Booze and Flavor, a Curse or a Blessing?

[monty55]

I guess I'm just old fashion, but booze has gone off the deep end with respect to flavorings.
I'm a straight up kind of guy. I like my whiskey neat, and I like my martini's dry.

Not long ago, I guess maybe 10-20 years ago I started to notice all these flavored vodkas for sale. I won't list them because at this point there's too many to list. I see people out drinking Apple Martini's, or some other nonsense. Nowadays there is also flavored whiskey, not just Apple or Cinamon, but anything and everything. My son-in-law brought a bottle of Peanut Butter flavored whisky to the house the other day. In my mind I rolled my eyes. I asked him "what are you going to do with that... drink it straight?", but no, he said, "I'm mixing it with grape soda!" Duh! He said he also has a bottle of Pralines and Cream Whiskey.

The quality of booze used to be in how smooth it was, and one sought to distinguish the nuances of certain flavors, much like a fine wine, or tobacco blend. And that had a lot to do with distilling process and ageing. Now nobody cares how smooth it is because it's adulterated with ungodly flavorings.

I think it's a curse... what say you?

 

[kschatey]

Beer is the same way. Trying to find a non-flavored one has become difficult. All of the traditional styles are apparently dead.

 

[scloyd]

I'm not a whiskey drinker, more beer and wine. I did buy a bottle of this and I really liked it. It was the caramel turtle on the label that caught my eye. I'll buy it again.

As for beer...NO flavors.

 

[Ebarber]

I'm a traditionist also. I don't usually mix my bourbon. It amazes me the different flavors I can pick out of a natural bourbon. I really enjoy doing that. If I do mix it, it's usually an old fashioned or something like that. When I do mix I don't use my top shelf stuff. I'm the same way when it comes to pipe tobacco or cigars. I don't usually like any kind of flavorings but for a rare change I'll sometimes do a lightly topped tobacco with something traditional like vanilla or something. Hell, I even like my cheese cake straight with no toppings ?.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

I generally like straight booze on the rocks or with a splash of water to open up the flavors. A splash of coke or a cocktail (Manhattan or whiskey sour) on occasion or at a dive bar hits the spot.

A regular pilsner or lager is great (PBR and Hamms are my favorite macros) and especially refreshing after being outside (or as a Boilermaker with a shot of whiskey - a blue collar drink for a blue collar day). Stronger stouts are favorites. But fruity beer or straight coffee flavors are not my thing.

I will say the tea flavored vodka mixed with lemonade makes a great Arnold Palmer that is dangerous.

And a funny story: after a college party we hosted, I found a nearly full bottle of a raspberry Smirnoff drink. Seeing girls pounding it, i figured "what the hell" and mixed it with Sprite.

After about 30 minutes and sinking a few drinks, a friend asked what I was doing and held up an almost empty bottle.

"What?", I say, "it's one of those spritzer things the girls drink." Nope. 70 proof flavored vodka.

The booze hit 10 minutes later and I was done well before my usual bedtime.

So don't knock someone's blue, girlie drink (or yuck another's yum). It may be stronger than you think and taste good.

 

[anotherbob]

I guess I'm just old fashion, but booze has gone off the deep end with respect to flavorings.
I'm a straight up kind of guy. I like my whiskey neat, and I like my martini's dry.

Not long ago, I guess maybe 10-20 years ago I started to notice all these flavored vodkas for sale. I won't list them because at this point there's too many to list. I see people out drinking Apple Martini's, or some other nonsense. Nowadays there is also flavored whiskey, not just Apple or Cinamon, but anything and everything. My son-in-law brought a bottle of Peanut Butter flavored whisky to the house the other day. In my mind I rolled my eyes. I asked him "what are you going to do with that... drink it straight?", but no, he said, "I'm mixing it with grape soda!" Duh! He said he also has a bottle of Pralines and Cream Whiskey.

The quality of booze used to be in how smooth it was, and one sought to distinguish the nuances of certain flavors, much like a fine wine, or tobacco blend. And that had a lot to do with distilling process and ageing. Now nobody cares how smooth it is because it's adulterated with ungodly flavorings.

I think it's a curse... what say you?

these things are cyclical back in the cowboy days flavored whiskey was pretty common. Generally I drink what I drink neat without any flavor. Though just like aromatics flavored boozes aren't all the same. Some are quite good and some are clearly designed to cover up cheap stuff. Though the worst flavored thing I ever had was absolute Pepper it was just terrible.

 

[romaso]

I like my whiskey straight, maybe a little water if a high proof Scotch (Glenfarclas 105), or a small ice cube for a Bonded Bourbon on a hot day. We also keep a pitcher of Manhattans mixed in the fridge, very friendly.

