Mysteries of the World
There are many mysteries in this great world that we live in. Like take the Egyptians for example. How in the world did a civilization that possessed little to no technology build those pyramids in the middle of the dessert? Some sort of magic?
But seeing that I am not in Egypt, and I don’t watch TV much it is not something I think about too much.
A mystery of the world that is always itching at the back of my head though is beer. I remember the first time I took a sip of beer. I can remember my facial expression like it was just yesterday. It is because of times like that, that I sometimes wish I had a camera following me 24/7. To catch those so called, “Kodak Moments”.
If I remember correctly the first beer I drank was a can of Fosters. I had a look of utter disgust and outrage on my face. How the hell could somebody who is suppose to be my friend give me this shit to drink (Gordon).
I once heard from someone that beer is an acquired taste. If you drink a lot of it you get used to it or somehow even come to like the taste.
Well yes that is all well and good. But based on my theory that, “There exists no human in this world that drank beer for the first time and liked it” Why would you keep on drinking it even though it tasted completely vile the first time?
Out of boredom I did some brainstorming and came up with these possibilities:
Peer Pressure: Everybody else was drinking it so you felt you had to…
You are retarded: Self Explanatory
Financial Reasons: After hours in a room with an abacus, graph paper and formulas on alcohol tolerance levels you came to the conclusion that beer is the cheapest way for you to get drunk.
Convenience: Mixing Vodka and Coke on a moving train is too hard.
You are an Anomaly: You are an exception to my theory and experienced love at first gulp. The first time you drank beer you were like, “Holy Smokes, what is this tingling sensation on my taste buds. This drink tastes awesome!!!”
Those are the only plausible answers I could come up with. So, what I would like to know is who loves beer? Who likes beer? Who agrees with me and thinks beer tastes disgusting?
I remember once telling someone that beer tasted disgusting and he was like, “I will give you a sweet tasting beer to try” He pulled out a 1664 Kronenberg. I drank it, but it tasted just as bad as the Fosters I had drank….
Can anybody actually taste sweetness, sourness and other so-called flavors in beer lol?
Tags: Beer, Food for thought, Ramblings, Social
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April 21st, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Each to his own. The more you drink beer, and different types of beer, you begin to taste the different flavour variations they have.
I once felt the same way about the taste of beer, but I think that becoming accustomed to it’s flavour ranks much higher than outright stupidity, as to why we all (yes, a large percentage of the adult population) drink beer!
“Because we like it!” is probably the most simple way to look at it!
In Japan, many people drink very bitter, unsweetened, cold tea, without milk! After nearly 2 years here in Japan, I’ve become accustomed to it, but when I first arrived I had to always add Sugar!
So why do we like sweet drinks so much in the west? In The UK we have an overwhelming choice of artificially sweetened soft drinks and fruit juices which stand prominent in our stores, all of which we have become very accustomed to in regards to flavour and sweetness. Yet in Japan TEA is more readily available than the latter options in the UK.
Drinking for pleasure or drinking for thirst? Either answer is certainly acceptable to me.
Another point, not to totally ignore that over-consumption of beer can be harmful to our bodies…but sugar is also considerably harmful in excess! Black people in the west and also in West Africa and the Carribean consume ridiculous amounts of sugar, salt and other harmful preservatives…hence our also ridiculous high percentage of related illnesses!
What ever floats your boats! Enjoy life responsibly!
April 21st, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I think I must have felt the same way as you did when I had my first sip of beer as a kid. These days however, I do somewhat enjoy a cool refreshing beer on a hot summer day, but I think I only started drinking more often after coming to Tokyo. :]
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:55 am
I’m with you, man. I do not. get. the beer thing.
The more you drink, the more you taste the subtle variety of flavors, etc… well, f*ck that. If I want to taste “sweet” or “earthy” or any other flavor, I’ll drink something that actually tastes like it. I’m sure that if I ate enough sh*t, I’d eventually garner a tongue for the many varieties of sh*t: the subtle hint of spice for Indian diets, the fine slick texture of the pizza-munchers, the faintly herbal sting of the vegetarian. But at the end of the day, I’d still be eating someone’s sh*t.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:59 am
Beer is an odd one, I can drink cider, shandy (fosters and lemonade) and snakebite, but beer is a problem. When I went to the Dominican Republic and Spain I could drink beer in the heat, it really quenched my thirst. When i got back to the UK I brought a pint took a sip and spat it out!!
Each to their own when it comes to alcohol!!
Do you like Guinness?
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
@Irma - Relating beer to excrement… Interesting method!? I guess you’re entitled to you own subjective opinion, just as everyone’s entitled to their own taste for alcohol…
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
@Tokyo Grindhouse CEO
Yea fair answer. And a lot of valid points. I guess my main point was that why people drink it the first time, think it tastes bad and keep on drinking anyway. But I guess thats just life. If everybody thought they way I did I guess nobody would be smoking cigarettes either lol.
I also think that its true people come here and dont like/ are not used to the tea but get used to it. The thing is tea here is free or dirt cheap and is sometimes all you have. When you go to a lot of shops they give you free tea. Even if you dont like it, your still gonna say screw it and drink it cause its better than spending 300+ yen on a drink.
So I kinda think beer and tea arent in the same class in that respect.
@blauereiter
?
hehe nice I see. Why not an ice cold can of coke instead though hehe
@Irma
While I think your example of eating shit is a bit over the top I think I agree a lot with you. I would rather just find something that tastes how I want it to taste hehe.
@Anjel
lol you spat it out. I guess thirst in a hot country can make you drink anything.
Guinness? Guinness is disgusting
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 am
I feel the same way about natto. Nobody will ever convince me that this stuff took off because enough people found it delicious. It took off because poor bastards had nothing else!
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:11 pm
In my humblest of opinions the kind of mass-produced beer you get in cans in English-speaking countries is usually an acquired taste, one presumably acquired after a childhood of solvent abuse.
For beer which lives up to its name, try Germany or the Czech Republic.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:18 pm
@billywest
Hehe yeah its dirt cheap and I think there was a rumour floating around about it being healthy or making you lose weight or something?
@ThePenguin
LOL solvent abuse. I will check if I can find a German or Czech beer in an Import Store or something. Do you have any recommendations?