Meaning of "Enjoying an Adult Beverage"

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
8,946
37,969
RTP, NC. USA
I never really knew what it meant. Korean tradition indicates you have to learn it from your father or elders. But, my father didn't drink. Or rather he refused to drink. I learned to drink in NYC. Forget enjoying the spirit. It was all about loading enough to get drunk.

In my 20's, it was beer culture. I enjoyed all forms of tortures including "the yard". But I'm beginning to understand the enjoyment of a spirit by itself neat.

Just a touch of water in a tumbler of whiskey to bring out the flavour.. YUM! Now I'm at home.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
5,604
41,079
Iowa
Wee dram now and again, ice cold beer out of a bottle sometimes lounging on the deck in the summer. But spring/summer/fall mostly drinking iced tea and winter it’s ice water and healthy supply of milk. Coffee every morning.

That’s the rundown. After about age 25 the only thing I drank to excess was Mountain Dew until I switched to Coke - rare now, the high fructose corn syrup and empty calories interfere with maintaining my girlish figure.
 
No one in my family drank, except for one uncle, and he didn't exactly set an example as a role model. In high school, I went to one party where we held our nose and just tried to get drunk to see what it was like. It was not fun, queasy stomach, feeling hot like a fever, equilibrium was off, short tempered because of the feeling. It was like the flu. And, the next day was ten times worse. So, I never touched the shit again... until...

When I first went to a pipe club meeting, I met a gentleman who talked me into going to some wineries. So, my wife and I started doing wine tastings. It was a lot of fun, mostly because you didn't ingest the wines, just sipped and spit. I was struggling to taste tobaccos, coffee, and now wines. And, it helped me develop a palate for tasting.

Then I started making wines. I could stomach a glass, hardly ever any more than that. Then a year ago, I started noticing guys lined up outside the ABC store. Curiosity got me, and I found guys lined up to buy one of only maybe 20 bottles of single barrel bourbons for $200 or so. Talking to them, I realized that there was a bourbon club, which tasted more than just bourbons, but ryes, scotch, etc... So, i joined, and made a lot of new friends.

One sip of a bourbon, and I feel it. So, I had to take it easy, as no one was spitting, like at wine tastings, ha ha. I also found that micro sips were better at pulling the flavors from the bourbons anyways. However, I always taste these after a big dinner, and always with enough time to take a 15 minute walk to wear it off. I still to this day do not like any feeling of drunkenness. It still feels like a virus or flu to me. I just come to terms that some guys like this feeling, and that's ok. I will pour me a glass occasionally, take my taste and pour it out. My step son enjoys coming over to join me, as he is learning also.

What I gather is that the whisky genre is mostly flavored with wood. I enjoy that taste about like I would a tobacco, but I look forward to the effects of tobacco way more than the alcohol. If I am going to actually drink, I much prefer the taste of a high quality fruit wine. But, for me, I enjoy the sociability. Having people over to taste wines. I will definitely pour someone as many glasses as they see fit, which is always more than I would want to ingest.
 

Snook

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 2, 2019
179
573
32
Idaho
That's what I'm talking about. To me, there's nothing better than a neat bourbon or Scotch.

I never could drink to get drunk, even in party days of yore. I'd go from the slightest buzz to sick as a dog with no happy in-between. So now as an adult, I only ever drink for the enjoyment of the beverage and to unwind a little bit at the end of the day.
 

HeavyLeadBelly

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 9, 2023
542
5,279
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
No one in my family drank, except for one uncle, and he didn't exactly set an example as a role model. In high school, I went to one party where we held our nose and just tried to get drunk to see what it was like. It was not fun, queasy stomach, feeling hot like a fever, equilibrium was off, short tempered because of the feeling. It was like the flu. And, the next day was ten times worse. So, I never touched the shit again... until...

When I first went to a pipe club meeting, I met a gentleman who talked me into going to some wineries. So, my wife and I started doing wine tastings. It was a lot of fun, mostly because you didn't ingest the wines, just sipped and spit. I was struggling to taste tobaccos, coffee, and now wines. And, it helped me develop a palate for tasting.

Then I started making wines. I could stomach a glass, hardly ever any more than that. Then a year ago, I started noticing guys lined up outside the ABC store. Curiosity got me, and I found guys lined up to buy one of only maybe 20 bottles of single barrel bourbons for $200 or so. Talking to them, I realized that there was a bourbon club, which tasted more than just bourbons, but ryes, scotch, etc... So, i joined, and made a lot of new friends.

One sip of a bourbon, and I feel it. So, I had to take it easy, as no one was spitting, like at wine tastings, ha ha. I also found that micro sips were better at pulling the flavors from the bourbons anyways. However, I always taste these after a big dinner, and always with enough time to take a 15 minute walk to wear it off. I still to this day do not like any feeling of drunkenness. It still feels like a virus or flu to me. I just come to terms that some guys like this feeling, and that's ok. I will pour me a glass occasionally, take my taste and pour it out. My step son enjoys coming over to join me, as he is learning also.

