Hi, I'm new.
I just became a non-believer right before general conference. My husband is a convert with a small amount of experience and knowledge of alcohol and I have absolutely none.

I'm was so curious to see what the general public loves about alcohol and coffee so last night I tried a pumpkin porter from Four Peaks brewing company (local to AZ, I'm an absolute noob and have no idea if this place is well-known or not). I took one teeny sip and almost puked because it was disgusting.

I then tried some Mike's Hard Strawberry Lemonade. The initial taste was good but the aftertaste was horrid and reminded me of cleaning supplies.

This morning I had my husband get me a Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Latte and it was also gross and bitter and left my throat raw.

Coffee and alcohol are beloved by so many so what am I doing wrong? Did I take the wrong approach? Any recommendations? Thanks.

Look for a Hefweisen beer....has some apricot flavors and is a nice introduction to malt beverages....or there's the old standby rum & Coke......or a screwdriver made with orange juice and vodka....add a shot of Galliano and you've got the legendary Harvey Wallbanger...good luck and enjoy!

Ron Burr

Just go vodka soda or sprite for a mild, hard alcohol. For beer, I'd say start with shock top or similar. Nice and easy introduction.

Very good advice. Blue Moon is my favorite. They also have seasonal varieties.

Coffee - start with a mocha frap, later try a vanilla latte, experiment with the Starbucks menu.

Alcohol - avoid hard liquor initially, have a corona or blonde ale

That's my two cents.

Don't beat yourself up about it. As Mormons we only knew two tastes: sweet and salt. You need to get used to the other tastes out there and learn to appreciate them.

Beer and coffee are acquired tastes; that's not proof that they are bad. I still remember the first fruit juice of our first child. She was a couple of months old and had had nothing but formula and water. It was some special baby juice, not a lot of taste but as proud parents we made a big deal out of it, cameras ready and all. I still laugh when I see the look of absolute horror on her face in that picture.

Thankfully, there is only one way to acquire those tastes so you can't go wrong: just try a lot and toss out what you don't like.

ETA: oh, one tip though: what non-Mormons call sweet is nothing like what you call sweet. Don't get your hopes up when people recommend a sweet wine or cocktail...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2014 04:55PM by rt.

Three things have to exist in order for me to tolerate beer:
1) the weather must be really hot.
2) the beer must be really cold.
3) pizza must be involved.

That was awesome. And so true.

Mormons are used to punch which is non-alcoholic and sweet. I started with margaritas and pina coladas.

Be mindful that you are a light weight with alcohol and break in gradually.

I still prefer the sweet and have no taste for dry wine or beer.

I learned to make coffee but first ordered several kinds so I knew what I liked.

Right now I love the pumpkin latte's at Starbucks. A latte has a lot of milk, mild sweetness and flavoring. Around Christmas time they have egg not latte's. Good luck.

I grew up on punches and non-cola sodas so my first favorite alcoholic drinks were daquiris, pina colodas, wine coolers, those smirnoff green apples; etc... Beers, ales, even rum & coke I had to learn to like; but I took to screw drivers and girly drinks and wine coolers fast (Boones Farm Strawberry Hill, I thought was a fine wine).

Coffee was different because of the cheap cocoa and Post-um that we had to drink during the winter mornings before seminary. Coffee w/just cream and sugar was wonderful.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2014 07:05PM by dydimus.

Alcoholic drinks are an acquired taste and it seems that women like the sweet drinks more than men. Margaritas, pina coladas, and daiquiris may be more to you liking. Start slow and good luck.

Baby steps. Your husband should know better Im sorry that pumpkin stuff was your first try. As far as coffee the gateway coffee is Hills Brothers Cappuccino its in a red rectangular container make the water about 140, spoon in til its sweet enough add some halfnhalf. Booze. The gateway for me was Boones Farm wines start with that then move up to winecoolers. Takes time: I have become very fond of Vodkas, and Pete's Coffee with lots of creamer.

+1

Right on!

Ron Burr

Since you're coming off of sweet drinks, it's best to sweeten coffee a lot and use cream instead of milk because it cuts the bitter. Coffee from restaurants tend to be strong, so you can dilute with water. Starbucks is really strong and tastes burned, so I'm not surprised if you didn't like it if your coffee came from there.

Your palate is immature and you may not like strong drinks right way. Beer probably isn't the best starting point. Go with sweet mixed drinks like daiquiri's. There will always be an alcohol taste. If you want alcohol, don't expect it to be like punch and Coke. You will either acquire a taste for it or not. This is something that comes with time.

Start out easy, lacing coffee into drinks that you consumed as a Mormon.

First of all, don't ever order anything but drip coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. Dunkin Donuts is an abomination in the eyes of Barista Goddess Bekah. If you partake of the DD latte, you are committing a sin greater than murder.

That said, find a local coffee shop with a good reputation. I don't know where you are, but there is some awesome coffee to be had in the Morridor, as well as the West Coast. If you can tell me your region, I might be able to point you in the direction of some good locally brewed coffee.

Now, as I was saying, you want to start off by incorporating coffee into something you would have drank as a Mormon....like, hot chocolate. Avoid pumpkiny-seasonal-silly stuff for right now.

I once remedied a nice Mormon boy of his coffee virginity by making him a mocha. I left him with a sh!t-eating grin and a twinkle in his eye, but that wasn't quite enough to get him to shake off that silly underwear and follow me into the better, brighter world that I call the Post-Mormon Existence (but lesser minds call apostasy). But that's a different story...

What is a mocha, you ask? Depending on your perspective, it's either a latte spiked with chocolate....OR, for those new to the Post-Mormon Existence, it's a hot chocolate spiked with espresso.

Normally, for a small, it comes with two shots of espresso and a pump or two of chocolate (about half the amount used for a hot chocolate). A large usually comes with 3 shots of espresso.

