I don’t like matcha or any traditional tea. Tannins in general taste horrible to me, I think I’m sensitive to them or something. It tastes like dryness and astringent, like I’ve put a cotton bud in my mouth
I don’t get beer
the trick is to be 15 and get started with a 40 of colt 45 that your friend’s mom got for you and your friend for helping with yardwork. choke that down just for the buzz and then actual craft beer is like candy
THe trick is to be 10 and your family allows you a little pony beer (old 8 oz glass bottle) 1-2 times per year. It takes away the mystery and when I was older, I didn’t feel a need to go get alcohol behind anyone’s back. And when I was 21, I drank occasionally, like with pizza sometimes or spaghetti, or a mixed drink socially or something.
Of course, for those that are alcoholics or otherwise get addicted to the alcoholic effects, it can be a struggle, but not really probably relating to when you start drinking in such cases.
Of course, for those that are alcoholics or otherwise get addicted to the alcoholic effects, it can be a struggle, but not really probably relating to when you start drinking in such cases.
There’s actually a well known, clear link between drinking debut age (first drink) and rates of alcoholism, as well as other adverse effects (something about employment I think, and drug use for sure).
If I recall correctly the age of debut is statistically even more impactful than the age one starts drinking regularly, when it comes to rates of alcohol dependency.
A lot of other things factor in as well, and a lot of things factor in to push an early debut of course… but drinking debut age is definitely a factor in alcoholism.
Stealing keystone light from your parents in 7th grade makes all other beer taste amazing except for Miller light
How old are you? (this is a legit question, not trying to judge or anything). Do you drink coffee? If so, how do you like it?
Late 20s, never got into coffee except for mocha on rare occasions
I have a working theory that the availability of sweeteners has altered drinking preferences over generations.
When I was growing up everybody drank coffee and beer (and smoked cigarettes, which is probably a little related but a different story).
Coffee and tea were the only feasible way to get caffeine. Sure, cream and sugar was available and used, but as you get more acclimated to the taste you can forgo the stuff and just drink it black.
Likewise, beer is what you had. That was it. There were no sweetened alcoholic drinks in the can or 12 oz bottle form. With the exception of wine coolers but that was marketed more towards older women. And those usually only came in 4 packs. You could do wine or hard liquor with a mixer, but that was expensive and/or likely to get you hammered too quickly. If you wanted affordable casual drinking with friends you were drinking beer. And there weren’t even craft beers or microbrewers, just watery chilled donkey piss like Budweiser, Coors, etc.
Most people who started drinking did so with beer. By the time you had a year of sneaking beers with your buddies you were already used to the taste. Hell, I remember when Zima came out and it was a big deal (it was one of the first widely available easy to drink sweetend adult beverages, probably malt, I would guess).
And weed wasn’t common either, except in very secretive circles, so if you wanted a buzz, you were drinking.
Anyway, now you’ve got a whole cornucopia of alcoholic drinks that are easy to sip, caffeine that tastse like a soda, and vapes that taste like candy.
Nobody has to ever acquire a taste for bitter things again.
It’s a nice theory, but you’re forgetting about ciders and drinks like mead, which can be very sweet.
As for caffeine, I found that if you started drinking it with sugar, you have to actually want to give up sugar to switch to black. There’s no need to ever drink it black otherwise. I gave up sugar in my 30s and had to acquire a taste for black coffees. I gave up milk around the same time, which also dulls the bitterness. My parents, who are now in their 60’s and 70’s still drink milk and sugar. My gen z brother also prefers black.
Also that doesn’t explain things like german marzipan, which is bitter AF, and used in desserts. Same goes for cocoa, or dark chocolate. They’re entirely optional bitter products that are still popular.
Additionally, new craft beers are selling their bitterness as a feature in the form of IBU listings. (Successfully, I might add, I’m a sucker for a high IBU beer)
Bitter is just another flavour profile, and some people like it, some people don’t.
Did you grow up in a renfair? 😛 I never even met anyone who had ever drank mead until I was in my late 20s and hanging out with DnD nerds.
