Monday, May 6, 2019

I guess it's an acquired taste

I'm currently researching craft breweries for a book I'm working on. It's fascinating. Not just the production of the beer, which is a lot more complicated than I thought, but all the things that go with it. The tasting room and/or restaurant--and even what's stocked in the (usually small) gift shop. (Seems like T-shirts are a big seller!)

It all sounds great. There's just one thing. I don't like beer. My father never drank it, so it was never in our house. Of course, my brothers (who were much more sociable than me and went out with friends at night ... while I was reading) acquired a taste for beer ... but not me.

There are other things I never acquired a taste for. Wine is one of them. (Tastes like shoe polish remover to me.) There's such a mystique about wine. Think about it:  wine,women, and song. The whole bacchanalia in the Disney film Fantasia. People are always drinking wine and have been doing it for thousands of years. (The go-to drink in ancient Rome. Heck, even Jesus turned water to wine.) I found red wine gives me a headache, and if I'm drinking white wine, I like sweeter varieties. But I'll take whiskey or gin over grape-based wine any day.

I never acquired a taste for coffee, either, although I did try. When I was in college, I figured when I got out of school and went to work in an office, I'd have to drink the stuff. I mean, who had a tea kettle handy? (As someone who worked in offices for more than 25 years, I can tell you: NOBODY.)

So, for three weeks, I drank nothing but coffee. Of course, the swill the school served was dreadful. To this day, I still can't stand the taste of coffee (although I do like the smell of it brewing, especially of freshly ground coffee). I make a pot of coffee for Mr. L every morning. I make myself a pot of tea.

Of course, there are some things I have acquired a taste for:  Olives.  (Kalamata are my favorite.) Asparagus. Lima beans. Then again, I'm really not into fruit. They pick it too early (so it's usually not ripe) and by the time it ripens, it's ready on the outside and rotten on the inside.

So, what's your acquired taste?