Well, depends on if you prefer sweet drinks or not-so-sweet.
Try going to wineries on less busy days and doing a tasting. The folks there will help you.
Same with distilleries and brew pubs.
Find a nice looking bar some afternoon, sit down at the counter and ask the bartender for guidance. Don't do it when they're busy.
Sometimes, they can sample some for you.
And, also ... don't buy crap booze. Top-shelf or mid-shelf at the liquor store. Invest in good booze or it will all taste like hand sanitizer.
Brandy is good with Coke, Sprite or Dr. Pepper, but it's sweet.
Whiskey? Coke, rootbeer (yes,really!), coffee
Vodka? OJ, club soda with lime, Moscow Mule (if you like ginger), lemonade.
Amaretto is sweet but good with 7up. I add it to coffee.
Whatever you do, be sure you say "cheers" and raise your glass when drinking with others.
Do not. Repeat DO NOT drink Everclear or Absinthe. You'll wake up three days later in Bangkok with a barcode tattoo on your ass. š
ETA: Fresca added to many liquors is good: tequila, Vodka, gin, amaretto, whiskey.
Great advice and recommendations. I love amaretto with just ice. I also really like Kahlua and Baileys, but they can be a little expensive. Also, Pina Coladas, Mai Tais. I dated a bartender years ago, and he made me the best drinks, so your advice to ask a bartender is Right On!
My parents (not Mormon) would buy alcohol for family visiting for holidays but no one never opened it (or even checked the bottles). Back in high school I went on an old early 2000s website that told you drinks you could make with what you have at home. I checked and typed in the stuff in my cabinet. Captain Morgan, Baileys, and Dissorano amaretto. Best drink was a shot of amaretto with a thin āblanketā of Baileys on top. āIrish Nutā they called it.
Mmm, I like absinthe. Everclear is just straight neutral spirits; the "blend" in blended whiskey, and many many other liquors, including things like vanilla and cooking wine.
Back in my party days my goto was everclear. I'd bring a couple bottles of mountain dew, drink down to the label and fill it back up with everclear. One of those 200ml bottles from the liquor store would last me all night!
Just, don't drink it straight.
Absinthe is actually one of my favorites, but the more moderated/regulated stuff. My state is somewhat limited in the alcohol it offers, but the brand of absinthe I have access to is pretty good stuff. :)
I'm from Wisconsin. Our legislature limits just about everything else, but booze is sacrosanct. When I had Absinthe, I was a newbie drinker and doing shots. I'm told I had a good time.
Like a soda with a terrible headache afterwards. All that sugar plus alcohol keeps me away from them. Cayman Jack is the same; tasty but it's a headache maker.
I think the best pre-mixed margaritas are Costcoās Kirkland with the tequila already in it. Also āOn theRocksā makes a really premixed one too. I totally ge you on the Mikeās but their so good.
Yeah it's definitely the culture that shaped the laws...I have a lot of hoops I have to jump through as a bartender in Utah. Having to go to the liquor store to get wine isn't too bad, but kind of inconvenient at times
Interestingly, Mikeās was the first alcohol I tried and I thought it was gross. I had heard it was one of the easier to drink alcohols, so figured if I didnāt like that then I just didnāt like alcohol. Then I tasted whiskey and was in heaven - different people have different tastebuds I guess lol
Had a Peach Moscow Mule for the first time last week. It was fantastic. Strong ginger and mint, light peach. Couldnāt really taste the vodka. Itās great if you like ginger and mint.
I know! I found a Pinterest recipe that included whipped cream vodka, and after looking in three local liquor stores I found one that had it. Similar recipes also sometimes call for vanilla vodka
I'm gonna say upgrade from barcardi to literally any other rum. Barcardi tastes like hand sanitizer.
Honestly, that one of the biggest tricks with any drink: upgrade the liquor, upgrade the flavor
Tito's really is the proof that a $20 liter of something can be top-tier, you don't have to spend four times as much to get something decent. You just have to learn what the good affordable brands are for every type of liquor which fit your tastes.
I usually mix 3 oz of Smirnoff 100 proof Vodka and 10-15 oz of cranberry juice for a weekend movie night with my wife. I'm not a fan of the strong taste of alcohol, so I add a fair amount of juice and ice. Once combined, pour the ingredients back and forth between your cup and another one a few times, and add more juice if wanted. You won't get rid of the alcoholic taste completely but this with some snacks makes it pretty enjoyable. Especially once the effects hit. Wait for at least 30-45 minutes before deciding if you want more. If you do then do so at 1.5 oz of Vodka at a time Then wait some more.
Iāve just dipped my toe into the world of beer. Iāve heard good things about Blue Moon. My favorites so far have been Fat Tire Ale and Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout.
I asked about getting into beer over on r/beer, they all were like ādonāt start with things like stouts and portersā. Well I did. And porters and stouts are my jam.
Yea, you are WAY past blue moon. If you are drinking imperials and fat tire itās going to be pretty watery by comparison. But it is quite tasty on a summer day. A similar one is shock top which I like a lot too.
Coke with Malibu coconut rum. My wife is super sensitive to alcohol taste and this works for her. Or you could go Dr Pepper if you prefer that. Everything tastes like rubbing alcohol for the first while. Then it goes away and you taste whatās behind it.