Since the 1970s, in the US beer consumption has steadily gone down 20%, wine up 40%, spirits took a deep dip but came up to 105%.
Growing up I definitely had friends that very quickly switched to mixers as soon as they could or wouldn’t drink beer but I’d say, as a whole, a general trend, less people in today’s times have grown up with bitter profiles being a necessary part of their imbibing, be it alcohol or caffeine, so when they do get that first sip of some old skunk beer they understandably recoil. Since they have no reason to continue drinking it when there’s a Mike’s or White Claw next to them… that’s that. I hear way more people say they don’t like the taste than I did 20 years ago. But it’s just a pet theory, might be other factors going on, too.
You’re on to something about choosing flavor profiles though. After about a year or two drinking sugary creamy coffee I gradually switched to black. I like the flavor, as well as dark chocolate and stout beers. I think some people are wired for it, like in the examples you provided. Interestingly, I’m not super crazy about sour, and I’ve met a few people who absolutely love it. Candies, drinks, etc.
Ha ha ha, no I just had some devious friends coming up. Mead is probably the easiest thing to make yourself at home, and you can do it with really unassuming ingredients. Bread yeast, and store bought honey will make a perfectly serviceable mead. Just buy flour and bake some bread at the same, and no one suspects a thing… until you overdo it, and get violently ill in the living room lol, tends to be a give away. I actually think the friend who started it was part of a DnD group, so it may still have started there.
I still do it as a hobby but with proper yeast and nutrients etc. now. Plus I actually know about things like stabilization and back sweetening! Muuuch nicer end product!
My point was more that sweeter options have always been available. I don’t know what it’s like in the US, but you can always find cider here. Doesn’t matter how small or backwater the pub is, there’ll be one on tap.
As for beer consumption going down in the US: You can get some really dry wine that’s quite bitter too. (And ciders and meads too come to think) and conversely you can get some really sweet, easy drinking beers too. Also, alcohol consumption across the board is down globally, so while I don’t dispute that beer consumption is down everywhere, I’m just not sure it can be entirely blamed on being bitter. Things come in and out of fashion. My personal working theory is that it’s become too expensive to drink casually.
I’m not super crazy about sour
Oh I love sour! I make my own hot sauces too, and while I do make them quite hot, I also add straight citric acid to them, and many people find my sauces to be pretty gross lol! Guess I’ll stick to my day job ha ha ha!
Sweet is actually the flavor I could take or leave. Not saying I hate it or anything, it’s just kinda low down on my preference list. I’m very much a savory snacker!
i use a non-dairy creamer for mines, and the low cal options. i use the non-aspartame sweetener.
i like dark chocolate too, but i prefer mostly 85%-90%+ anything lower than that is just to milky and sweet.
We must be the same age. Zima was a revelation, especially with the jolly rancher in it. Then in college it was just Beast Light because that’s what was available to me.
I don’t even want the buzz, so if I’m going to drink socially it’s all about taste.
Late 20s you need to revisit all the shit you didn’t like before, especially moldy cheese. Sweet starts to suck a bit and bitter gets good.
Also not sure if it’s my addiction but black coffee is amazing. It’s an acquired taste and most people go milk and sugar - > milk - > black. Green tea, black tea, mushrooms, spicy, wasabi, mustard, strong gouda, grana padano and so much more are all so good.
You just need the right beer. Sam adams and Octoberfest. Cali squeeze blood orange tastes like orange hi-c. Devils gap Jalepeno ale. There are some good tasting beers
I’ve tried some “good” craft beers based on friends’ recommendations and still not good. I think beer just isn’t for me. I much prefer cider.
If you like cider but not beer, have you tried a mead yet? There’s no need to keep trying beers if they’re not for you.
I rarely consume alcohol nowadays (maybe 1-2x a year), but I’ll keep that in mind.
Good for you. I’m a more frequent drinker but I think it’s a good thing that it’s going out of fashion – it’s definitely one of the most harmful intoxicants.
It’s pricey too. I’ve been drinking alcohol since my early teens. If I had to estimate how much I’ve spent on booze during that time, it would probably be enough to pay for a decent car.
