forced acquisition of new tastes

First, let me say that it was in no way intentional that I used the word “taste” in the titles of my first two posts. Now, let’s continue…

I’m not sure if it’s odd or not, but I’ve realized over the years that I occasionally force myself to acquire new tastes. What I mean is, there is something that I don’t particularly like, but for whatever reason, I decide that I should like it, so I then set out on a mission to do just that. There are two are two such missions that come readily to mind (though I wonder if I’ll find more if I dig a bit deeper): coffee and (good) beer.

Coffee was probably the bigger hurdle. I never drank coffee in college. I absolutely abhorred it, but if I needed to drink some, I would pull a “want some coffee with your creamer?” move. Not pretty. Anyway, several years later, I got it in my head that I wanted to actually like coffee. As I think back on it, I guess it stemmed from books or movies where the character(s) would order it black – it just seemed cooler or something. So I made it my mission to be the same. I’ll admit it was pretty brutal at first. It just seemed so bitter. But as time passed, I grew to enjoy it, especially when I started exercising a little more discrimination in my coffee selection. I eventually even moved into espresso after a while, which I love now (the Americano is a great in-between drink). I don’t drink my coffee black all of the time (usually I enjoy one Splenda packet), but I make sure to go straight up every now and then to remind myself how great it is in its “natural” state as well.

I first started drinking beer in college, where it became one of the food groups for a while. I didn’t like it at first, but eventually got used to it enough that I could drink it without cringing. That’s actually saying a lot since, in college, it was always whatever was cheapest, which ended up being Natural Light most of the time (Bud Light was “premium” back then, and Guinness was like coffee beer). Once I entered the real world and actually had money in my pockets, I figured it was time to man up and get into the good stuff. I think I targeted Guinness first since it kind of tied into my coffee mission, and would represent one of the bigger challenges. It didn’t take long for me to see the error of my college ways, and now you won’t ever find what I call the “plain” stuff in my house (though I will drink it if that’s all there is). Don’t get me wrong, the really mainstream beers (Bud, Miller, Coors) aren’t terrible, I just know that there are so many other good ones still untried. Also, there are other domestics that are way better (Yuengling, Sam Adams, Magic Hat). One thing I absolutely love to do is go to our Total Wine & More and pick out a six-pack of singles, pulling whatever looks good and different. There have been some great ones in the mix (Leffe, Ommegang, Peroni) and others that I didn’t enjoy so much (I’ve found that I don’t like most IPAs, or many beers with a high IBU, except for stouts and the like). I like to share my beer-ventures with family and friends whenever I can, letting them know if I found something I really liked so they can try it out. Some don’t really want to budge away from what they like, which is perfectly fine, and others will try different ones, but won’t really pursue it after that. I will say that I did get my brother-in-law Marc hooked on Yuengling. He had never heard of it before I brought some over, so it was good to spread the love, so to speak.

One of my next endeavors may be scotch, though I haven’t really thrown myself into it as a true “mission” since I’m not a huge liquor drinker. I try to drink it in those situations where it is available, the mood is right and price isn’t an issue, but it hasn’t grown on me yet. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m not making any promises.