Nashville actually

It’s also waaaay more expensive than La Croix, which is why I don’t always buy it

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.

Any beverage with High Fructose Corn Syrup. It's not actually sweet like sugar to my taste buds, it has a really bitter after taste, extremely sharp. I can always tell when it's not real sugar in a beverage.

Fuck you, dr pepper is amazing. Anyone who says other wise just has bad taste.

Its super unhealthy, id say herion is healthy. But that doesn't stop a good fountain drink from hitting that exact spot on the taste buds.

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.

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.

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.

Most alcoholic beverages.

The only one that is both awful, people acknowledge it is awful, but they still drink it a lot is malort. Fucking love that the best endorsement of malort is "this is the worst tasting thing in the world. Try it."

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.

https://youtu.be/7pTqGJ3KSLE

I'd call it cloying. After drinking mt dew or something it feels like my throat is coated with evil

sparkling wine

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.

Best tea ever! It's like drinking liquid smoke

Coffee.

I absolutely love the smell of fresh ground coffee. I even ground some up and put it in a bowl on the counter to make the aroma fill the room one time.

But the taste is awful. 🤢

I feel like there'd be too many to list for me... But most would probably be alcoholic.

Whiskey.
Eggnog.
Red wine.
Mulled wine.
Coffee.

...I love Malort. I buy a bottle every time I'm back in Chicago.

It tastes like very bitter grapefruit to me.

Campari

In my opinion, it really depends on the beer. I'm not a fan of Pilsners, and IPAs. But I really love aged lambics without any added fruit juice (I think it's called oude gueze?), and sour red Flemish ales. I'm also a fan of really heavy stouts.

You and me both

It is greatly improved with lemon instead of lime, but the garnish is unlikely to change your mind by itself.

For sure.

bawls are the only good energy drink

I could and have drinken Guinness all day

That will be IPAs for me. If I wanted to drink grapefruit pith I can think of better ways to do it.

I feel like this is one of those "everyone has different tastes but you are definitely tasting it differently than everyone else".

People aren't pretending to like it is what I mean, not like with whiskey for instance (granted, you can grow a taste for everything, even whiskey)

I def didn't like it as a kid but now it's one of the main things I drink. I think I've always liked cilantro though

Is that the one that tastes like medicine? My (HK) friend calls it Chinese poison

I find that there's a pretty wide range in matcha quantity, and the stuff that's actually really good is going to cost an arm and a leg, and it's probably become a victim of its own popularity, to satisfy the demand they're just importing more lower quality matcha.

The first time I tried it was probably like 15 years ago, I grabbed a little tin from a fancy grocery store on a whim that I think I remember costing about $20 and probably had less than an ounce of powder in it. And that stuff was really good. I then got a bigger bag of cheaper stuff somewhere and it tasted like straight-up swamp water. Most of what's out there now that you've probably tried is somewhere in between. I don't mind it, but it's not good enough for me to want to seek it out, and the good stuff is hard to find and probably even more expensive these days.

And to make matters worse, I don't think there's really any official standardized grading or labeling for it, so it's kind of hard to figure out what you're getting, you might see things like "Ceremonial grade" thrown around, but that's pretty much just a meaningless marketing term.

I've always found IPAs more like chewing pine needles, but agreed. IPAs are fucking disgusting.

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.

Ah Guinness, the Coors Light of stouts. I'd love to introduce you to a Russian Imperial, or a Breakfast Stout!

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.

Peated scotch tastes like burning tires smell. I hate it. Non peated? Lovely.

Matcha. Every everyone says it's this wonderful day and when I try it it's like drinking blended lawn clippings.

Nah! It’s a pretty unique taste. A little bit like vodka but an after taste of dry cheekpea maybe

Yes. It’s a denomination. There’s also Taiwanese Baiju that taste like jaggermester

If I’m not mistaken it’s only mean « clear liquor » so

You don't drink malort for the taste. You drink it for the cachet, or for the medicinal properties.

and that's a... bad smell, to you?

My wife always hated milk, ever since she was a kid. The thought of drinking it just turned her stomach.

Wasn't until she was an adult that she found out she was lactose intolerant

Moxie, a regional soda in Maine. Imagine Dr Pepper mixed with root beer and cough syrup. Yeah, disgusting. Most do hate it, but there are enough people who like it to warrant a Moxie festival every year.

You might be onto something, when sours and goses got kinda popular in the late 2010s everyone I knew that hated IPAs was all about them, I love IPAs and every sour I’ve ever had tasted like sweaty socks. Heard similar from other fans of pale ale

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.

IPA's taste like Fruity Pebbles that dry out my gums. Just give me something simple and refreshing.

That’s a good way to describe it. I had it at a lan party recently as indoctrination and loved it

We thought that may be the case, but other dairy products don't bother me unless I really go overboard.

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 tried a number of beers over the years I drank, I never liked a single one of them. Sure I never tried every kind of beer.

On the other hand, I liked pizza from the first bite. Sure there are toppings I dislike on pizza, but the vast majority of pizza, I like. There was no finding the perfect pizza.

Beer is bad.

I've made a complete 180 on Campari. I haaaaaaated it and regretted buying the bottle the first time I tried a cocktail with it. Couldn't believe how it ruined the entire drink. Since I had the bottle, I tried again, with a different drink. Even worse.

Was close to chucking the bottle out, gave it one last try with a modified Jungle Bird:

• 45ml dark (!) rum
• 15ml Campari
• 15ml simple syrup
• 30ml lemon juice
• 60ml pineapple juice

Shake with relatively little ice. Strain into low-ball glass lightly packed with crushed ice. Let dilute for a minute.

Surprisingly, despite being able to taste the Campari, this one was actually really great. Made it again a couple of days later, and again. Since then, it's my favorite cocktail, period.

After a while, went back and tasted Campari pure and to my mild surprise, also liked it. Went back to the awful drinks (first one was a Negroni) and also really liked them now.

So... yeah. I don't know why, but somehow, I went from hating it to absolutely loving it.

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.