You should find a smoothie beer. They exist in all fruit flavours, I personally love them. And sour beers. Vault City and Funky Fluid are my two favourite breweries.
Recently visited The Wee Tap in Edinburgh and have tried lots of Vault City. None beat Azvex Operation Genome [26.05] Mango and Blackberry Ice Cream Sour though. Could put that in the meal deal isle with the other smoothies and no one would notice the difference.
Ooh, haven’t tried that one!
A beer shop close to me has a deal with Vault City (started two months ago): they get ALL the beers Vault City produces. I guess I’ll be spending more money going forward lol.
Btw, if you like sours, try the Foundation by VC. It’s what all their sour beers are based on, and it’s really good!
Sounds like one of those new-fangled places to me!
I rarely consume alcohol nowadays (maybe 1-2x a year), but I’ll keep that in mind.
Sure, but kinda ALL beer is an acquired taste, and frankly I don’t think I’ve ever thought, “I sure do want a tasty beverage and don’t care about the alcohol content” and ended up drinking beer. Even if you’re not getting drunk, the alcohol is the point, and everything else is mitigation.
That said, when I am feeling like a little bit of alcohol, I like a nice malty dark beer, stouts of course, but even a simple schwarzbier dark lager can do the trick. A very dry cider is even better though, edging close to the point where I might actually pick it purely for taste.
If they taste good because they taste like something else, why not just drink that something else? /hj
All beers are bitter, things humans evolved to stay away from (bitter signals poison). If you like beer, it’s because you’ve become accustomed to it, not because it’s a good flavor to humans.
Not exactly true.
There are so, so many beers that aren’t bitter.
What’s weird is ciders exist that taste just like juice yet they are the niche drink.
I can drink a lot of beer and I can drink a lot of apple juice, but I can only drink a couple of ciders before I am done.
Since others are posting about the how and not the why:
I don’t like most beers, but the ones I like are refreshing (mainly Almaza the local standard here in Lebanon, a Pilsner if that means anything to anyone). It’s slightly bitter like tea, less so than coffee, and fizzy but not as much as a sugary drink. It complements a lot of foods, doesn’t really get you drunk quickly (I don’t drink to that point), is pretty widely available, and is nice to drink during a chat because it takes a bit of time, kind of like coffee or tea.
Supposedly Almaza is similar to Asahi or Kingfisher from India.
I’ve also enjoyed “interesting” beers but that’s how beer works for me. I’ve had Guinness, it’s interesting, more of a curiosity for me, very bready, I can see myself having it often if it was widely available.
If you’re talking more about the American movie style “buy a 96-pack of canned yellow water and consume half of it while watching American football alone” beer I have no idea what that’s about.
Just think of it as stanky sourdough social beverage. If that doesn’t appeal to you, there you go.
It is possible that you just haven’t had one you liked yet. The are a lot of different flavors and styles. I like some but not others. Then again, why bother since drinking isn’t really all that great for you anyway. 😄
For me, anything with hops in tastes awful.
I’ve had two styles I liked, a lambic and a Berliner weiss. They aren’t really “beer” the way most people think of it.
Well I do like ginger joe, so there’s that
I don’t get beer
neither do I … gotta buy it to have it
I’m with you. I tried to acquire a taste for it in college, but it still tastes like sour regret to me.
All diet drinks. Whatever sugar substitutes they use taste awful no matter what. Now there are products I can’t consume because the default version has fake sugar as well. Nasty stuff.
Part of it is just getting used to it. I used to hate the no sugar versions of Coca-Cola®️. Other than the taste the viscosity is also ‘wrong’ in Coke zero. The sugary versions is much thicker.
I switched anyway because I was drinking too many calories.
Strangely though, real Coke now tastes weird to me. There is this strange aftertaste that I never noticed before switching to zero.
It also helps with the Zero-style ones that they use a couple of different sweeteners.
One of the tricks I found is that when I occasionally want sweet tea, I’ll take a packet of Equal, sucralose, and stevia and add to my glass. You get more of the sweet but without enough of each one that the bitterness or other weird taste you get when you use enough to make it super-sweet doesn’t happen. It just tastes sweet.
