Another note: While Jello shots are easily made with Vodka and work OK that way, try to avoid Tequila based Jello shots... ESPECIALLY lime flavoured and made with crappy cheap tequila. Also: Warm Johnnie Walker Red is gross at 7AM. Been there, done that.
Had some lemongrass vodka some time ago that really blew my mind twice (1: taste, 2: memoryloss). Can't remember the brand tough, it was from some dark region of the Ukraine as far as i remember. Then there is glenfiddich, which got me into Scotch. And what Nexxo said
I did forget to add that a few friends and myself came up with drinks known as "The chaos gods" (yes 40K inspired...). They have such a reputation that anyone who can have all four is some kind of god... most people hit three and then decide to speak to the big white telephone... always funny to see >.< Alcohols a helluva drug.
Grey Goose is over-rated and overpriced. For cheap and rather spankingly good I tend to reccomend zubrowka, but there are plenty of great Vodka's from around Europe, tending to be from smaller distilleries, tending to be god damn expensive. There's a Vodka bar here in Aberdeen which clearly sells mostly Smirnoff (I weep) but also sells all sorts of obscure Vodkas from the continent and the rest of the UK - I think cost tends to be a fairly good indication of quality with a vodka, especially so if you haven't heard of it. That said, going over £20 for two single drinks hurts my rear right pocket. All that said, I do like a bit of Ketel One when I deviate from my usual low level alcoholic daily consumption of ale.
My preferred drinks are as follows: Lagers: Ekstra, Bernard Dark, Zeitgeist, Budvar/Budvar Dark. Ales: Hobgoblin, Doom Bar, Theakstons Old Peculiar, Bombardier, Pedigree (Only on tap, and as close to Burton as possible) Stouts: Guinness, Murphys, Mackeson's Whisky: Talisker, Lagavulin, laphroaig (Although, that has to be older than 10 years) Other spirits: Vodka - In white russian format. I am very tempted to try that skittle vodka, though, that looks.. Remarkably nice.
I had some skittle vodka once when a mate tried making some for a party....the key word being tried. He just shoved a whole bag of skittles into a bottle of vodka and left it, didn't even bother straining it so it looked like a bottle of frothy puke. Still tasted OK though It doesn't really matter since all Tequila is just revolting, it's the only spirit I can't drink without gagging. EVERY. ****ING. TIME.
I've been going on the Fosters since I've been going out, nice taste and all that, but I really need to start getting into some real ales, going to Aberdeen to this Vodka bar sounds like an idea though
fosters and nice taste do not go in the same sentence!! ...just to be useful - a couple of my favourite beers: Hahn, Boags, Ulrichs Berg, Schimpf, Stuttgater Hofbraeu - all close to impossible to get in this country (the first two have been found in "Walkabouts"). Easiest to get in the UK that is drinkAble is Budvar.
I can't bring myself to drink Budvar, I really can't take the taste, I may try it again as the last time I had it was before Christmas, I may try Hobgolin too, as many people are saying that. As for Glen's vodka...Edwards....I'm dissappointent in you......
It doesn't really matter once it's in a drink IMO (so long as it's not really cheap stuff) as you can't really taste it, especially with something as sweet as skittles. I only buy the more expensive stuff if I plan on doing shots with it (though I'll do them with the cheap stuff anyway if I'm already drunk enough ).
After a few cans/pints/shots you wont really be able to taste the differance anyways. Just get it into yourself.
Fosters is piss, but I don't blame a young'n for drinking piss. The thing about real beer is that it takes time to actually learn about all the different kinds, and chances are you can't imagine just how many flavours are out there. My suggestion if you're wanting to get into real beer is to try and buy a bunch of bottles which are similar, drink them all, and see if you liked the general sort of flavour. The makers of the drinks really do make it quite easy to understand what you're buying, you just have to read the bottles. Indian Pale Ale: So for example, one night buy a bunch of pale ales or if you've got a good enough selection, just Indian pale ales. Now Indian pale ales are often referred to as "IPA", hence why over time you'll probably hear people talking about getting a nice pint of IPA or whatever. A classic example being Deuchers, which is an outstanding IPA in my mind. Also Chimera IPA is great, although at 7%, I wouldn't suggest more than 4 pints in a night. Most bottles will indicate that they're an IPA by either having IPA, or Indian Pale Ale written on the front. Golden Ale Another night, just try a bunch of Golden ales. These are light and often fairly sweet for ale, in the 3.8-5% range and great for summer if you like 'em. They're easy to pick out, they often have yellow labels, pictures of bees or summery type stuff on the label. Try 3 or 4, see if you like the theme. Oxford Gold and Waggle dance are two empties that are sitting in my kitchen that I like, so I shall suggest them to you. Just buy whatever though, I mean it's a couple of quid and if you hate it you just never buy it again, if you love it, you've discovered something awesome. Bitter (Pale Ale) Try regular old Bitter (there are actually pale ales, but often won't say), 4-5% range, no added flavours. This is kind of the benchmark imo, a huge class which contains a wide range of flavours - if you don't find any bottles of bitter that you like, I'd say you're probably not going to be an ale person. I tend to reccomend Spitfire to people who want to get started on what bitter is. It's nothing fancy, it won't blow you away, but it gives you an idea of the sort of domain these things live in. Old Speckled Hen is another must try. Reserve/Premium Bitters Another night, if you can afford it, buy the more expensive high strength la-dee-da versions of the various ales. Abbot Reserve, Old Crafty Hen - you'll know 'em cos they'll cost nearly £3 and will tend to be at least =>6% ABV. Drink them out