But I'm glad all the other flavored stuff is out there, keeps them from buying up the good straight stuff.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

It depends on the product. I've had plenty of adjuncted beers that were amazing. Some were not. I've had whiskies finished in different kinds of barrels or with different wood staves that were terrific.

Curiosity got the better of us because we see Howler Head advertised on UFC. Love the drawing of the screaming chimp. Now I know why he's screaming. Fake tasting banana does not belong in a whisky.

 

[bullet08]

It's normal for me to drink whiskey with Pepsi, no ice. Single malt gets couple of drops of spring water. Beer, prefer ones before hopheads. Wine sours my tummy. Rum, also with Pepsi. Rarely drink white spirits, but do enjoy gin, dry gin.

 

[beargreasediet]

Got into some peanut butter bourbon recently at my weekly cigar night, as the Basil Hayden’s I’d brought was no more. It wasn’t horrible, I’ve drunk worse things, but it was cloyingly sweet, and had the consistency of syrup - makes me wonder just what was in it…

On the whole I like natural flavors for my liquor as I do for my tobacco. Bourbon whiskey and perhaps a little sherry cask treatment for the occasional single malt. The subtle nuances and interplay of flavors remind me of the Presbyterian mixture I last smoked. If I really want to indulge a sweet tooth I will reach for an IPA.

We also keep a pitcher of Manhattans mixed in the fridge, very friendly.

Now a pitcher of Manhattans sounds like it could get to be a very nice kind of ugly.

 

[giacomo]

I drink my bourbon neat or with a little ice and also like dry martinis. I tried peanut butter bourbon at a friend's house once, to be polite, and I'm scarred for life (he's still my friend). But I also like plain pizza and vanilla ice cream, so I guess in that way I'm consistent.

 

[Brewfan]

There's no way I'm drinking peanut butter whiskey. I have an aversion to certain bourbons because of an off flavor I describe as "dirty peanuts". It turns out it's the proprietary yeast strain used in Jim Beam products (which is a lot of bourbons). Make it taste like peanut butter on purpose? I say absolutely not.

 

[Hampshire Pipes & Cigars]

I think they produced these flavoured drinks to attract new drinkers - younger and women.
when I see grown men drinking toffee vodka or salted caramel bourbon - i just assume they are occasional drinkers only ??

 

[simong]

Here in Britain, we're spoilt for choice when it comes to traditional beers, ales & stouts. When you're sat in a beer garden supping on a perfect pint & smoking your pipe, It's hard not to feel blessed!?Cheers!?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I really don't drink liquors, so I have no input on those, but in the winemaking community, I am blown away with some of the silly things people are doing. Like with home tobacco blending, people making aromatics out of perfectly good tasting leaf, WTF? People are also making wines with Jolly Ranchers, or adding artificial watermelon flavorings, or vanillas to their wines during fermentation, WTF? Most of us go into winemaking to make a product free of the fake artificial stuff and sulfides, but then they go and buy the crap the cheaper winemakers are adding to their wines to add to their own wines. I just don't understand this. I think I understand someone using Jolly Ranchers to make a frilly Boone's Farm-like weekend wine better than those adding Sparkloids to hurry clarification.

That said, I prefer my wine and tobacco to be non-flavored. Just let nature entertain my senses.

 

[mso489]

Yeah, I just want a traditional distilled bourbon without alternative flavorings, or a single malt Scotch, though mostly I drink Lager or wine with food. I've had both flavored gin, at the American Hotel in Amsterdam, or flavored vodka at a Russian restaurant that was in a railroad car long ago near Chapel Hill, N.C. Both these were interesting, and as a single drink, not deadly, with flavorings like lemon grass or cucumber. Sometimes I'll have water and ice, to stretch a good bourbon, but that's all.

 

[warren]

Now nobody cares how smooth it is because it's adulterated with ungodly flavorings.

As long as nobody cares, what's the problem?

 

[MRW]

I'm a traditionist also. I don't usually mix my bourbon. It amazes me the different flavors I can pick out of a natural bourbon. I really enjoy doing that. If I do mix it, it's usually an old fashioned or something like that. When I do mix I don't use my top shelf stuff. I'm the same way when it comes to pipe tobacco or cigars. I don't usually like any kind of flavorings but for a rare change I'll sometimes do a lightly topped tobacco with something traditional like vanilla or something. Hell, I even like my cheese cake straight with no toppings ?.

That's just bizarre! ?

 

[kcghost]

I don't drink much any more but in the day I preferred straight beer and liquor.

 

[scloyd]

when I see grown men drinking toffee vodka or salted caramel bourbon - i just assume they are occasional drinkers only

That's me...occasional whiskey drinker. This thread got me thinking about that caramel turtle whiskey I mentioned earlier. I picked up a bottle of this today.


Where do I turn in my man card?