I cut back my regular Coke addiction with Coke Zero, and was not happy. I found Pepsi Zero tastes closer to what I like than Coke Zero does. And if I add a teaspoon of sugar, it’s almost pleasant to drink.
im the same with diet “soda”, now the sugary ones is just too sweet and you know you feel bad drinking it. i think mexican coke, aka cane sugar is the best one from what ive heard.
I have a friend who is from a non-“western” country, and moved to North America. This has been one of their biggest gripes with living here: food (especially but not exclusively prepared food) is either full of sugar, or full of artificial sweeteners. Seeing as they don’t particularly like sweet foods, and they absolutely don’t like the taste of artificial sweeteners, this means that like half the food in a grocery store or restaurant has to be immediately written off. For example, if you want a soda thats not so overwhelmingly sweet, currently the only options are Bubly and imported stuff. Obviously, there are other drink options, so its not like its the end of the world, but having a glass of milk or cup of tea with your pizza just doesn’t hit the same. At the same time, everyone is talking about dieting and about how terrible everything is for you, yet no one seems to consider just making food less sugary.
Diet Dr Pepper is the only one I like and I assume that one of the flavors in it is covering up that nasty fake sugar flavor and aftertaste.
I like them all, but definitely Diet Dr. Pepper the most. I assumed it was because Dr. Pepper has kind of an artificial/medicinal flavor.
I assume that’s why Tab and Fresca stayed on store shelves for decades
Totally agree. Since they have a super tax here all the drinks have gone either fully diet or reduced sugar and added sweeteners to it.
I can’t stand it. Coke is basically the only hold out left and the full sugar version is getting less and less prominent in supermarkets.I like diet drinks in the right spots, diet A&W root beer has a lovely smoky taste imho, perfect for sipping something cold coming home from the grocery store when I don’t want sugar or caffeine to disrupt my system
i love the little frozen bits of root beer you get when you make a float with diet root beer.
I’ll have to give that a try!
I’ve found that the fake sugars taste acidic, so if I go with acidic soda like orange soda, it masks it well enough. I didn’t drink much soda but sugar free orange Fanta is my go-to now.
aspartame, is the most common amongst diet sodas brand names. people dont like stevia soda, because some people apparently taste it differently.(the brand names like zevia, makes it sickly sweet)
Stevia is so gross. It ruins anything it touches. Aspartame is ok. Splenda is a migraine trigger.
For coffee, a demitasse spoon of sugar - moderation is the way, or I like a lot of milk no sugar (but that probably ends up with the same amount of sugar from lactose)
For tea, mostly unsweet is fine.
For soda, moderation again but I like the diet version better than the sugared ones. Diet coke is fine and doesn’t give me a headache. Once in a while though, not every day. Just when I want something that is nothing.
I like it better. I can’t stand regular coke or pepsi, it tastes like syrup. Diet ones are better. Nowdays I’m enjoying Pesi Black, really nice taste.
Monster energy drinks. Tastes like what I imagine dumpster juice is like.
And any drink with Stevia in it. Instant dealbreaker if I see it in the ingredients.
The smell too. Idk what it is about the smell of Monster when it gets warm, but it’s god awful.
Probably ethyl butyrate I think it’s in Monster too, but there’s a lot of weird crap in energy drinks to make it taste/smell medicinal. The recent Lab Coatz vid reverse engineering Red Bull has a whole laundry list of bizarre chemicals.
I’d say that, even aside from anything specific to Monster, most carbonated beverages are optimized for drinking cold and aren’t great when warm.
Fair enough. Tho there’s something about the smell that just permeates a car after you open Monster if you don’t immediately toss it when empty. Not that I’m even a fan of the flavor anymore. Liked it when I was in high school, but can’t stand it as an adult.
Agree on the stevia. It’s sweet but not like sugar. And leaves a weird aftertaste
Original Monster tastes like battery acid and I don’t know why I love it (especially khaotic)
Our local coffee shop only has sugar in the raw, and stevia. Blech.
there isnt much options for sweetners, its either sugar, stevia, somehow they might have ethyrthiol, but that can causes loose bowel movements, so itas uncommon
I know it’s not for everyone, but I personally prefer Splenda or sucralose.
