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[MaximumZero]

Back when I drank, I was a hard-liquor type anyway. Give me 1 strong glass of rum'n'coke to 6 beers any day, thanks.

[VerdantSF]

I like Riesling wines, especially because they go well with my favorite curries.  When I go out clubbing, I usually have a 7 & 7.

[Sappho]

Sorry, OJ, I've tried for years to get used to the taste of red wine. If it isn't sweet, I gag on it. There is just no getting used to that horrible taste.

Anyway, I don't understand why anyone would *want* to get used to it, especially around here where beer is cheaper than water and tastes fantastic. I never thought I liked the taste of beer until I left the USA. Now I drink it all the time and I enjoy most types. Around here, most everyone drinks "local" Czech beer, of course, because it's the best in the world. Most people prefer Pilsner Urquell (for which the beer type "pilsner" was named), but actually my favorite is Budvar (made by the original Budweiser company based out of Budweis, for which the American company was named and then proceeded to bring great shame to). I also love Staropramen, and now and then I get a craving for Kozel.

Of course, almost none of these will be familiar to most of you, although you can get Pilsner and Budvar in the States (though Budvar is called "Czechvar" there due to the absurdity of copyright laws).

Now, if we want to talk about a really complex drink, how about absinthe? Although there is a lot of fake stuff floating around, I've found a local web site that will ship me bottles of extremely high-quality stuff at a surprisingly low price. I've been making a sort of mission out of converting friends into absinthe drinkers by gathering groups of people and showing them the proper ceremony for drinking it, and amazing them with the taste (and the pleasant lucidity that comes from the herbs in it). And no, it does not, nor has it ever made you hallucinate. It contains no hallucinogens, and the chemical "thujone" which was accused for years of being psychoactive, is not. That was a lie made up by various governments as an excuse to ban absinthe (as a precursor to general prohibition). It's just a poisonous chemical which exists in extremely minute quantities in absinthe (you'd die of alcohol poisoning several times before you'd get thujone poisoning) - it occurs naturally in wormwood, one of the main ingredients, but during the distillation process almost all of it is naturally removed.

[Steeled]

This is the best alcohol I've ever had, and probably the best on the planet. Not only because it's made in the greatest country on earth, but also because it's Apple Brandy.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find Applejack.

[Osmosis Jones]

Sappho, you're a man (woman?) after my own heart, at least with regards to spirits. Absinthe is a wonderful drink. That said, never buy green absinthe. It's fake, and has probably had food colouring added. The real absinthe I've seen has all been yellow, about the same colour as fresh cut pine. Utterly delicious though. Especially if you do the whole sugar ritual first.

W.R.T. the thujone content, agreed; some friends and I once bought a bottle of absinthe (albeit the cheap knock-off variety) and steeped a bundle of white sage in it; the end thujone content should have been something like 5x the legal maximum amount in Australia... but we still felt nothing different beyond the usual alcohol intoxication.

I still think you're missing out on the beers though; lagers are nice and all, but sometimes nothing beats a good dark stout or a rich amber ale.

Steeled: Huh, I didn't know we brewed that in Aus

[Sappho]

My rule about absinthe is that if you can buy it in the supermarket, you should never, ever touch it. And yes, if it's any kind of bright color, stay the hell away. My favorite is Le Grenouille, Czech-made based on a traditional French recipe. It's a very pale greenish-yellow color, and one of the top rated absinthes in the world.

Basically, if you want to buy absinthe, research it first. Sadly, there is no regulation regarding what can be called absinthe, especially in this country, so artificial garbage is everywhere.

I don't put sugar in mine. I do the ritual with water-dripping, get that lovely louche, but I find it doesn't need any extra sweetening. I recently discovered that people actually think you're supposed to set the sugar on fire or melt it before mixing... *shudder* All that does is ruin the drink, make it taste like burnt marshmallows, and run a very high fire risk. If you want to add sugar, fine, but do NOT put fire anywhere near it! I also see people doing *shots* of it in bars. I want to go and slap that drink out of their stupid hands, but then I remember that it's probably not even real absinthe if they're drinking it in a bar, so I just close my eyes and think of happier things.