Since you're just starting out, you want to dilute the coffee taste a little at first. A full-powered mocha might be a little too much.

So,order a medium mocha with one shot of espresso, but an extra pump of chocolate. And if you're not lactose intolerant, get whole milk. The fatter the milk, the more flavorful the drink. Do NOT do any coffee drink with skim milk until you've acclimated.

Repeat as often as needed, until you acquire the coffee taste enough to handle more shots and less flavor.

Have fun!

They are acquired tastes. Coffee tastes terrible at first. Ditto for beer. Coffee is good for you and you can skip the alcohol. Soda which, at first taste, is even worse is old-fashioned Moxie which is very hard to get these days.

My first drinking of coffee was to stay awake for a one p.m. class back in 1968. I would gulp down a cup despite the taste. Actually, I had tasted it years earlier - a sip - and didn't like it. It helps alertness and helps prevent diabetes, among other things, and reduces depression. There are some here who prefer "Irish coffee" which is usually coffee laced with Bailey's. I drink mine simply black, being still a purist.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I want to try a lot of stuff but dang, alcohol is expensive.

Godtoldmetorun- I am in a suburb of Phoenix. Specifically San Tan Valley. Basically the middle of nowhere. But there's lots of Mormons and not much else.

Join a church where they have wine at every social event like the mormons have red punch. You'll get to try a lot of different things and find out what you like while other people are bringing it and footing the bill. Worked for me.

Do a chilled shot of Frangelico (aka Ms. Butterworth).
Sip it with a hot half baked chocolate chip cookie alamode.
The only thing that would make it even better is if it was served with two strips of candy bacon. It's to die for.

Smooshed, I lived in Phoenix for a while.

I used to live next to the Fair Trade Cafe, on First Avenue and Roosevelt (or Central and Roosevelt?)...anyway, it was right off the light rail stop and conveniently located across from the library.

I know Phoenix and its suburbs are quite spread out, but if you're ever in the city, you should check it out. Interesting menu, though I never ate there.

I worked at the Peet's in the Sky Harbor airport...I love Peets, but at the time I was there, the two in the airport were the only ones in Arizona.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2014 07:10PM by godtoldmetorun.

You can always stick with jelly-filled donuts, brownies by the dozen, fish sticks chicken nuggets, piles of macaroni and cheese, candy bars, potato chips, huge bags of french fries, and every variety of soda pop. Of course, you'll still be following the word of wisdom.

You could violate the WoW by eating a lot of meat.

I have never drunk much alcohol and I'm a nevermo.

I agree that alcohol tastes chemically to me.

Here's the deal, you don't need to force yourself to develop a taste for alcohol.

If you do, you'll always want it and it is really, really fattening (especially the sweet drinks) and very, very expensive.

I do drink coffee. It took awhile for me to get used to the taste, though. I drink it with Trader Joes soymilk creamer and about 1/5 teaspoons of demerara sugar. Not nearly as expensive or fattening.

Like you, I simply never liked either. I also find tea makes me VERY thirsty. Sooooo I still live the WoW, I guess the members would be impressed! Heh heh, not if they started talking to me though!!!

Tea makes me thirsty too! I thought I was the only one. :)

I've never tried alcohol myself, but I like coffee. Mixed with milk or chocolate, that is. Pure coffee is very bitter and takes a little while to get used to.

I didn't have my 1st drink til I was 26. Don't care for beer and most wine.

I mostly stick to Arbor Mist blackberry wine, which is more like alcoholic juice, and hard apple cider (Strongbow, Woodchuck).

If I'm looking to get tipsy/drunk, I turn to Fireball whiskey with cream soda (prefer it non-mixed).

My daughter introduced me to Woodchuck Pear. Love that on a hot summer day.

Now what is a "good wine" is highly a matter of taste, one that might develop over time. You can ask at a liquor store or restaurant for a "smooth" wine. These might be blended wines, like a rose'. You might also start with a wine mixed with fruit juice, like a wine cooler.

I tried a few types of alcohol after I quit the church. I tried coffee too. Neither was good.

Alcohol was more expensive than other things that tasted much better. Modest doses of caffeine are wonderful (I wish I'd discovered its virtues earlier in my life), but there are tastier, simpler, and cheaper ways of ingesting caffeine than drinking coffee.

Good luck with your exploration.

Ahhhh beer and wine...

I wasn't a beer drinker till my first trip to Germany, Munich in particular. There everywhere has what they call a radler (shandy in the UK). It's basically half beer, half sprite. On a hot day, it's perfect! It's slightly sweet, so it's a good intro to beer.

As for wine, again, you're used to sweet drinks, so start with a sweet wine. Ask for a good desert or ice wine. Or maybe a rose or a wine from the Mosel region (again, from Germany). Typically these a a bit sweeter.

And it is worth it to develop a taste for both. There will be moments in your life where you will want to go to a pub with friends or be at a work function and be able to drink the wine being served. I hated that I was always outing myself as a ex mormon every time I was around alcohol or coffee. After a few years it gets really awful having to explain why you don't drink to everyone.

I don't drink coffee and I usually don't like the taste of booze.
I'm a total loser.

Maybe not straight booze, but you drink beer and margaritas. Unless you only drink them to get me drunk. :-)

Dang it DtA Fan.
You know that after a hard day of beating up people in wheelchairs I sometimes drink a beer to unwind.

Well, you'll never be a card-carrying exmo if you don't drink, so you've got to get through this phase somehow.

Just joking.


You're not doing anything wrong. Alcohol is essentially a poison with sometimes nice side effects (dull pain, and can add cheer to one's life). Don't force yourself to try and love alcohol. It's as ridiculous as trying to love smoking while your lungs are screaming "stop!".

cheers