it's a great pairing with duck or other dark poultry meat. I've even pulled that blend out at Thanksgiving, to rave reviews.
It's been a long time since I've had a Taddy Porter. I'll have to pick one up soon!
I've had a bit of a journey with my preferences.
I used to really like spiced rum, amaretto, and other liquors. Now the strong taste of the evaporated alcohol makes my stomach churn.
Given that, I found that I had to go with something weaker. I'm sensitive to bitter flavors, so most beer isn't an option. Hard cider and mixed drinks ended up being my drinks of choice as a result. But now those are often too sweet to me, and if I'm drinking to get a buzz, it takes too much volume in drinks to get me anywhere. After new years of last year, especially, I don't even want to drink for the intoxication itself, so I don't even bother with cider or mixed drinks for the most part. I actually went without having any drinks for a while.
Then I was introduced to good wine. Reds in particular. They're fairly dry, but flavorful and superb for pairing with food. I can open a bottle, drink a few glasses (proper servings, not filled to the rim), and cork it back up, and I don't have to worry about it going bad before the next day rolls around. It's such a varied drink that even wines of the same varietal and vintage can differ wildly.
It's like the boxed chocolates of alcohol, you never quite know what you're going to get. Even the drinking notes can be accurate at first, but then be completely useless after the wine breathes or ages a bit longer. And the foods you eat with the wines can have their flavors transformed radically with the inclusion of a properly paired wine. It's always a mystery and an experience in its own. It's that experience that I look forward to every time.
Specifically, though, I love a good cabarnet, zinfandel, or syrah. Pinot noir is excellent as well, and gamay can be amazing depending on the bottle. Definitely not a fan of dessert wine, though. Way too sweet for my tastes!
In short: my attitude around alcohol has changed quite a bit, from being a means to an end for getting a buzz, to being responsible about my consumption and viewing it as a nice food item to have every now and then. It's a far healthier mindset. My tastes have similarly changed from cheap booze for generating a buzz to nice bottles of wine to share a pleasant experience with others, and it's having that experience with others that makes the wine worth drinking at all :)
Depends on my mood. Beer, Scotch, Gin and Tonic are all big contestants
I like craft beer along with a few more widely produced brands, sometimes enjoy a straight scotch when the mood takes me.
White wine, preferably pinot gris. But I'll take whiskey-and-coke in a party-like setting.
I like Vodka because of Dostoyevsky. I was a very pedantic teenager.
Also beers of the expensive kind. I don’t know anything about them but I have a friend who gives me expensive beer and like it.
I'll drink anything good -- I've spent the last few years getting into cocktails though. My most recent creation involved a homemade Allspice dram, and a rum tiki drink known as the Ancient Mariner. I've also been know to quaff a ludicrous variety of beers. A recent favorite was Trillium's Double Seesaw (w/ Boysenberry and a bunch of other fruit -- nominally a Gose, but more truthfully fruit juice with a hair of sour.
Breaking from family tradition, I'm not a big drinker at all. I haven't found a beer that I legitimately like and only occasionally will drink a hard cider. I did want to find SOMETHING of an adult beverage to drink for when the occasion called for it and eventually found The White Russian. It's a bit cliche given the cult status of the film that popularized it but after watching TBL for the first time, I opted to give the WR a try and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's simple to make and you have to room to play with. I prefer it a little sweeter so I use a tad more Kahlua than vodka but I can drink those pretty much non stop, get myself a good buzz, and enjoy an evening NOT being the only person who isn't drinking an alcoholic beverage
Single malt whisky aged 18 years. 16 years if it's Lagavulin.
Stout or dark ale, especially trappist.
Martinis made with Hendrick's Gin & ice.
Cab Sav from Napa
Savignon Blanc from New Zealand
Shiraz from Australia.
Mararitas, pina coladas & rum when in the tropics.
Sake with sushi.
.....I guess I'm a raving alcohol snob.....
Don't know if it's being a "snob" - this just means you have enough sense of adventure to keep trying things until your tastes settle on what you like best.
I drink pretty much everything, but I prefer craft beers.
am juuust getting into the alcohol thing, and think i like merlot and wines that put blackberries or other fruit in them, plum wine, and the one time had mulled wine (navega'o, i think). citrus-y beers also, kinda like shock top, and blue moon, but not familiar & want 2 be with more obscure flavors. mix coffee, mexican-style hot chocolate, and kahlúa (sometimes, with peppermint schnapps) is a nice thing in the winter, also. used to like cider more - angry orchard primarily, but its too sugary now ヽ(´ー` )┌
Recently I've been on an Aviation kick after a particularly memorable drink in Denver. Up until this point I haven't been one to have a preferred standard cocktail, but I might be a convert!
I'll drink most things except beer. I just can't get used to the taste.
I usually drink hard ciders, but my absolute favourite drink is Amarula. It's a South African cream liqueur and I can happily finish a bottle.
An Old Fashioned is my easy drink of choice too. It was my grandfather's favorite drink, and he always let all the grandchildren have one at family events (starting at about age 16), but justified it by making it about the ceremony. I never cared for them much as a kid, but now I seem to have developed a taste for them over anything else.
Nothing better than a good bourbon soaked cherry in it too.