Depends
Cheapest beer is sulphur + urine. Next step you get actual beer. After that you have craft beer…and that’s mixed bag. Every beer with “light” in name is piss. Either commit and drink 0%, which taste less beery but better, or drink normal but a bit pricier.
Cheapest whiskey is vodka with coloring and less %. There is no good cheapish whiskey, but if you drink for taste and occasionally, one bottle can last long enough to justify expense.
I don’t drink vodka, every type I drank was just a hammer to the brain without anything taste wise. I mean dunno, not my kinda fun.
Drinks are fun but, ultimately, all they do is try to mask alcohol…and non-alcoholic versions taste better xD
With everything else I have little to no experience, and I never aim to get hammered so these are my blindspots xD
Just drink better quality booze
Good vodka tastes good neat.
Good vodka tastes of nothing
It’s the most boring of drinks
It’s the one drink I avoid
It really depends on the alcohol itself, especially it’s quality.
Most cheap commercial alcohol tastes like crap, because making them taste good is effort and money. A £20 bottle of whisky or vodka or gin will never taste good, because at that price point, you can’t get the high quality ingredients, can’t afford the purification process and so on.
Good news is, you can fix clear spirits, to some extent, with a cheap Brita filter. Take a crappy bottle of vodka, pass it through a NEW Brita filter (wash it through with water first to activate the charcoal properly), and BAM, you removed the nail polish remover flavour, and now it tastes much closer to a £50 bottle. Watch out though, brown and flavoured spirits (whisky, rum, gin, etc.) will lose their colour and have their flavours muted by this process.
And often it’s worth splurging on the fancy bottle of liquor. A bottle of Cirroc or Grey Goose might be £40-60, but you’ll notice the difference immediately. Those are actually pleasant vodkas to drink.
gin is just rescued, shitty vodka.
evan williams is fantastic
A £20 bottle of whisky … will never taste good
[Laughs in japanese]
I dunno, there are plenty of cheap spirits that taste perfectly fine. The less expensive (but not cheap swill) gins I see in my local markets (Beefeater, Tanqueray, Gordon’s), and the whiskeys or scotches (like Teachers, Jack, etc) are all under the equivalent of 20 pounds, and they’re easy enough to drink.
Or maybe the UK just has expensive spirits? I know in Australia you can’t get a bottle of literally any spirits for much less than $50-60.
Sorry, I do not consider anything you listed even remotely near the category of “taste perfectly fine”.
Drink some quality spirits and you’ll notice the cheapness immediately. Quality alcohol is actually pleasant to drink, even in itself.
I’ve had plenty of stuff I consider better than what I listed. I actually prefer peaty scotches and whiskeys and ryes with smoke and bite. I’ve had amazing single barrels. I also like really piney gins.
But my point about the ones I mentioned were that they’re all smooth, inoffensive, and miles away from the rotgut shit I was drinking in my college days. Definitely does not taste like “crap” by any sane measure (ok except maybe the Jack. I can’t vouch for that because I haven’t actually had it in awhile and I couldn’t remember any of the non-Japanese stuff that my local market has).
I prefer smooth Islay or Highland whiskys that aren’t smokey or peaty, that already eliminates a number of them for me. But bringing commercial low grade drinks into the drinkscussion and claiming they’re “smooth” is just plain disingenuous. They’re not smooth. Far from it.
The only drinkable Jack is Gentlemen’s Jack, or the single barrel select, but even those are just pish for mixing cocktails. Tanqueray is similarly a gin I’d never drink in a “pure” cocktail (G+T and kinds, where the focus is on the gin flavour), but it’s fine for, say, a Long Island.
I once tried a coke with vodka, it tasted better without the vodka and im not even a fan of coke.
There are fancy cocktails and weird alcohols. Look at fancy gins, absinthe, some fine whiskeys (stay the fuck away from rye), some wines when properly paired, plum wine…
Then there’s cases where already tasty stuff can be enhanced with booze that’s not good to drink on its own.
But generally yes alcohol tastes bad and people are just trying to make getting drunk less harrowing.
My dad let me sip his beer as a kid. It was disgusting. Never did acquire a taste for alcohol.
Opposite here. My uncle’s girlfriend, at the time, saw me asking for “soda” at some event. Might’ve been somebody’s company picnic. She convinced my mother to let me have a sip, hoping and expecting a giggle at the “bitter face” reaction. That didn’t happen and Mom had to keep an eye on her “sodas” the rest of the day.
There’s plenty of cocktails that taste like the left, you just have to be willing to leave your toxic masculinity behind and order a drink that’s “for girls.”
also anyone else think it’s kinda fucked that the drinks “for girls” often seem like they’re trying to hide the taste of alcohol entirely?
I’ve heard plenty of people say this to me and no one has been able to back it up. Drinks that attempt to hide the taste of alcohol would be better without alcohol in them in the first place.
Give me a fucking capri sun over a cocktail any day
I mean look, I don’t get any positive effects from drinking. Usually I just think “why did I pay for something expensive that tastes bad?” So maybe I’d change my tune if it actually made me feel happy or relaxed or whatever, but from a flavor standpoint alcohol just sucks.
Even if you liked the taste of alcohol look me dead in the eye and tell me it doesn’t clash flavor wise with basically everything. Bitter citrus flavors work okay and the same with juniper or other herbs like in gin, but seriously why do you even want to drink something that tastes like a tree in the first place?
Ah yes I want to drink the taste of bread but I prefer it when it has inescapable notes of literal poison and also the taste of the smell of weed (technically hops).
Ah yes gotta love that this other drink mostly just burns my throat but also has the subtle taste of wood. Gotta get the high end stuff though so that also has flavor notes that taste like a peat bog.
