(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

In my slow-moving but ongoing attempt to find some kind of alcohol I like (so far: margaritas, very fruity cocktails, and tequila shots work) I bought a bottle of hard cider a week or so ago and finally got around to drinking it tonight -- uh, I can't remember the brand now, but I'll recognize the label, since it was a British import. Samuel something. Sadly that was a no for me, since to me it tasted almost exactly like champagne, which I don't like. (I don't like fizzy drinks -- I don't drink pop, either. I ended up drinking a fair amount of champagne in Leicester because it got brought out at all the department events; even the orange juice got mixed with champagne.)

I might try another brand of hard cider in the hope that it'll be something fruitier -- given that Washington produces most of the apples in the U.S., there are local options. (I was hoping I'd like hard cider because...actually, god, I don't know why I thought I'd like hard cider. I don't even like apple juice. I don't even like regular cider because see again on the fizz. What the hell, Bedlam. I did have some very nice mulled cider in York, though, but that's obviously completely different.) Maybe I'll try hard lemonade.

I should just stick to cocktails. I don't even particularly like alcohol (control issues, and since my default state is irritation, I just get way more irritated when I actually drink enough to get slightly tipsy -- have never gone so far to drunk, because I get too irritated to keep drinking once I hit tipsy), so I'm not really sure why I'm that concerned with finding something that's socially acceptable to drink. 95% of the time I'd rather just have tea and the remaining 5% just juice. (Things I have tried and know I don't like: both red and white wine (it just tastes like spoiled grape juice to me, I'd rather have grape juice), champagne, certain cocktails that have way too much alcohol in them and taste like it. Beer I haven't bothered with because the smell puts me off -- my dad has been drinking beer my entire life, and a lot of it. Oh, I've tried bourbon too, I guess)

Something to do with social acceptability, I guess. I have the vague idea I'm going to teach myself how to mix cocktails once I move to New Orleans, though I don't know if I'll actually go through with it. On the rare occasion I actually feel like drinking in public, I usually spend a long time staring at the cocktail menu trying to find the fruitiest thing on it, or default to a margarita, since that's the one thing I know I'll drink. (OTOH, I have had some really terrible margaritas that ended up being essentially straight tequila, so...yeah.)

(Yes, believe it or not, I lived in New Orleans for four years, at a big party school, and did not drink. Which I kind of regret now, since NOLA's known for its drinking culture, but I'm moving back so I can make up for it. Plus I know where to go now.)

Comments

[domarzione]

If you don't like alcohol, don't drink. Seriously -- if it makes you uncomfortable or if you don't like how you react to alcohol, don't drink. Anyone who judges you for that deserves the disdain you shall heap upon them. Part of the advantage of being a grown up is being strong enough to tell the world to eff-off for judging you for not doing something just to be cool.

There are plenty of options for teetotalers in good bars besides soda, which you seem not to care for anyway. There are the 'virgin' versions of things like daiquiris, shirley temples and lime rickeys, and the latest trend, shrubs. Find something you like or just challenge the bartender to do something interesting without alcohol -- if they have any clue what they're doing, you will be pleasantly surprised.

[pinesandmaples]

There are the 'virgin' versions of things like daiquiris, shirley temples and lime rickeys, and the latest trend, shrubs.

Ordering these things in New Orleans is next to sin if you are a cocktail-friendly place and want a cocktail. Every bartender worth anything in this city has a stock of amazing ingredients and can whip up something really fabulous! I've advised Bedlam of this before (fellow New Orleanean here), and I intend to take her to my favorite restaurant when she gets back as a welcome back here have a drink you might like it's non-alcoholic and tasty plus pie treat.

In general, telling the bartender a sort of flavor profile you like (sweet or tart or pineapple or whatever) will set them spinning in a fun direction. One of my best friends gets alcohol flushl so we play the fancy non-alcoholic drink game all the time, and ze has never been disappointed around here.

[domarzione]

I think you're kind of skimming around my actual point, which is that you should drink what you want, regardless of whether it's cool or close to sin or not what everyone else is having. You shouldn't have to sit around and try to find something least-miserable-making just to fit in. You want a lime rickey? Drink the damned lime rickey and screw everyone who laughs at you.

[bedlamsbard]

I'll be back in August!

I only actually started drinking booze after I left New Orleans, which puzzles me to no end, so going back and actually trying the local cocktails is a big enticement to me. I mean, even if I don't like them (probable, sadly), I'd at least like to try them.

IDK, my weirdness with alcohol is half "I don't see the attraction because in most cases I don't get buzzed, I get annoyed" and half "will I like this? what about this? this? tastebuds are weird."

[bedlamsbard]

It's not...hmm, I may be phrasing it badly? It's not necessarily that I don't like alcohol (I mean, I don't like the taste, which is why I keep searching for something that's alcoholic but doesn't taste like it), but I'm generally good with one drink. I only actually started drinking last year, before which I spent a lot of time drinking orange juice in pubs on the rare occasion I went out (I never went to bars in America -- actually, come to think of it, I still haven't been to a bar). I guess it kind of comes down to me having a small collection of things I like/am willing to drink on the rare occasion I do go out. (And sometimes I do want to drink! Though I still don't see what the attraction is since I don't get buzzed, just annoyed, so I suspect there's an element of scientific curiosity in there, besides the minor thrill of going, "Mwa, I am a grown-up, I can order alcohol now!")

Although I always forget that virgin drinks are an option (see again, I don't usually go out to actual bars -- the fact I live in a small town at the moment probably doesn't help) or that at some point in the future I will be dealing with actual bartenders, so thank you for reminding me! I keep seeing shrubs on the foodie blogs I read and am mildly fascinated by the descriptions, so I should try that some time.