I've tried lots of different beers, actually. I'm just not a fan of darker beers, or anything really hoppy. My dad loves IPAs and always offers me some when I visit him, but I just don't like that sweet taste. I'm actually not quite sure how to translate the types of beer from Czech to English... My preferred beers are "světlý," which literally translates to "light" (color), so I'm not sure what they'd be called in English. There are some called "ležák" (lager), which I don't like as much because they're just too strong and I get drunk too fast. I guess the "light" ones would just be called pilsner? But that feels funny to say, because pilsner to me is Pilsner Urquell, brewed in Plzeň.

Hm.... Maybe someone should start an alcohol thread, so as not to too terribly derail the food thread...

[scrdest]

Hm.... Maybe someone should start an alcohol thread, so as not to too terribly derail the food thread...

I think someone already did yesterday.

[Sappho]

Hm.... Maybe someone should start an alcohol thread, so as not to too terribly derail the food thread...

I think someone already did yesterday.

I said alcohol thread, not drunk thread. : )

[MorleyDev]

Still never understood the love of beer. Sure, the initial taste can be fine for many a beer. But every beer ever has the exact same aftertaste and that aftertaste is one of the foulest things I've ever tasted in my life. It does not go away for hours and literally makes me vomit. It actually overpowers all memory of flavour, I can eat after so much as sipping beer and as soon as the food leaves the tongue all that remains is the beer aftertaste and the need to bring back what I just ate due to the aftertaste being so unbearably foul.

Shame I can't drink it I guess because it does limit my drinking options. Fortunately, I can still order whatever cider is on tap when I'm at the pub, although my tipple when I can find it is some traditional cider. There's a drink I can go for. Not mass produced white cider or watered down crap cider like Strongbow, no. Real cider.

[Sappho]

That's interesting. Amazing how differently people taste. So many people love wine, yet the taste makes me gag. I love beer (and I've never felt that beers all have the same aftertaste at all), yet obviously many people loathe it. The same goes for food. I wonder how much research has been done in this area? *scurries off to Google scholar*

[Mesa]

And I'm just sitting here, hating any and all alcohol until the end of time.
Sober for life.

[penguinofhonor]

What's a good mulled wine recipe? That stuff sounds awesome and I've been meaning to try it for a while.

[Sappho]

What's a good mulled wine recipe? That stuff sounds awesome and I've been meaning to try it for a while.

I got this.

First, buy a decent bottle of cabernet sauvignon. Doesn't have to be fancy or expensive, just not the cheapest stuff - it does make a difference. I find California wines are especially good for this, and not too expensive.

Zest an orange (a mandarin orange is enough for one bottle and is easier to zest). If you've never done this, just go over the outside with a vegetable peeler. You can just throw the whole peel in, but the white stuff on the inside is slightly bitter and absorbs a lot of the wine, so it's best to just use the zest.

Throw that in a pot along with about 2-3 cm (about an inch?) of cinnamon stick, 6-8 whole cloves, 1/2 of a piece of star anise, and 6-8 whole cardamom seeds. If you can't find the last two, the most important thing is the orange, cinnamon, and clove.

To that, add about 3 tablespoons of sugar (I use raw sugar, tastes much better) and pour just enough wine in to cover it. Heat until boiling, and keep it simmering until it reduces down to a syrup-like consistency. Then, pour the rest of the bottle in, and heat until the desired temperature is achieved. Do NOT boil all of it or you'll lose all the alcohol.

To be fancy, serve with a slice of orange. Enjoy. It's one of the greatest winter beverages ever.

[VerdantSF]

Still never understood the love of beer. Sure, the initial taste can be fine for many a beer. But every beer ever has the exact same aftertaste and that aftertaste is one of the foulest things I've ever tasted in my life.

Yeah, I'm not so fond of beer for the same reason.  Two other drinks I really like are sangria and tej, Ethiopian honey wine.

Thanks for sharing that mulled wine recipe, Sappho!

[penguinofhonor]

Awesome. It seems I'll have to get a few unground spices, but it looks very straightforward after that. And I'll probably sweeten mine with honey because I try to sweeten everything with honey.