Interesting about the stevia! May I ask what it tastes like to you? A couple of years I bought a liquid stevia sweetener on a whim (the “regular” one might have been sold out), and was surprised that it tasted… Idk. Sweet, but way warmer than regular sweetener. Hard to describe. Used up the bottle, then bought my regular sweetener again and somehow, it tasted awfully bitter to me now. Somehow, I can’t go back now and really like stevia.
Its hard to describe but I’d say it’s not the immediate taste so much as it is the aftertaste (both are bad but the latter is worse). It’s just a lingering, unpleasant fake sweetness that sticks around for way too long.
Interesting. I can’t relate, but I guess just goes to show his subjective the question is.
Coffee
I get it, it’s an acquired taste. But I sure don’t like it.
“acquired taste” = addictive chemical
It’s also bitter, which humans are evolved to dislike. So it literally is an acquired taste, because some people drink decaf.
Depending on how lightly it is roasted and brew method, it can be much less bitter and more floral and “bright”. Agree that the average coffee is dark roast and invariably bitter, however.
Yeah, café coffee is very often stupid strong and dark roast to serve the addicts that crave bitter (like me)
Could just be changing taste buds. I never made a concerted effort to stop wanting sweet things but in my late 20s I pretty much never made an effort to acquire them on my own. I don’t dislike ice cream but I’ve literally never bought it or any sweets for more than a decade now.
With that change came enjoying bitter tastes more as well.
I mean that’s fair, and there are plenty of foods like bitter squash that some people enjoy a lot with no addictive chemicals (I know of)
But at the same time, I never met a decaf fan who didn’t first like caf
I have no evidence but this has always been my working theory.
It explains why people become so adherent to a specific brand or brewing method.
The same applies to cigarettes.
I’m addicted and I like all of them as long as it doesn’t have sugar. Filter, espresso, mocha, americano, instant, pour over, Arabic, golden and they can be anywhere between 0C and 85C in temperature.
My issue with room temp coffee is that I drink it too fast, lol
The taste that coffee adds to things is great, and the smell is amazing. A bad brew tastes like bitter dirt water and has the same effect on your stomach. I’ve never had a good black brew in my life.
I do love me some coffee milk, but at that point we are right back to coffee adding flavor to things, not being good itself.
This, coffee tastes like arse
the caffiene makes it bitter, people seem to like the cafestol, if they using unfiltered coffee, which apparently not good for you. its definitely acquired taste, i did not like it when i was still college, when i drank a stronger for first time.
The crema on top of espressos is also worth mentioning. If you get a big cup of strong coffee from espresso machine and remove the foam from the top it tastes waaaaay less bitter.
Energy Drinks. Yes every single sickly disgusting rancid smelling one of them.
bad for your kidneys too.
there will be lots of personal opinions here … mine is that champagne is -not awful but still- overrated.
IMHO it’s saved by the mimosa. Throw some orange juice in that overhyped sparkling grape juice and I am IN. Great for tolerating events with people you don’t like.
Mimosa just exposes how most champagne/sparkling wine that most people are familiar with just sucks already.
If it didn’t, you wouldn’t mask it’s great taste with orange juice.
Good champagne/sparkling wine doesn’t need that. What bars put in mimosa is the cheap crap that no one should drink in the first place.
I had LOTS before I had one from a friend who really knows wines.
That changed my opinion of champagne as a whole, but most of it (especially in the US, or the Brut style) just sucks.
But that’s wine in general. I’ve had lots of mediocre wine and a few that were fantastic (to my tastes).
Consider all the varieties and vintages, then everyone’s personal tastes, and it’s no wonder opinions are all over the map.
Champagne is one of the few drinks that generally fucks me.
I can have nine or ten pints in a night and feel rubbish but function the following day. I can have a bottle or two of sparkling wine and feel like shit for the following morning, but still function.
Two glasses of champers and I am literally doubled over with a bastard of a hangover the following day.
