Seeing what the "What makes a man" thread turned into (a discussion about what whisky/whiskey/bourbon and why), I thought it might be an idea to start a thread where one could discuss the merits of their favourite beverages and tipples, and why they might turn their nose up at something else.


As far as spirits go, I'm a rum person, any rum with a cube of ice and I'm happy, the cheaper stuff I'll have a dash of lime cordial in to help it go down...Woods 100 is a current favourite.

I prefer whisky to whiskey or bourbon, I went to the Jamesons distillery last year and took part in a tasting thing at the end of the tour, we were given three Irish whiskeys (Jamesons being one of them), one bourbon and one whisky. I preferred the smoky taste of the whisky much more than I did the Jamesons.

When it comes to beers, I'll take an ale over a lager any day, and a stout over an ale usually...You can't beat a pint or five of the good stuff

As a youngster, I always liked the sweet taste of white wine, and later liking that of rosé. Since going to uni I've enjoyed medium and heavy reds, my current favourite being Casillero Del Diablo's Cabernet Sauvignon.

So, add and discuss!

Ben

Café Alex:
Prepare 1x good, strong Espresso.
Add slowly, off the back of the spoon (try and get it to 'float'), 1x measure of Absinthe.

Enjoy.
Repeat as necessary.
Retire.

When it comes to spirits I like expensive whisky and cheap vodka. My current favourite whisky is Laphroaig, previous favourites include Talisker, Balvenie double wood and Jamesons. As for the vodka, I like adding it to proper coke, or Tizer. For 'everyday' drinks I like Guinness and will always order it if there isn't a decent ale on tap, Robinsons bitter doesn't count as ale. Favourite ales include Golden Pippin, Bitter and Twisted, and Landlord, once again my tastes used to be different previous faves include Green King IPA and Flat Cap from the Bank Top brewery. I can be persuaded in to lager as long as its european and on tap.

Having visited Glastonbury in 2005 I have to say that on a hot summer's evening listening to music with your girlfriend, you'd be a fool not to drink the local dry/sweet cider in copious amounts.

As for wine, I like it all as long as its red, my favourtie being Chilean pinot noir.

give me a guinness or 2 or 3 or ick!!
spirits!!! vodka and tonic (not slimline as it tastes sh*t)
wine!!! you cant beat a nice aussie shiraz.
but given the choice of the 3 above i would go guinness all the way,iiiiiiittttssss lovely
cheers and bottoms up spunky

A good evening would involve several bottles of wine before and during dinner, followed by whisky into the night.

I love wine. There are too many to name, but I like robust and heady reds the best.

My Whisky of preference is a good single malt Scotch. I like them smoky and peaty. Unfortunately, I can only afford the outlandish price maybe once a year as a treat. Even then my budget doesn't stretch to the really good stuff.

Blended malts can be OK. There's no reason why a blended malt wouldn't be superb, but it's quite rare. The Reds bought me a bottle of "Monkey's Shoulder" which was probably the best I've ever had, but surprisingly some of Sainsbury's own aren't too bad.

In reality, I usually buy Bells for "good". It's a reasonable compromise between cost and quality. I much prefer it to the other similarly priced brands. For every day "gulping whisky" I buy paint stripper, although even that's a lot more expensive than it used to be. It was £6.30 but now it's well over £7.

I drink it neat, no ice. I can't stand it watered down.

I do enjoy beer, but I don't drink it these days because it upsets my digestion. I like fizzy tasteless lager for gulping down when it's hot and sweaty, or a quality real ale to enjoy slowly at lunch time. I love Hefeweizen, but more than a litre gives me really bad gas.

These days my budget is even lower, so I'm mostly drinking home-brew. I think the rice wine is one of the more palatable concoctions, being not entirely unlike sake in flavour. I'd love to make real sake but it's too difficult. I rarely buy it because it's hard to find a good one, and they're very over priced.

There was a time when I could have written a fairly lengthy piece on each of the major areas of drinking without much difficulty. However, in the last couple of months I have been discovering more and more that alcoholic beverages seem to hold little or no appeal these days.

It's some time since I had Laphroaig... Nice smoked whiskey.

My scotch of choice would probably be Bushmills. Come to think of it it's been some time since I had that too !

Red wines.... Australian preferably. A nice merlot of shiraz... I don't mind either.

For thirst quenching I'll crack a can of John Smith's extra smooth... cheap I know but ok nontheless.

shots of Jack Daniels, straight

or a big bottle of cider, cos im lyk dat

Beer. But not wheat beer.

Cider. Outside on a warm day.

Wine. There are so many, I always try to find new and interesting ones.

Whisky. Glenlivet (just polished off a bottle of the 18 year old variety. Lovely), Caol Ila, Glengoyne (my local), Jura, Laphroig and Macallan are my usual choices, though I will buy anything if its on special offer. I'd love to say I enjoyed expensive whisky, but since I'm poor I can't really stretch to more than £30 a bottle. The 18 year old Glenlivet was a present, as there is no way I could justify such a luxury unless it was on some exceptional special offer.

No beer, absolutely hate the taste..

Cider is generally good =].

ALso love the whiskey, although generally when mixed with coke... curretly the one i prefer most atm is Chivas Reagal with Coke however being a student i haven't really got the budget to buy different sorts .

I used to sometimes mix the gut-rot whisky with coke, but I've found that coke totally kills my digestive system in ways that don't bare describing.

Adding it to half decent stuff is sacrilege! But hey, it's your whisky and your tummy so I can't really complain

When I was in 6th year at school (in the middle of nowhere), my friends and I would make the long trek to Stirling uni's unofficial student union every Tuesday, for their 50p vodka night. Basically they'd pour as much of the stuff as you wanted into a single glass. The weird thing is, any time I over did it, it was the mixers that would come back to haunt me. I sometimes couldn't go near a Red Bull for weeks afterwards, thanks to the memory of nausea it could evoke.

These days, I just keep everything simple. No mixers, no ice, no water.

I will drink anything.

Beer - can't stand the stuff... though I dislike Newcastle Brown Ale more than most others...

Cider - Green Goblin is a favourite of mine wouldn't pay bar prices for it though... [£3.80 for 330-ish ml bottle... you have gotta be kidding...]

Spirits - Rum, Bourboun and Whisky/Whiskey mainly, typically Captain Morgan or Woods 100 for the rum [none of this bacardi crap]... Jim Beam or Bulleit on the Bourbon front and Jamesons or Whyte and Mackay on the whisky/whiskey front... i'll drink the expensive single malts but i wouldn't buy them... I also enjoy brandy every now and again... the Spanish stuff, the French stuff is usually expensive and crap...

Other - Sake...

The beauty of Newcy is it tastes exactly the same coming up as it did going down

At one time it was my favourite tipple, primarily because you drink it from the bottle so it can't be watered down. I drank in some pretty low establishments.