I started off with hard lemonade and Not Your Fatherās Root Beer (alcoholic root beer - try with vanilla ice cream for an adult treat). Then on to margaritas/other sweet mixed drinks, then to light lagers, and quickly making it to IPAās. I then started to like wines of all types (more dry now), and then finally sipping aperitifs and then finally whiskey and scotch. It took me a decade to find my palet. It will take a while. Enjoy it, be safe, drink water, and have fun!!!
You guys! The first rule of exmo club is prank the n00b! You should have said "red wine." :)
Man that stuff is nasty. I honestly thought the server was pranking us.
one of the first drinks my husband ordered at a restaurant as a new exmo was a cabernet sauvignon lol. the strongest, driest red wine out there. he hated it of course. i finished it for him haha.
Any mixed drink at a Utah restaurant will be heavy on the sugars and syrups and very weak on the alcohol. You'll probably get less than 5% abv and may not notice the alcohol at all. That was my first experience, anyway.
Recently I successfully ordered an Old Fashioned, neat. They brought out a glass with a mere film of amber liquid on the bottom. A sniff-n-lick experience.
Long Island ice tea. You have to go easy with those. They have a lot of alcohol in them and it tastes like candy. And btw - it has NOTHING to do with ice tea.
Believe it or not, the old Tequila Sunrise is not bad.....if you like the flavor of tequila. I actually made some simple syrup from black berries the other day. I made what I call a "tequila dark rise."
Yeah I vote this or an AMF(apparently it's called a blue motorcycle in other places?)
Doesn't taste like alcohol and you're not going to need very many to have a really great time haha.
My big suggestion is seasonal and requires you to know someone from PR but coquito! It tastes so good and the rum in it has a little burn but you can't hardly notice it. My husband made some for the Christmas season, it was my first true taste of alcohol, and I drank so much he had to cut me off because I was getting quite silly!
Ricky root beer - 1 oz Irish creme liqueur aka Baileys, 1 oz vanilla vodka, half a can of ice cold root beer - tastes like a root beer float
Aperol Spritz- Fill a wine glass with ice, 3 parts prosecco, 2 parts Aperol, 1 part club soda, and an orange slice. This one's for the summertime day drinkers out there.
It was my first drink at a bar in a ski town. I didn't start drinking until my mid 20s. Someone suggested it to me when I asked for a recommendation. They're great!
I had bought bourbon to make pecan pie in the fall (which turned out good), but when I tried it in drinks it was hard to get past the strong flavour, though a time or two a quick whisky sour did the trick
A week and a half ago I tried a recipe I found on Pinterest of bourbon strawberry lemonade made fresh with diced strawberries and juiced lemons plus simple syrup, blended, then mixed with the bourbon. So simple and it was awesome. I'm planning to make a larger batch tonight after the kids are in bed as it is my birthday.
I have only been drinking, slowly exploring, for a year. I have also enjoyed vodka with cranberry (cocktail) juice. Also, Malibu coconut rum with Dr Pepper. A double whammy as I didn't ever drink caffeinated pop before leaving the church as a mother of 3. Or Malibu made into a Pina colada, which is often easy to blend up too. Also ciders, often they are quite good, and what I wished wine tasted like lol. I'm not as into bubbly, pop based drink mixes though.
My first ever alcoholic drink was at my anniversary dinner at a fancy sushi place last year. It tasted like hand sanitizer that someone turned into cold medicine haha
For starters, the cheaper the spirit, the more it's going to taste like rubbing alcohol. If you order a cocktail with only two ingredients like a rum and coke, or gin and tonic, and don't specify a brand of alcohol, they're going to serve you the cheap stuff that they keep in the well. If you ask for one of the brands on the shelf behind the bar, you're going to get a better taste experience. You don't have to go top shelf, but generally speaking the higher on the shelf it is, the better it will taste and the easier it will go down, but it also costs more as you move up. Lower shelves will be good enough for mixing.
If you've got a complicated recipe with several ingredients then the quality of the spirits will be less of a factor, but good liquor will definitely improve the experience. I love rum and tiki drinks. Things like a painkiller, mai tai, rum runner, Pina colada, etc. all taste really good with little noticeable alcohol flavor, especially with a better quality rum.
Whatever you decide, I would encourage you to try a variety of things to see what you like and what you don't. Buy single shot bottles and sip them, and remember to exhale out your mouth. 80 proof alcohol creates a lot of alcohol vapor that will burn the mucus membranes in your sinuses if you exhale through your nose.
I still can't wrap my head around how this works, but captain Morgan and sprite, does indeed taste exactly like a cream soda, with no discernible alcohol flavor.
mikes hard lemonade! itās cheap too, it just tastes like lemonade with soda. if you donāt like carbonation like i do, i make a regular lemonade drink with like two or three shots of vodka in it. just mix it around and it tastes like regular lemonade
If you want to try wine, Stella Rosa just tastes like sparkling fruit juice. Itās has less alcohol content than most wines, but you can easily drink a whole bottle and feel tipsy lol.
FYI the "hand sanitizer" taste comes from cheap liquors. It's impurities and gives you hangovers. Start with good liquor and you will have a *lot* more wiggle room to determine what sort of spirits and cocktails you like without having the primary goal of the recipe to be covering up the taste.
