Having the acquired taste for alcohol in whatever form doesn't seem to be a requirement for alcoholics. I've heard a number of AA members say that they hated the taste of beer/booze/whatever, and drank only to get drunk. A speaker I heard recently said it took him several years to "get it" but then he did like the taste.
For me, the first taste of beer - then later trying various forms of whisky and other distilled spirits, it was an acquired taste but the time to acquisition was short. I really loved beer most of all, but developed a taste for first Jack Daniels, then more traditional sour mash like Beam, and even Scotch. Never really developed a taste for gin, although my dad was a straight gin drinker in his later years so that could have been on my "yet" list.
Like most, I winced at my first bitter sip of beer, but it was a short distance to where I could tolerate it, gulp it, and then love it. It was "in" to get into hoppy beers and imports back then... before all the home brewing and micro brewing came along. With my passion for nobody-can-do-it-better-than-me, I probably would have started brewing my own by the barrel and I'm sure the results would have been predictable.
1st taste-alcohol-based cough syrups-as medicine when a little kid-loved it 2nd taste-rye whiskey-7 yrs old, uncle thought it funny to give it to me-loved it 3rd taste-sip of somebody's beer-maybe age 10 or so-loved it 4th taste-Scotch-high school teacher gave it to me, so sophisticated-loved it 5th taste-Drambuie-age 18-dunno where I got that one-loved it 6th taste-gin & tonic-age 19-loved it 7th taste-100 yr old 200 proof bootleg Chinese whiskey (THAT was special!) Good thing it was a one shot deal -stuff'll kill ya! Made white lightning taste like Kool-Aid with too much sugar in it 8th taste-you name it, I drank it-(until '83)-loved it
BUT THAT WAS THEN AND THIS IS NOW!!
I enjoy my coffee with cream, my tea with honey, my seltzer flavored with orange, and my hot cocoa made from scratch.
I hated the taste for a very short while and it quickly turned into me craving it and loving it. It was the same for cigarettes. I nearly hacked my lungs up and came back wanting more until I loved them. That is addiction speaking huh?
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
For so many years now I hear people saying......'and I hated the taste of the stuff'
Used to get myself all wound up, because I still love the taste of the stuff and always have - not all of it though - I well remember my mum rubbing Johnny Walker whicky on my gum when I had toothache - loved it, that first hot toddy - loved it, the first bottle of Mackeson, loved it - my first glass of bitter beer, loved the taste - Goig to the pub with Dad and being told to take it easy, you might not like the taste at first, you gotta stick at it - no problem, I loved the taste. Newcastle Brown and Amber Ale, Guinness, Barnsley Bitter, Stones, Sam Smiths, John Smiths, Marstons, Tim Taylors, Shepherd Neame - all great tastes but there was Fullers, Brains, Youngers, all revolting - but I drank them 'cos it was booze! Then came the lager - what we call disco lager or nightclub lager, generally over chilled and shite, but I drank it 'cos it was Booze, then continental lager - Hoegarten, Pelforth, Dortmunder - bloody lovely stuf and I'll put my hand up right now and tell you I had half a bottle of zero % weisebeer in germany last year and loved the taste, but couldn't finish it, too big a bottle, not had one since and not been looking either, but if it was available and I fancied one, I'd have one. Crikey, I actually walked away from a bottle of beer. It proves to me that it's the alcohol that affects me, not the beer.
Anyway, back to the history - schnapps, scotch, irish, gin, brandy, vodka, apfelcorn, calvados, red wine all slid down a treat, Didn't much like the white wine or the rose, But they all got drunk because they were Booze.
Even on my last drunk, it started with a very good, full bodied red wine, moved to some pretty acidic rose and then some paint stripper masquerading as white wine, some Alcopops, some gin, brandy, scotch, tennessee sippin whusky (that how it was spelt on the bottle) then any damn thing I could lay my hands on - because by now the taste is a lie, a means to entice me in. I ws lying to myself with the taste, I was getting drunker and drunker and if I had to eat alcohol soaked socks to get the fix I bloody would have.
Me - yup, I'm an alcoholic, sober today and will remain so, so long as I maintain in fit spiritual condition and work to improve upon it.
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