[pinesandmaples]

When we lived in Ohio, we accidentally made hard cider (or something like) from mulled Jonathan cider, and it was fabulous. No fizz, just a sharp bite of tart apples and some booze. I liked that it got sharper as it fermented, and I like that it was not a total waste of some really lovely local cider. Maybe you could try a simple fridge ferment with some local mulled cider that you like when you're home during the next cider season because yum.

[bedlamsbard]

Oooh, something like that was essentially what I was hoping for. (I do find it weird that I like apples, but not necessarily apple juice. *ponder*) I might keep trying ciders, since we've got a lot of more or less local varieties.

[iopgod]

There is no requirement to like or drink, alcohol. Social acceptability is a somewhat daft reason to do anything.

Having said that, proper cider isnt fizzy... in the UK I would note Weston's Old Rosie (which is fairly apple juice like), or Boradoak's Moonshine Cider (which looks and tastes like those vastly expensive mildly fruit flavoured waters, but is in fact 7.5% ABV).

[bedlamsbard]

It's not -- hmm, it's not that I mind being the person who isn't drinking? Because I have been for most of my life, even after I turned twenty-one and not drinking was just considered weird, and I'm used to the push back. It's just that I wouldn't mind having more than, oh, two or three alcoholic drinks that I'm actually willing to drink. (Plus, at this point it's kind of fascinating to do the whole "okay, will I like this?" thing, because taste buds are weird.)

I was really surprised by it being fizzy and tasting like champagne, because I was expecting something that at least sort of tasted like apples. Nope. Champagne. (Fortunately my mom liked it, even if neither me nor my dad did.)

[azurelunatic]

Chambord is really lovely and tastes of raspberries.
If you like coffee and milk, kahlua-based drinks may be a thing.

[bedlamsbard]

I will have to try that! (I love raspberries.)

Sadly, I don't like coffee. (I'm really picky in really weird ways, and I'm really self-conscious about it -- not so much about what I will or won't drink, but because my parents still try and trick me into eating things that I've been refusing to eat for ten to twenty years at this point. Like cheese. "It's just like ice cream, Katrina!" "Well, then I'll eat ice cream, I don't see how that's a compelling argument.")

[azurelunatic]

Ah, avoid kahlua, then.

And cheese is nothing like ice cream. Your parents are on crack. Though there are a lot of varieties of cheese which are nothing like each other. But even the desserty cheeses are closer to butter than ice cream.

[bedlamsbard]

It's possible I was traumatized by the time we were standing out in the middle of a rainy field in British Columbia and my dad refused to give me my allowance unless I ate one piece of brie.

...yeah, that happened.

[azurelunatic]

Oh god, brie is not an experience to coerce someone into! I would say that brie is in the vaguely semen-flavored category. Your dad, man. :(

[bedlamsbard]

I'm pretty sure brie is the "like ice cream!" cheese that he keeps trying to get me to eat, heh. It's funny because I can eat cheese on things -- sometimes -- like mac and cheese or pizza, but not on its own.

[azurelunatic]

Brie is soft and creamy, but salty and with some bitterness where ice cream is sweet and not bitter. Mascarpone is one of the sweeter soft cheeses and goes in desserts. And now I'm thinking about cheesecake, which I find delightful, especially the blueberry version that Mama makes.

And melted cheese is very different from solid cheese, and he should probably have given it up after all this time.

[bedlamsbard]

Mascarpone I've had! Or rather, I've baked with it -- I use it for tiramisu, although I haven't made tiramisu for a while because it's kind of A Process.

Mmm, cheesecake.

[azurelunatic]

I was thinking about it because dessert last night was a very nice tiramisu. Om nom nom.

[bedlamsbard]

Mmm, tiramisu. My mom keeps asking me to make it again, but it's such a process. (I do a three-layer tiramisu cake, rather than the traditional version with lady fingers. I used to do it with cake mix, but now I'd rather bake it from scratch, so...process.)

[delfinnium]

Aah I was about to comment about FELLOW TEETOTALLER and now I'm all confused lol

I too am just, wondering about the alcohol thing. When we were kids none of us liked alcohol, but then suddenly my brothers all can drink? They can suddenly tell "This wine is sweet" or "This rum thingy is good" and I'm like HOW HOW DID YOU FIND OUT THIS.

And my mother being HELPFUL, the one time I had a cocktail with friends (I was happy because I couldn't taste ANY ALCOHOL just this weird burn in the back of my mouth and the mild headache I had after) she said, "Well of COURSE it's good you had it with good friends and you just want to be JUST LIKE THEM AND SUCCUMB TO PEER PRESSURE." and then I got... shamed for it? Somehow?

(Except now I realise that she drinks the occasional wine herself, and one time basically tried to make me drink bacardi and eat cheese with it because oh you know this cheese is GREAT with alcohol. She's inconsistent, is what i'm saying, basically, she doesn't like me - or us - having experiences without her, or liking something she doesn't like)

But yeah. My friend's made me virgin mojitos once, and it was REALLY nice. And my friend got me a shandy once, mostly cola , less on the beer, and it was actually pretty nice for about the first half of it (It got hard going to finish the beer at the end. ONe small glass is more than enough for me, thanks).

[darklyndsea]

I'm in the same boat. Especially since my family really likes beer, which is just...ugh. So sometimes we go places where they only have beer. I did discover that Lambic Frambois is a beer that tastes just like raspberries! Not really the kind of thing I want to have more than one glass of, though, and of course it's hard to find.

Angry Orchard is the cider we mostly have around here, and it's pretty good. Maybe you'd like one of the apple + other fruit hard ciders better than ones with just apple?

I hate coffee but I love Kahlua. *shrug*