of a wine glass, slowly, and sip 'em. These will never be session beers for you, but you'll get an understanding of what range and depth of flavour beer can have. Weissbier (White Beer) - A.K.A. Weizenbier (Wheat Beer) Next up I'm going to have to say, buy some bloody Weissbier. It's amazing how fruity and zesty beer can taste when it's made with wheat. This isn't to everyone's taste, since it's very different to your average lager or bitter, but I think the stuff is fantastic. If you can, drink it out of a proper glass, since in my experience it does taste better in one, but not to worry too much. Erdinger Weissbier is easily available, and tastes nowhere near as good as some of the Weissbiers I had the pleasure of trying while in Munich last year, but still tastes pretty good, and is a good enough introduction. Weihenstephaner Heffe WeissBier is something special my girlfriend bought me, and I liked it enough to stick it on my beerlist so it must be good (since I never stick stuff on there). Schneider Weisse, if you can try it, is worth doing so also - although a couple of bavarians told me it was piss, I thought it wasn't bad. With Weissbier these are really just things to try, if you actually want to properly get into it you'll have to start buying from the internet instead of supermarkets. Porters and Stouts I can't help you much here because frankly I think most of them are disgusting. They're an area of ale which I've just never managed to get into, but once more there's a tremendous range of flavours available. I've been bought porters which taste similar to coca cola, others which I could swear were 50% liquid chocolate. There's a lot of room for different kind of flavours, although obviously a black beer isn't going to taste of lavender and heather honey - expect darker flavours for obvious reasons. Guinness and Newcastle Brown Ale are two that come to mind instantly, although hopefully an enthusiast will be able to recommend some, because I feel remiss recommending things I don't like. So I might edit this to add more info, but basically all of the above is a very scant introduction to real beer. It ignores all lager, of which there is some really great stuff, it ignores modern "craft" beers like those available from a company such as brewdog, and it ignores the majority of speciality European beers (Belgian, German except for Weissbier, etc). In The Pub This stuff might be pretty obvious to you, but if you want to drink real beer, go to pubs which cater to people who like real beer, namely: old man pubs. Also, it's a shame to have to say this, but Weatherspoons pubs can be fantastic for ale selection. My local has around 10 guest ales on and they change every 1-2 weeks. Next up, don't be afraid to ask for tastes of things. At first I felt bad doing it because I was getting free beer, but it's just a mouthful you get, and so long as the pub isn't busy they will oblige you. If they don't, don't expect to find good beer there. Tasting a beer takes a few seconds, and can save you the otherwise inevitable drudgery of working your way through a pint of something which tastes like an ashtray full of cigarette butts (this has happened to me, I forget the name of the ale unfortunately). Finally, clean machinery is important. The pipes and taps can really ruin the taste of a pint if they're not clean, and there's been a number of times I'll buy a pint I'm very familiar with and think "this tastes nothing like what it should" - that's either the beer being way too old, or the pipes it comes through being filthy. You won't be able to tell this sort of thing for years, which is why I think it's good to find people who're into their beer and just ask them where's good for drinking real beer. There's about 3-4 places I can name immediately in my city, anyone who's into beer and has lived in your area for a few years will probably be able to list a similar number of places worth drinking beer at immediately.
Indeed. I don't feel like I can speak with any authority on things like Trappist beers, being a tourist of them, but they're yet another example illustrating just how much variety there is. edit: Julian, if you want to actually give a quick description of trappist ales either in a post or a PM I can shove it in my above post and I can attempt to make it more exhaustive for everyone. Happy to accept info from anyone who's really into Stouts and Porters also.
...there's a first time for everything - I get to correct specofdust Weissbier = white beer (Hoegarden is the first example that comes to mind) Weizenbier = wheat beer (Bristol micro brewery does a quite nice wheat beer if you want to try some UK stuff). ...in germany you can also get Hefeweizen (try it next time your over there) which is Yeastwheat beer...can also be good. ...personally I am a suckaH for a good "Pilsner" (FYI - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilsner)
Try all of the following at least once: Larger/Ale/Cider Old Tom Newcastle brown Old Peculiar Thunder holt Old Speckled Hen Kopparberg (any really) Asahi (Black preferably) The good spirits/aperitif/stuff Goldschlager Absinth (Preferably Le Fe) Jager Joseph Myers Los Cuervos Bulleit Fireball whiskey Sake (Got to be from a proper vase and got to be warm) Makers Mark The vile spirits Stroh Chartreuse Some combination ideas Liquid crack - Big shot glass with 50/50 Goldschlager and Jager (both ABSOLUTELY have to be ice cold) Liquid death - 50/50 Stroh (Preferably the 80% one) and Jager - This one is truly horrid Depth charge - Pint of your chosen larger (Preferably a decent strength one) and a shot of tequila (again, preferably a strong one) - Take a mouthful of the larger to make some room for the shot glass then drop the shot glass with tequila in to your pint and down the bugger just as the shot glass hits the bottom of the glass. Bollocks to all this 'jagerbomb' business. Waste of jager. If the energy drink is a mixer and you are going to drink it like a normal drink, that's a different story. I can't tell you how much it makes me cringe listening to fake tan bints and henleys wearing chodes talk about 'downin jagerbombs innit'.