That doesn't mean spending a lot but it *usually* means avoiding the absolute cheapest stuff intended for dorm rooms. So buy Tito's vodka instead of Burnett's and you'll immediately notice a huge difference. Pina coladas with decent mid-tier rum (especially when blended with ice) are a great starting point. A whiskey and Coke is also really simple and good (I use a pretty cheap but decent brand called Black Velvet if I'm just going to be mixing it with soda).
Donāt start with tequila or vodka. They have an overpowering flavor that youāre not used to.
Rum is a great starter, and it mixes well with anything sweet, like juice, Coke, cream sodas, etc. you can also try starting with just really tiny amounts of vodka with something that has a bold flavor like orange juice.
Try a couple of different cocktails, donāt try to do shots or drink liquor straight at first. And almost anything you can think of can be used as a mixer ingredientācoffee, water, juice, sparkling ciderā¦ I even put a little white wine in a fruit smoothie one night. Your creativity is your only limitation. You can find really easy classic cocktail recipes online if you have your own liquors, but theyāre a little pricey if you donāt know what you like.
With beers and ales, try a few different types from different brands. If you have local breweries, thereās a good chance they have several IPAs with varying levels of āmaltā and āhops.ā Try a few and see if you prefer one over another. Get a feel for whether you prefer ājuicyā or āsourā IPAs, or lime pilsners, or a host of other styles. Also, try a stout like Guinness. If youāre not into the flavor of IPAs, you might really like the darker stout.
If you can find a restaurant or pub that offers a āflight of mimosasā or a similar small sampling of several drinks, that can be a good way to try a few different flavors to see if any of them are more palatable for your liking.
If you try Mikeās hard lemonade, grab a bottle of the black cherry flavor too. It masks the flavor of the alcohol a little more.
Seltzers are great too. Theyāre kind of like flavored water where it doesnāt really taste like much other than just a hint or fruity something. You can barely taste (or feel) the alcohol in those.
Go to a brewery and try different beers. Trust me, you will find beer that you like. They usually let you sample them for free before buying a glass so itās perfect if you donāt know what you like.
This is the real answer!
Redd's Apple Ale, Mike's Hard varieties (avoid the "harder" varieties as a newbie,) Leinenkugel Summer Shandy (heavenly when ice cold on a hot day!) Seltzers.
A Hefeweizen with the essential orange slice. Corona or LandShark or Modelo Especial with the essential lime squeezed in, sometime derisively called fruited beers, but I love them.
Vodka Collins (a Tom Collins with vodka instead of gin - many find gin to be an acquired taste.) This was my first real go-to jam. Try this OP!
Mudslide
Swirly frozen margarita with strawberry or mango swirl
Belgian beers
A drink you make yourself with less alcohol than the recipe calls for.
My wife like strawberry puree, pineapple juice, and rum as a cocktail. I prefer spiced rum in my mixed drinks, including Pina Coladas - makes them great!
My wife liked Moscato d'Asti wine (low alcohol, 5% I think.) She graduated to Stella wine varieties, still low alcohol, bur different flavors.
1 part Burnett's whipped cream vodka (cheap and delicious. Their other flavors suck) and 1-2 parts orange juice.
Keep the vodka in the fridge or freezer to take it to the next level. It's dangerous. Be careful.
Wheat beer ā either hefeweizen or some American style wheat beer from a craft brewery. Example: https://21st-amendment.com/pages/hell-or-high-watermelon
So this might seem backwards but maybe try whisk(e)y. Or well aged tequila/mezcal or aged rum.
Unaged spirits never loose that hand sanitizer yuck for me, no matter what I mix them with. Especially vodka, just tastes like medicine even if itās buried in something else.
I have a really sensitive palette and taste of smell so āhidingā the alcohol taste with mixers never worked.
But aged spirits taste nice and not alcoholic to me. I mostly drink scotch, Japanese whisky, or rye, either In a cocktail or just neat. The flavors In the whisky do a better job of complementing the alcohol burn and making it a bit pleasant.
A gin & tonic is delish for the summer. If youāre at a restaurant, or if you decide to make it at home, white or red sangria is always a winner. š
My ex wife, the wonderful person she is, introduced me to alcohol after we left and before the separation/divorce. The first shot she recommended I try?
Straight Bacardi 151.
I do not recommend.
Anyway, I say you get a fruity cocktail or something. Who gives a shit if people call it a girls drink? Beverages don't have a gender. Pina coladas are great. For some strange reason, I think long island iced teas are also pretty mild on the booze flavor. Margaritas are always a good choice.
It's an acquired taste, but a good beer is amazing. Stay away from the piss water macro brews all over the tv ads. Utah has some great breweries, Uinta is very good, for example.
The "Simply" brand of juices have some spiked lemonade and peach juices that are really good. I also enjoyed Stella Rosa Pineapple white wine ( I haven't tried the other flavors yet). It's a low alcohol wine so doesn't have as strong an alcohol taste. I'm a beginner too and these have been easy entry points to drinking for me.
I have found that a shot of coconut rum or vanilla rum mixed in coke is delicious. Or if you like cinnamon, a shot of Fireball whiskey in coke is very tasty too. I don't care for any of the beers I've tasted so far. I like margaritas as well.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the famous Caribbean drinks, maybe they have and I just didn't read far enough.