I’m just gonna go ahead and be the guy that says… all alcohols.
I’ve tried beer, wine, tequila, vodka, hard liquors, spirits, fruity drinks, creamy drinks, coffee flavored rum, hard seltzer, hard cider, champagne, you name it. They don’t all taste horrible-- coffee (even though I don’t usually drink it) and fruit flavored drinks can be acceptable-- but I haven’t ever tried a single drink that tastes good because it has alcohol, it’s always because the alcohol is overpowered by something else. Just give me the something else please.
Some people notice the taste of alcohol a lot more, and when you’re younger it’s also the case of it being more distinct. I’ll say as someone who does like to drink their alcohol, if you don’t like it, please don’t force yourself into it. If anything you may be able to serve as the DD for friends who like to have a few drinks while out.
Matcha. Every everyone says it’s this wonderful day and when I try it it’s like drinking blended lawn clippings.
Most teas smell like a wet forest floor to me.
Do I have the perfect tea for you!
Moss loose leaf tea!
So… what does it taste like?
A wet forest floor… in Iceland
I agree, and that’s why I like it.
Lapsang Souchong. Smells like a campfire
Best tea ever! It’s like drinking liquid smoke
Yes, it does. Pu-erh smells and tastes like a wet forest floor. I like tea generally but I could never understand the appeal of pu-erh.
and that’s a… bad smell, to you?
I don’t want to lick a wet forest floor, much less ingest it.
It is a nice smell like a campfire, which I also don’t want to ingest.
a campfire, which I also don’t want to ingest
See, now you’ve completely lost me. Do you not eat barbeque? Or, like, half of Mexican cuisine?
I meam the literal campfire.
BBQ has a different smokey smell.
Ted Lasso has it right: pigeon sweat.
Only exception for me is southern-style sweet tea where the tannins make the 'beetus juice taste a little caramel-esque.
Just skimmed through the thread. You know what beverage I don’t see in here? Ginger Ale, because it is objectively amazing.
Most regular energy drinks. Red Bull and regular Monster taste like battery acid to me. Remember NOS? That too. Also Rockstar. All battery acid.
The flavored variants can be better though.
Oh the white peach is genuinely habit forming. One day I opened the fridge to find out hubs had picked me up one on the way home and genuinely felt myself salivate.
What about V8?
I love V8. My dad always had it in the fridge when I was a kid so I grew up drinking it, although I’ve since learned that opinions on V8 can heavily differ.
It also just hit me you’re probably talking about V8 Energy. Yes I like that. It tastes like juice to me.
until you realize it has a ton of sugar in it. i never like the taste of it.
bawls are the only good energy drink
I’ll go one step further and say, most energy drinks in general.
It’s not even so much the flavor as it is the chalky texture and aftertaste that just about every one of them seems to have. I’m not sure if they’re all powder-based or what, but there’s a residual feeling left on my tongue that I can’t stand.
Are those considered delicious by anyone?
Flavored Sparkling water with no sweeteners of any kind. I’m looking at you Bubly
Shit tastes like someone else is thinking about the flavor
Reminds me of this.
Unironically I like La Croix, specifically lime.
However if I’m feeling splurge-y I’ll get Topo Chico Lime or Grapefruit.
Oh, you just reminded me how much I hate Topo Chico specifically. You shouldn’t be able to taste the minerals in the water, especially when it’s mixed with other stuff. But the minerals are soooo forward that’s all I can taste.
Topo chico solos lacroix
It’s also waaaay more expensive than La Croix, which is why I don’t always buy it
Sorry but you’re utterly wrong
The “What Tastes Awful Decider” has graced us with their decision! Close thread
Beer.
I see like 50 mentions and alcohol and energy drinks. I got something different.
Kombucha.
Holy shit, it’s like a soda that went off, and I don’t even like soda. It is pungent and awful and I hate that it’s marketed so well. Any time I see it on a shelf I’m like “Ooh, what’s this fancy looking juice? That’s a nice looking bottle. Oh, it’s Kombucha, I would rather drink a cup of foamy dog vomit”