Here have some lemonade but worse. Don’t like that? how about this other cocktail that is peach lemonade (but also worse).
Do you know what else we should make worse? Chocolate milk. (Baileys)
God this is an insufferable rant.
It’s OK to not like something and respect others do.
Sweet citrusy alcohol sounds like what you’d enjoy, I’d recommend mikan, yuzu, or plum wines. They have a bit of a fermented ish taste that you don’t find in their fruit juice variants and they have a mild sweetness.
I think part of the issue with alcohol is that its all grouped under one tag, but different preparation makes wildly different flavors. Harder alcohols like whiskies and vodkas are moreso what you describe as not liking.
I don’t think god’s own drink (a negroni) would taste right without the alcohol. The alcohol allows extraction of the wonderful botanical flavours that go into it.
Why would you want to drink something sweet? I’m big into herbal teas, and bitter greens in meals. Maybe people enjoy different sensations?
Yep, tea are literally “tastes like a tree/plant” n that they are hot leaf and sometimes stick water.
Fair, to each their own.
One of my siblings likes those flavors and has often made cookies or cakes with flowers as ingredients. They’re not inedible but definitely not my favorite kind of baked goods
To be fair I actually do kinda like bitter greens like kale, but not as a drink
Sorry dude, you just haven’t got the pallet for it. Not trying to shame or anything, I disliked alcohol for a long time so I totally get it.
But now? Holy shit, a good single barrel bourbon is quite literally the best tasting thing I can get on my tongue without going to a Michelin star restaurant. The complexity is off the charts. The flavor is amazing. I wish I could get it without the actual alcohol so I could drink more.
Hey now, my pallet is high definition lol; it’s just that I really dislike the taste of ethanol
I can pick out flavor profiles pretty well, especially since I have family members who enjoy doing so, but having a good sense of taste doesn’t mean I’m going to like everything I taste.
I’ll admit it is interesting to notice complex combinations and just interesting from the chemistry standpoint that we can create notes of fruits or vanilla just by selecting the right brewing container material. But complexity =/= goodness.
If you gave me the decision to choose between a well made Michelin Star level dish but with a strong flavor I greatly dislike (like fennel) or choose a basic homemade grilled cheese sandwich, I would probably take the sandwich
why do you even want to drink something that tastes like a tree in the first place?
Fragrant herbal/woody flavors can be very refreshing. One of my favorite drinks on a hot day is spruce flavored sparkling water.
Yeah I loooove a good gin
i like a shitty gin. gimme bankers club or gordons or whatever. drown it in club soda and add a bit of lime juice
You’re lucky. I love pure tequila , and vodka. If I can’t taste the alcohol its a bad drink to me.
Ive always had super strong taste preferences though. Super spicy stuff, really bitter black coffee etc ever since little. I wonder how much that plays into it.
This post has potential in the Stop Doing Math meme template, but I can’t be bothered to rekajigger it myself
I’ve heard plenty of people say this to me and no one has been able to back it up. Drinks that attempt to hide the taste of alcohol would be better without alcohol in them in the first place.
As someone who enjoys rum in various forms, I’ll take virgin mojito over alcoholic one any day
For a very long time, the Cosmopolitan was considered a “man’s drink”
I dislike sugar in drinks because it can make the hangover worse and I’ve kinda weaned myself off of sweet drinks long time ago (meaning including tea, soda, etc). So generally my most preferred booze is non flavored Soju, possibly with a little lime juice. When cold it kinda just tastes like water with a little lime. There is a flavor but it’s so mild it’s easy to miss. Varies by brand. DAON original doesn’t really even need lime for me.
i once had someone tell me about a drink called “the date rape” (he was a gay dude joking about straight guys date raping women).
drink is: one beer with a shot of everclear snuck into it.
which i’m sure your question is getting at.
but no, i think girls just tend to dislike more bitter drinks.
I think you’re drinking the wrong alcohol for your palate.
Definitely but I’d feel bad telling them that. They can just not drink and that’s a pretty good choice, honestly.
Definitely for the better that you don’t like it. I enjoyed it from the word go and oh the money wasted and stupid shit I have done while shitfaced.
Drink cocktails, good ones at that with modest shelf liquor. It’ll be tasty.
pina coladas are peak
True.
If the drink without alcohol is not yummy, it’s not going to be yummy with it.
Holds true for ‘x cut with booze’ drinks. There are some more complex cases where this breaks down.
When I tell people I don’t drink they sometimes think I used to be an alcoholic or something. I just think it tastes like shit lol
That’s funny, when I tell people I don’t drink they ask me if I just don’t like the taste or if I am a “health nut” or something. I’m actually an alcoholic.
Tastes like chemicals to me, it’s disgusting.
Surprise! It is literally chemicals.
How whiskey tastes:
like your drunk dad hitting you with planks
You got planks?
I got rusty jumper cables.
That’s why I drink malört
i thought the planking trend died out but it’s good to see parents still getting some exercise
Good ol’ days
This plus fire.
I like to call my whisky collection “liquid camp fire”
If its peated, add 1 drop of bong water.
Wtf bong water tastes like peat?
I dunno, I enjoy the taste of beer 🤷
Yeah, like why would other bitter flavors be ok but not alcohol? Not everyone wants to just eat sweets all day
Drinking an NA right now, they have come a long way and I guess I’m an alcoholic
Obviously wine just tastes like grape juice but better, and they get you started on that pretty early. I didn’t enjoy my first taste of beer, but that’s because my dad has never really been a drinker and had a tinny of some shitty lager like tenants at the dinner table once.
My dad did something really smart, he saw me looking at it and said here try a sip. Of course I try to sip and it was the worst drink I’ve ever drank and I didn’t drink till my 20’s
I still don’t drink, and I’m in my 40s.
can confirm. never liked it.