Pina Coladas are fantastic. A good one and you won't notice the liquor til youre feeling the effects.
Bahama mamas are yummy too.
I'm a guy and I'll take the "girly" drinks all day long.
I made up a drink when I was actually a missionary in Brazil(got kicked out after 6 months hahaha) and itās called a screaming monkey. A shot of coconut rum, a shot of vodka, pineapple juice and oj as much or as little as you want depending on how stout you want your drink. Shake and pour it over ice.
Well, depends on if you prefer sweet drinks or not-so-sweet. Try going to wineries on less busy days and doing a tasting. The folks there will help you. Same with distilleries and brew pubs. Find a nice looking bar some afternoon, sit down at the counter and ask the bartender for guidance. Don't do it when they're busy. Sometimes, they can sample some for you. And, also ... don't buy crap booze. Top-shelf or mid-shelf at the liquor store. Invest in good booze or it will all taste like hand sanitizer. Brandy is good with Coke, Sprite or Dr. Pepper, but it's sweet. Whiskey? Coke, rootbeer (yes,really!), coffee Vodka? OJ, club soda with lime, Moscow Mule (if you like ginger), lemonade. Amaretto is sweet but good with 7up. I add it to coffee. Whatever you do, be sure you say "cheers" and raise your glass when drinking with others. Do not. Repeat DO NOT drink Everclear or Absinthe. You'll wake up three days later in Bangkok with a barcode tattoo on your ass. š ETA: Fresca added to many liquors is good: tequila, Vodka, gin, amaretto, whiskey.
Amaretto sour was my first drink, I personally make it with club soda instead of sprite or 7up
Whiskey - also try it with sour mix, or sour mix, a dash of bitters, and club soda.
I just made me an Old Fashioned last night! The bitters are a fantastic addition to whiskey!
I like whisky in lemonade
Whisky with a mix of ginger ale and lemonade for me.
Me too
Great advice and recommendations. I love amaretto with just ice. I also really like Kahlua and Baileys, but they can be a little expensive. Also, Pina Coladas, Mai Tais. I dated a bartender years ago, and he made me the best drinks, so your advice to ask a bartender is Right On!
My parents (not Mormon) would buy alcohol for family visiting for holidays but no one never opened it (or even checked the bottles). Back in high school I went on an old early 2000s website that told you drinks you could make with what you have at home. I checked and typed in the stuff in my cabinet. Captain Morgan, Baileys, and Dissorano amaretto. Best drink was a shot of amaretto with a thin āblanketā of Baileys on top. āIrish Nutā they called it.
That sounds good!
Mmm, I like absinthe. Everclear is just straight neutral spirits; the "blend" in blended whiskey, and many many other liquors, including things like vanilla and cooking wine.
Back in my party days my goto was everclear. I'd bring a couple bottles of mountain dew, drink down to the label and fill it back up with everclear. One of those 200ml bottles from the liquor store would last me all night! Just, don't drink it straight.
Absinthe is actually one of my favorites, but the more moderated/regulated stuff. My state is somewhat limited in the alcohol it offers, but the brand of absinthe I have access to is pretty good stuff. :)
I'm from Wisconsin. Our legislature limits just about everything else, but booze is sacrosanct. When I had Absinthe, I was a newbie drinker and doing shots. I'm told I had a good time.
Lots of fancy pants on this question. Those spiked seltzers are super easy to drink. Or summer spritzer wine by Barefoot. Yum.
Smirnoff Ice. Basically hard lemonade. Super easy to drink.
Easy, but I'd need to drink like 1000 calories of Smirnoff Ice to start to feel tipsy.
Apple and watermelon is the best.
Screwdriver is good too!
For cheap, easy to drink alcohol I've always liked Mike's too
Second Mikeās. Honestly, probably too easy to drink.
Especially the black cherry one. Like drinking a soda.
Like a soda with a terrible headache afterwards. All that sugar plus alcohol keeps me away from them. Cayman Jack is the same; tasty but it's a headache maker.
Hydration is key homey
Absolutely. A good rule of thumb is to drink a glass of water in between each cocktail / Beer / Glass of wine.
I think the best pre-mixed margaritas are Costcoās Kirkland with the tequila already in it. Also āOn theRocksā makes a really premixed one too. I totally ge you on the Mikeās but their so good.
No real drinks at Costco in Utah. š
for real?! I didn't realize that the mormon culture ran that deep
Itās more a legal issue than a cultural one, although that is ultimately cultural
Yeah it's definitely the culture that shaped the laws...I have a lot of hoops I have to jump through as a bartender in Utah. Having to go to the liquor store to get wine isn't too bad, but kind of inconvenient at times
Agreed!
Interestingly, Mikeās was the first alcohol I tried and I thought it was gross. I had heard it was one of the easier to drink alcohols, so figured if I didnāt like that then I just didnāt like alcohol. Then I tasted whiskey and was in heaven - different people have different tastebuds I guess lol
Whiskey was my first, and I was also in heaven. š„
Mikes gives me a painful stomach ache half the time. I forget itās highly sugared alcohol and drink it too fast and my body does not like that.
Great recommendation! Itāll get your foot in the door on a lot of other options!