What I gather is that the whisky genre is mostly flavored with wood. I enjoy that taste about like I would a tobacco, but I look forward to the effects of tobacco way more than the alcohol. If I am going to actually drink, I much prefer the taste of a high quality fruit wine. But, for me, I enjoy the sociability. Having people over to taste wines. I will definitely pour someone as many glasses as they see fit, which is always more than I would want to ingest.
I think you’re spot on about “learning” to drink. Most of us drinkers, or the ones I know, started off by going to parties in high school and college and got wasted off of cheap beer and liquor. A lot of us were raised in drinking families since it’s engrained in the culture here in Wisconsin. I love drinking but it took me tears to learn how to do it responsibly and not wake up feeling like I was hit by a car.

These days I only drink on Fridays and Saturdays, and usually over the course of four or five hours I’ll have four or five beers with water in between. Sadly I know too many people who are drinking every single night and on weekends just getting blasted. I like a little buzz, I love the taste of beer, but I like waking up the next morning ready to go.
 
I think you’re spot on about “learning” to drink. Most of us drinkers, or the ones I know, started off by going to parties in high school and college and got wasted off of cheap beer and liquor. A lot of us were raised in drinking families since it’s engrained in the culture here in Wisconsin. I love drinking but it took me tears to learn how to do it responsibly and not wake up feeling like I was hit by a car.

These days I only drink on Fridays and Saturdays, and usually over the course of four or five hours I’ll have four or five beers with water in between. Sadly I know too many people who are drinking every single night and on weekends just getting blasted. I like a little buzz, I love the taste of beer, but I like waking up the next morning ready to go.
I heard a comedian once say that she was from Wisconsin, and she saw a map of the areas in the US with the most people with drinking problems marked in red. Wisconsin was completely red with one blue spot, she zoomed in to see where there were the least people with drinking problem, but it turned out to be a lake, ha ha.
 

SBC

Lifer
Oct 6, 2021
1,526
7,271
NE Wisconsin
My parents didn't drink, so I'm grateful to have gotten into it in my church community rather than from a bunch of suck-pints.
The culture in which you "learn to drink" seriously shapes your relationship to alcohol.

Back in the days when craft beer still felt cutting edge, we held frequent tasting events, swapped bottles, etc. We never got drunk - it was all about comparing tasting notes (much like we do with pipe tobacco).

In some European countries, children grow up with some alcohols being treated like a dish with the meal. They are not culturally associated with drunkenness, parties, etc. Those cultures' rates of alcoholism are drastically lower than the US's.

We aim for that in our home with our kids. There are no "adult beverages" -- only beverages which all people, regardless of age, should enjoy for taste in moderation (whether that's a sip for a kid or a glass for an adult).
 
  • Like
Reactions: CoffeeAndBourbon
My parents didn't drink, so I'm grateful to have gotten into it in my church community rather than from a bunch of suck-pints.
The culture in which you "learn to drink" seriously shapes your relationship to alcohol.

Back in the days when craft beer still felt cutting edge, we held frequent tasting events, swapped bottles, etc. We never got drunk - it was all about comparing tasting notes (much like we do with pipe tobacco).

In some European countries, children grow up with some alcohols being treated like a dish with the meal. They are not culturally associated with drunkenness, parties, etc. Those cultures' rates of alcoholism are drastically lower than the US's.

We aim for that in our home with our kids. There are no "adult beverages" -- only beverages which all people, regardless of age, should enjoy for taste in moderation (whether that's a sip for a kid or a glass for an adult).
Not all protestants have the same opinions of alcohol or tobacco. The old joke about how to keep a Baptist from drinking all of your beer while fishing is... to take two Baptists.

In fact, I thought that it was only Episcopalians and Catholics that allowed for tobacco and alcohol.
 

SBC

Lifer
Oct 6, 2021
1,526
7,271
NE Wisconsin
Not all protestants have the same opinions of alcohol or tobacco. The old joke about how to keep a Baptist from drinking all of your beer while fishing is... to take two Baptists.

In fact, I thought that it was only Episcopalians and Catholics that allowed for tobacco and alcohol.
We're "Continuing Anglican" -- a movement which parted ways with The Episcopal Church in the 70s over women's ordination, not over alcohol ;-)
 

HeavyLeadBelly

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 9, 2023
542
5,279
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
I heard a comedian once say that she was from Wisconsin, and she saw a map of the areas in the US with the most people with drinking problems marked in red. Wisconsin was completely red with one blue spot, she zoomed in to see where there were the least people with drinking problem, but it turned out to be a lake, ha ha.
This is a good observation lol
 
The problem today is that alcohol is
marketed as candy fruit flavored punch. In reality, it’s an addictive and easy to binge beverage that will hurriedly make alcoholics out of our young people.
I heard one kid tell another that the candy tasted like Fireball. I was compelled to point out that decent people in society would have said that the candy tasted like cinnamon, not the liquor marketed to children. :::cough cough:::
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,448
109,402
I heard one kid tell another that the candy tasted like Fireball. I was compelled to point out that decent people in society would have said that the candy tasted like cinnamon, not the liquor marketed to children. :::cough cough:::
Up until last year there was a decades old cinnamon jawbreaker called a fireball. May not have been referencing the drink.