DS drinks but doesn't find the taste enjoyable!? AIBU to think that's ridiculous?

[AshfordTay]

DS is 19 and goes out with his mates most Friday nights. Spending a small fortune and coming back pissed. We were casually talking about it today and he says he struggles to finish the drinks and doesn't love the taste of them but does it for the affect!? Is this really normal? I only drink wine and slowly drink it, enjoying every mouthful

Sadly I think this is true for a lot of people. I will never understand it personally

I do enjoy the taste of alcohol, but prefer the taste of cola or whatever so unless I'm going out for a good few drinks I don't bother. Surely most people wouldn't bother with the expense if they werent looking to feel the effects as well?

It’s sounds ridiculous when you put it like that but it’s pretty normal for teenagers. Surely you didn’t appreciate fine wine the very first time you ever tried wine (I know I didn’t!)? It’s why alcopops, fruity ciders, spirits watered down with sugary mixers etc have historically been so popular with the younger drinker. He’ll either acquire a taste for it, as most of us do, or decide he doesn’t like it at all and that it’s pointless drinking something he doesn’t enjoy. So put it down to the idiocy of youth!

I think that's true of most teens. It's why alcopops were invented for one thing.

Don't worry, he'll soon acquire a taste for it.

YANBU OP, it's as ridiculous as it is ridiculously common.

I don’t especially like the taste of alcohol I drink it purely for the effect. If I was only going to have just one drink Id have a soft drink.

It's an acquired taste, I think'

Yep, i hate the taste of all alcohol and only drink if i'm on a night out.

This is true for most people tbh.

I don't like the taste either. I prefer lemonade.

I didn't like the taste of gin , but I was taught by my parents to persevere at something until I succeeded , and so I did , I love gin now

I don't think anyone likes alcohol the first time they try it do they? Reminds me of this comic

I'm in my fifties and I don't like the taste of alcohol. I like sweet cider but that's it

Red wine would taste nice if it tasted of Ribena.

I don't like alcohol. Any alcohol. Weirdly two of my adult children do not like it. My parents didn't either. As a veteran I have certainly drunk a lot of alcohol but have never developed any kind of taste for it.

I don't understand how anyone likes wine. Any wine. It all tastes awful.

Isn't that the whole point of alcohol? The effect. So it's not ridiculous in the slightest. It's like saying people getting their legs waxed don't like the feel of it but do it for the effect. Well yes.

I like the taste of lager and some wines and cider. Wouldnt bother me if i never drank alchohol again though

I hate the taste of alcohol. If someone told me I couldn't drink it ever again I'd instantly think "bollocks I won't ever be pissed again" rather than anything else. Haven't had a drink since March I don't think.

The whole premise of lots of anti drinking books is that alcohol is a poison so your body instinctively rejects it as tasting horrible but society/advertising/peers condition us to overcome that taste and drink it ---- hence we get so addicted to it.
I think a lot of 19year olds just wanted to be wasted with their mates, so it's not really surprising

It’s perfectly normal for young people to dislike the taste of alcoholic drinks. Beer is bitter. Red wine is dry and often tannic. White wine and proper cider can be very acidic. Neat spirits have a burning taste. These are flavours which young people are very likely to find unpleasant, having grown up with sweet, sugary drinks. The drinks industry knows this very well, of course, which is why they spend fortunes marketing sickly sweet alcopops and ‘fruit ciders’ to unsophisticated young drinkers.

I love beer and wine, but of course I hated them when I was 16 and it took time for me to develop an adult palate and really enjoy and appreciate the complexity and balance of flavours.

As a young guy, he’s probably drinking cheap stuff. I would struggle with that too. I’m sure he’ll move up to the top shelf eventually, and it’ll be more about the taste than the effect.

Op i don't like the taste of alcohol either

What puts me in the rarely drinks ever category is that I also don't like the feel of the hangover the next day (headache, dry mouth, thirst, head feel like it's full of cotton wool, nausea and vomiting, increased sweating,). And I realised to me personally (can't speak for anyone else) that drinking drinks I don't even like the taste of, is not worth having to feel the hangover the next day(to me personally)

It's the hangover that ultimately puts me off drinking...

Maybe your son will have his own moment of weighing up whether it is worth it (to him)

I don't like the taste and don't even like the feeling... being drunk for me just seems to be a combination of making me feel glum, lethargic drowsy, roomspin and sick (in that order)

Yet I still used to drink in my teens to fit in.

I have never liked the taste. But when I was younger i drank so I could be the same as everyone else and not feel left out.

When I got old enough to realise that that stupid. I stopped. I have not had a drink for over 15 years.

It's hardly 'ridiculous' - like the man said, he enjoys the effect.

I don't think anyone enjoys the taste of shots, but plenty of people drink them to get the effect. I've certainly drank a number of drinks I didn't enjoy in my student years - lots of students buy cheap and nasty to get drunk. Now, I would enjoy a small glass of some sweeter wines or the occasional cocktail but I don't bother because we're rarely out these days plus I could not cope with a hangover and DCs.