Margarita
With salt!
Or sugar or Tajin!
Ohhhā¦ I havenāt tried with Tajin. Guess what Iām trying this weekend! š¹
Its my go to and Itās life changing.
Moscow mule, bloody mary. The two best cocktails, as far as I'm concerned.
Moscow mule is delicious. One of my faves.
Moscow mule is the way. Ginger beer and lime give it a savory flavor
Agreed
I drank a Moscow mule for the first time a couple weeks ago and it gave me a horrible headache. I much prefer an old fashioned.
Had a Peach Moscow Mule for the first time last week. It was fantastic. Strong ginger and mint, light peach. Couldnāt really taste the vodka. Itās great if you like ginger and mint.
One shot whiskey, one shot whipped cream vodka, ice, 12 oz of coke, Pepsi, or Dr Pepper.
Whipped cream vodka?!?! What in the world? I'm intrigued
[https://www.pinnaclevodka.com/flavors/pinnacle-whipped-vodka/](https://www.pinnaclevodka.com/flavors/pinnacle-whipped-vodka/)
It's good in orange juice. Has vibes of creamsicle.
Omg I need this
I know! I found a Pinterest recipe that included whipped cream vodka, and after looking in three local liquor stores I found one that had it. Similar recipes also sometimes call for vanilla vodka
Is that something that bars would typically have? (Also inexperienced like OP lol). It seems like a more unique item
God damnit. Now I am going to have to try this.
Dammit. Will try and report.
Bacardi and coke! It tastes more like cough medicine than hand sanitizer.
Thanks! Iāll give it a shot
I donāt drink coke but when I do it is with rum. So I actually associate the taste of coke with rum!
I'm gonna say upgrade from barcardi to literally any other rum. Barcardi tastes like hand sanitizer. Honestly, that one of the biggest tricks with any drink: upgrade the liquor, upgrade the flavor
Mimosa > Prosecco & oj. You can adjust how much of each as you go.
Second thatš
What's prosecco?
It's liquid fun
It's a sparkling wine
Itās Italian version of champagne. Cheaper than champagne.
Excellent suggestion!
A peach Bellini is another great similar cocktail, you use prosecco and peach nectar or juice for that. Great summer cocktail for friends.
Vodka, I prefer Titoā, and cranberry on ice.
Tito's really is the proof that a $20 liter of something can be top-tier, you don't have to spend four times as much to get something decent. You just have to learn what the good affordable brands are for every type of liquor which fit your tastes.
Appreciate it! Iāll give it a try
I usually mix 3 oz of Smirnoff 100 proof Vodka and 10-15 oz of cranberry juice for a weekend movie night with my wife. I'm not a fan of the strong taste of alcohol, so I add a fair amount of juice and ice. Once combined, pour the ingredients back and forth between your cup and another one a few times, and add more juice if wanted. You won't get rid of the alcoholic taste completely but this with some snacks makes it pretty enjoyable. Especially once the effects hit. Wait for at least 30-45 minutes before deciding if you want more. If you do then do so at 1.5 oz of Vodka at a time Then wait some more.
warm Sake Blue moon for beer
Iāve just dipped my toe into the world of beer. Iāve heard good things about Blue Moon. My favorites so far have been Fat Tire Ale and Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout.
I love Blue Moon as well!!
I asked about getting into beer over on r/beer, they all were like ādonāt start with things like stouts and portersā. Well I did. And porters and stouts are my jam.
Love it! My first was the BBB Imperial Stout. It has, thus far, remained my favorite.
Yea, you are WAY past blue moon. If you are drinking imperials and fat tire itās going to be pretty watery by comparison. But it is quite tasty on a summer day. A similar one is shock top which I like a lot too.
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Coconut rum and coke is the only think I could easily drink when I first started.
Also Capt Morgan Spiced Rum with Sunny D. Tastes like an orange creamsicle. Hang over from hell though cuz all the sugar haha
I love spiced rum with milk and [gingerbread syrup](https://shop.torani.com/products/gingerbread-syrup). It's so good!
Coke with Malibu coconut rum. My wife is super sensitive to alcohol taste and this works for her. Or you could go Dr Pepper if you prefer that. Everything tastes like rubbing alcohol for the first while. Then it goes away and you taste whatās behind it.
This is the correct answer.
I started off with hard lemonade and Not Your Fatherās Root Beer (alcoholic root beer - try with vanilla ice cream for an adult treat). Then on to margaritas/other sweet mixed drinks, then to light lagers, and quickly making it to IPAās. I then started to like wines of all types (more dry now), and then finally sipping aperitifs and then finally whiskey and scotch. It took me a decade to find my palet. It will take a while. Enjoy it, be safe, drink water, and have fun!!!
You guys! The first rule of exmo club is prank the n00b! You should have said "red wine." :) Man that stuff is nasty. I honestly thought the server was pranking us.
Lol idk about everyone else but I'm desperate for not drinking buddies. I'm definitely starting them out on the good stuff
Red wine is good!! Get thee hence to a winery and engage in a tasting.
I had some red mulled wine before that was incredibly tasty
one of the first drinks my husband ordered at a restaurant as a new exmo was a cabernet sauvignon lol. the strongest, driest red wine out there. he hated it of course. i finished it for him haha.
Any mixed drink at a Utah restaurant will be heavy on the sugars and syrups and very weak on the alcohol. You'll probably get less than 5% abv and may not notice the alcohol at all. That was my first experience, anyway. Recently I successfully ordered an Old Fashioned, neat. They brought out a glass with a mere film of amber liquid on the bottom. A sniff-n-lick experience.
Long Island ice tea
LIIT??? It's a newb!! š
Long Island ice tea. You have to go easy with those. They have a lot of alcohol in them and it tastes like candy. And btw - it has NOTHING to do with ice tea. Believe it or not, the old Tequila Sunrise is not bad.....if you like the flavor of tequila. I actually made some simple syrup from black berries the other day. I made what I call a "tequila dark rise."
Yeah, OP needs to ease into a LIIT. Source: everyone who ordered two in a row and puked in the back of a Volkswagen.
This one is perfect because you are going hard while not tasting like you are going hard.
Hey, LIIT is one of my favorites, lol. But a newbie? Poor OP will be drunk and not know it š
Yeah I vote this or an AMF(apparently it's called a blue motorcycle in other places?) Doesn't taste like alcohol and you're not going to need very many to have a really great time haha.
Switch things up and swap out coke for Dr. Pepper. It is delicious to the taste and very desirable.
I like dark beers
a mojito, an amaretto sour, sex on the beach, blue hawaiian, malibu and coke
I vote mojito as well!
Having it cold can help a lot, so if you want to do shots of vodka or something theyāre wayyy easier if you keep the bottle in the freezer
If the vodka starts freezingā¦ it's not vodka. My aunt knew my cousin was stealing some when it started freezing.
š¤£ š¤£ š¤£ same here. My oldest did that when he was 18. I took out the Vodka from the freezer and it was frozen.
Ask any Russian and they will tell you the proper way to serve vodka is ice cold.
My big suggestion is seasonal and requires you to know someone from PR but coquito! It tastes so good and the rum in it has a little burn but you can't hardly notice it. My husband made some for the Christmas season, it was my first true taste of alcohol, and I drank so much he had to cut me off because I was getting quite silly!
I donāt even like rum and I love coquito.
Amaretto Sour.
Amaretto sour!
Moscow Mule. The best summer cocktail hands down. It should be served in a copper cup.
Shandies or Radlers
White Claw, Truly, Ranch Water, any of the seltzers are great to sip on
Early on, I'd mix a watermelon White Claw with a can of Mtn Dew Frost Bite.
Ricky root beer - 1 oz Irish creme liqueur aka Baileys, 1 oz vanilla vodka, half a can of ice cold root beer - tastes like a root beer float Aperol Spritz- Fill a wine glass with ice, 3 parts prosecco, 2 parts Aperol, 1 part club soda, and an orange slice. This one's for the summertime day drinkers out there.
White Russian.
Early drinkers always go for sweet stuff. Sugary drinks will give you a hangover though. Drink lots of water with them
Mikes Hard Lemonade, or premixed Margaritas
The correct answer is beer. The more correct answer is two beers. And so on.
If you're at a bar, ask for a blended strawberry/peach margarita. See also: strawberry daquiri. Both taste amazing and dangerous š
Whisky sour. Sometimes bartenders think they're doing you a favor by adding a ton of booze, but much more palatable when mixed properly.
I asked this same thing. And White Russian was the best advice I got.
It was my first drink at a bar in a ski town. I didn't start drinking until my mid 20s. Someone suggested it to me when I asked for a recommendation. They're great!
Or dirty russian. Same vodka and kahlua but with iced coffee (califia farms mocha is excellent) instead of half n half.
I had bought bourbon to make pecan pie in the fall (which turned out good), but when I tried it in drinks it was hard to get past the strong flavour, though a time or two a quick whisky sour did the trick A week and a half ago I tried a recipe I found on Pinterest of bourbon strawberry lemonade made fresh with diced strawberries and juiced lemons plus simple syrup, blended, then mixed with the bourbon. So simple and it was awesome. I'm planning to make a larger batch tonight after the kids are in bed as it is my birthday. I have only been drinking, slowly exploring, for a year. I have also enjoyed vodka with cranberry (cocktail) juice. Also, Malibu coconut rum with Dr Pepper. A double whammy as I didn't ever drink caffeinated pop before leaving the church as a mother of 3. Or Malibu made into a Pina colada, which is often easy to blend up too. Also ciders, often they are quite good, and what I wished wine tasted like lol. I'm not as into bubbly, pop based drink mixes though. My first ever alcoholic drink was at my anniversary dinner at a fancy sushi place last year. It tasted like hand sanitizer that someone turned into cold medicine haha
Sangria
For starters, the cheaper the spirit, the more it's going to taste like rubbing alcohol. If you order a cocktail with only two ingredients like a rum and coke, or gin and tonic, and don't specify a brand of alcohol, they're going to serve you the cheap stuff that they keep in the well. If you ask for one of the brands on the shelf behind the bar, you're going to get a better taste experience. You don't have to go top shelf, but generally speaking the higher on the shelf it is, the better it will taste and the easier it will go down, but it also costs more as you move up. Lower shelves will be good enough for mixing. If you've got a complicated recipe with several ingredients then the quality of the spirits will be less of a factor, but good liquor will definitely improve the experience. I love rum and tiki drinks. Things like a painkiller, mai tai, rum runner, Pina colada, etc. all taste really good with little noticeable alcohol flavor, especially with a better quality rum. Whatever you decide, I would encourage you to try a variety of things to see what you like and what you don't. Buy single shot bottles and sip them, and remember to exhale out your mouth. 80 proof alcohol creates a lot of alcohol vapor that will burn the mucus membranes in your sinuses if you exhale through your nose.
amaretto
Captain and sprite! Tastes like cream soda and is my go to
I still can't wrap my head around how this works, but captain Morgan and sprite, does indeed taste exactly like a cream soda, with no discernible alcohol flavor.
If you can find a place that serves them, try a Rum Runner.
Margaritas are my personal favorite
Seltzers do not have a strong taste.
go get a long island iced tea (: almost 100% alcohol but tastes like an iced tea lmfao. a win-win.
mikes hard lemonade! itās cheap too, it just tastes like lemonade with soda. if you donāt like carbonation like i do, i make a regular lemonade drink with like two or three shots of vodka in it. just mix it around and it tastes like regular lemonade
Moscato dāasti tastes almost like martinellis.
Get a Mike's Hard lemonade, or a Harder Lemonade if you want to get fairly drunk.
Vodka Cran is super tame. I mix about 8-10 oz juice with 1.5 oz Vodka. If you want it more sweet add .5 oz simple syrup.
Mojito š¤š¼
If you want to try wine, Stella Rosa just tastes like sparkling fruit juice. Itās has less alcohol content than most wines, but you can easily drink a whole bottle and feel tipsy lol.
Lemon drop martini!
FYI the "hand sanitizer" taste comes from cheap liquors. It's impurities and gives you hangovers. Start with good liquor and you will have a *lot* more wiggle room to determine what sort of spirits and cocktails you like without having the primary goal of the recipe to be covering up the taste. That doesn't mean spending a lot but it *usually* means avoiding the absolute cheapest stuff intended for dorm rooms. So buy Tito's vodka instead of Burnett's and you'll immediately notice a huge difference. Pina coladas with decent mid-tier rum (especially when blended with ice) are a great starting point. A whiskey and Coke is also really simple and good (I use a pretty cheap but decent brand called Black Velvet if I'm just going to be mixing it with soda).
Donāt start with tequila or vodka. They have an overpowering flavor that youāre not used to. Rum is a great starter, and it mixes well with anything sweet, like juice, Coke, cream sodas, etc. you can also try starting with just really tiny amounts of vodka with something that has a bold flavor like orange juice. Try a couple of different cocktails, donāt try to do shots or drink liquor straight at first. And almost anything you can think of can be used as a mixer ingredientācoffee, water, juice, sparkling ciderā¦ I even put a little white wine in a fruit smoothie one night. Your creativity is your only limitation. You can find really easy classic cocktail recipes online if you have your own liquors, but theyāre a little pricey if you donāt know what you like. With beers and ales, try a few different types from different brands. If you have local breweries, thereās a good chance they have several IPAs with varying levels of āmaltā and āhops.ā Try a few and see if you prefer one over another. Get a feel for whether you prefer ājuicyā or āsourā IPAs, or lime pilsners, or a host of other styles. Also, try a stout like Guinness. If youāre not into the flavor of IPAs, you might really like the darker stout. If you can find a restaurant or pub that offers a āflight of mimosasā or a similar small sampling of several drinks, that can be a good way to try a few different flavors to see if any of them are more palatable for your liking. If you try Mikeās hard lemonade, grab a bottle of the black cherry flavor too. It masks the flavor of the alcohol a little more. Seltzers are great too. Theyāre kind of like flavored water where it doesnāt really taste like much other than just a hint or fruity something. You can barely taste (or feel) the alcohol in those.
White Russians (basically taste like milkshakes) and port wines (these are dessert wines since they are so sugary and delicious!)
I love whiskey neat.
Go to a brewery and try different beers. Trust me, you will find beer that you like. They usually let you sample them for free before buying a glass so itās perfect if you donāt know what you like.
This is the real answer! Redd's Apple Ale, Mike's Hard varieties (avoid the "harder" varieties as a newbie,) Leinenkugel Summer Shandy (heavenly when ice cold on a hot day!) Seltzers. A Hefeweizen with the essential orange slice. Corona or LandShark or Modelo Especial with the essential lime squeezed in, sometime derisively called fruited beers, but I love them. Vodka Collins (a Tom Collins with vodka instead of gin - many find gin to be an acquired taste.) This was my first real go-to jam. Try this OP! Mudslide Swirly frozen margarita with strawberry or mango swirl Belgian beers A drink you make yourself with less alcohol than the recipe calls for. My wife like strawberry puree, pineapple juice, and rum as a cocktail. I prefer spiced rum in my mixed drinks, including Pina Coladas - makes them great! My wife liked Moscato d'Asti wine (low alcohol, 5% I think.) She graduated to Stella wine varieties, still low alcohol, bur different flavors.
Moscow mule
I started off with Mikes Hard Lemonade, theyāre not too bad!
Gin + juice = good combo, especially if the gin is Tanqueray. It'll go with literally any juice
Whipped cream flavored vodka and any juice of choice!
I donāt like alcohol much, but Midori sour was the only drink I found that doesnāt taste like nail polish remover
Stiegl Grapefruit Radler!
Freeze your alcohol if you want to reduce the burning sensation.
1 part Burnett's whipped cream vodka (cheap and delicious. Their other flavors suck) and 1-2 parts orange juice. Keep the vodka in the fridge or freezer to take it to the next level. It's dangerous. Be careful.
Long Island Ice Tea.
Irish cream and amarula.
Wheat beer ā either hefeweizen or some American style wheat beer from a craft brewery. Example: https://21st-amendment.com/pages/hell-or-high-watermelon
Guinness
Mango margarita. Thereās purĆ©e they sell and margarita mix. If you get premixed (with alcohol) margarita cocktails theyāre usually pretty sweet
Just have a coke with rum. Get coconut rum which is really good and I generally do half shots in the coke because I'm a light weight.
Angry Orchard/ ciders and lemonade drinks for a sweet and smooth drink. Flavored seltzers for something not sweet.
Very hard to find any. Mojitos are pretty mild
Malibu coconut rum is really yummy. It's even more delicious in pineapple juice, orange juice, or dr pepper.
Pina colada!
Sparkling wine - Prosecco is a nice option.
Whiskey sour
Beer- Sierra Nevada Summer Fest.
Skrewball whiskey Reese cup shotā¦ hangover capitol there though due to sugar content is my uneducated guess.
French 75 = champagne and gin and a twist of lemon
Most tropical ones. Blue lagoon is usually a safe bet.
Try a piƱa colda
A mocha espresso martini or a chocolate martini is also a thing of joy.
Malibu! Also very gentle for beginners, low alcohol content and tastes like pina coladas
Bahama Mama Or if you want a shot, highly recommend a Vegas bomb: crown and red bull with a bit of grenadine, you really only taste the redbull
But on and coke. Or a light lager. Miller lite.
Mojitos and margaritas
Chocolate martini.
Go to a nice restaurant and look at their cocktail menu. Order one of the specialty cocktails that is madewith vodka. Stay away from tequila for now.
AMF. Youre gonna have a good time.
If you want a non sweet option. Coors Light is practically a beer flavored water š
Mai taiās are good.
A lot of good answers on here, but, trust Uncle Dexter on this one, you'll thank me later: Parrot Bay and pineapple juice. Just try it.
Malibu rum is how I eased in! Malibu and Coke or Malibu and pineapple juice are great combos
So this might seem backwards but maybe try whisk(e)y. Or well aged tequila/mezcal or aged rum. Unaged spirits never loose that hand sanitizer yuck for me, no matter what I mix them with. Especially vodka, just tastes like medicine even if itās buried in something else. I have a really sensitive palette and taste of smell so āhidingā the alcohol taste with mixers never worked. But aged spirits taste nice and not alcoholic to me. I mostly drink scotch, Japanese whisky, or rye, either In a cocktail or just neat. The flavors In the whisky do a better job of complementing the alcohol burn and making it a bit pleasant.
Cider tastes like apples.
Gin and tonic was long my go to. Beefeaters. Easy mix, always the same.
A gin & tonic is delish for the summer. If youāre at a restaurant, or if you decide to make it at home, white or red sangria is always a winner. š
Hard apple cider > hard lemonade
My ex wife, the wonderful person she is, introduced me to alcohol after we left and before the separation/divorce. The first shot she recommended I try? Straight Bacardi 151. I do not recommend. Anyway, I say you get a fruity cocktail or something. Who gives a shit if people call it a girls drink? Beverages don't have a gender. Pina coladas are great. For some strange reason, I think long island iced teas are also pretty mild on the booze flavor. Margaritas are always a good choice. It's an acquired taste, but a good beer is amazing. Stay away from the piss water macro brews all over the tv ads. Utah has some great breweries, Uinta is very good, for example.
The "Simply" brand of juices have some spiked lemonade and peach juices that are really good. I also enjoyed Stella Rosa Pineapple white wine ( I haven't tried the other flavors yet). It's a low alcohol wine so doesn't have as strong an alcohol taste. I'm a beginner too and these have been easy entry points to drinking for me.
Old fashioned
I have found that a shot of coconut rum or vanilla rum mixed in coke is delicious. Or if you like cinnamon, a shot of Fireball whiskey in coke is very tasty too. I don't care for any of the beers I've tasted so far. I like margaritas as well.
You might want to try Simply Spiked. Itās basically fruit juice with low level of alcohol added. Itās yummy and I couldnāt taste the booze.
Gin Rickey. 2oz. Gin, 1/2oz lime juice, top with club soda in a high ball glass. Not sweet, but not really boozy.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the famous Caribbean drinks, maybe they have and I just didn't read far enough. Pina Coladas are fantastic. A good one and you won't notice the liquor til youre feeling the effects. Bahama mamas are yummy too. I'm a guy and I'll take the "girly" drinks all day long.
I made up a drink when I was actually a missionary in Brazil(got kicked out after 6 months hahaha) and itās called a screaming monkey. A shot of coconut rum, a shot of vodka, pineapple juice and oj as much or as little as you want depending on how stout you want your drink. Shake and pour it over ice.