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Personally, I'm 26 and I've never liked clear liquors and have always favored made-to-drink-straight liquors, like whiskey, whisky, and brandy. I've always liked wine too, for the same reason. I've never been into mixed drinks.
Like many other things in our culture, there are fashion trends in alcoholic beverages, and to a certain extent each new generation tends to reject their parents' tastes and strike out in new directions. For the last 20 years or so the "clear spirits" like vodka, rum, and tequila have shown "brown spirits" like bourbon, rye, and scotch the back seat. And fruit juice based mixed drinks like margaritas have been very popular, especially with X-gen drinkers who wanted something more than just beer.
But the ascendance of all things Retro brought along with it the Cocktail Renaissance, with more emphasis on martini-like cocktails. And since those beverages depend more on the liquor than the mixer for their dominant taste, the demand for more flavorful liquors increased. So now the sale of "brown spirits" is once again on the rise.
When I was in college and later in my 20's, I liked vodka and tequila. Today, I rarely drink vodka, and I will not touch tequila with a ten foot pole. These days I like scotch (preferably single malt), whiskey, cognac and gin. So, I guess when I was young I did prefer clear spirits.
I think you have to get an acquired taste for ALL hard liquor.
usually college kids drink vodka and tequila because they don't smell like rotten socks and mix well with simple ingredients.
fast forward 10 years and the rotten socks smell is exactly why you would enjoy the drinks haha.
as for me, when I was younger, I started with vodka (mostly because I am Russian and grew up in vodka-drinking culture), and only much later switched to whisky and scotch (frankly, because I finally had the money and the desire to buy a $45 bottle). I still drink vodka, but only with close friends and on special occasions.
I think you have to get an acquired taste for ALL hard liquor.
usually college kids drink vodka and tequila because they don't smell like rotten socks and mix well with simple ingredients.
fast forward 10 years and the rotten socks smell is exactly why you would enjoy the drinks haha.
as for me, when I was younger, I started with vodka (mostly because I am Russian and grew up in vodka-drinking culture), and only much later switched to whisky and scotch (frankly, because I finally had the money and the desire to buy a $45 bottle). I still drink vodka, but only with close friends and on special occasions.
Rotten socks? I've never gotten that or anything close, even cheap whiskeys typically evoke pleasant scents, like caramel and butterscotch.
Vodka is Russian in origin, right? Do Russians and others in that part of the world drink vodka straight? Are there more distinctive vodkas that actually have personality as opposed to the soulless clear liquid I've found it to be in the US?
Like many other things in our culture, there are fashion trends in alcoholic beverages, and to a certain extent each new generation tends to reject their parents' tastes and strike out in new directions. For the last 20 years or so the "clear spirits" like vodka, rum, and tequila have shown "brown spirits" like bourbon, rye, and scotch the back seat. And fruit juice based mixed drinks like margaritas have been very popular, especially with X-gen drinkers who wanted something more than just beer.
But the ascendance of all things Retro brought along with it the Cocktail Renaissance, with more emphasis on martini-like cocktails. And since those beverages depend more on the liquor than the mixer for their dominant taste, the demand for more flavorful liquors increased. So now the sale of "brown spirits" is once again on the rise.
I like what you've said here, but is there something about clear liquor that is more appealing to young people? Maybe it's less intimidating, easier to drink? Regarding the latter, I've always found dark liquors easier to drink than either clear or mixed drinks. I always thought tequila was considered a dark liquor.
I like what you've said here, but is there something about clear liquor that is more appealing to young people? Maybe it's less intimidating, easier to drink?
If that were true, then the clear spirits would have always been popular with young people, and that clearly (heh) has not always been the case.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MOKAN
Regarding the latter, I've always found dark liquors easier to drink than either clear or mixed drinks. I always thought tequila was considered a dark liquor.
Clear and dark (or brown) are loose designations, but clear spirits are clear... you can see through them... while dark spirits are... well, dark. Since all distilled spirits are clear when they come out of the still, the difference is aging in barrels, plus in some cases the addition of caramel coloring or molasses.
The clear spirits include vodka, gin, rum, tequila, and sake. Typically bottled straight from the still, although they may be "matured" in large vats
The dark spirits include brandy, and the whiskies: Bourbon, Scotch, Tennessee, Canadian, Irish, Scotch.
As I said, the designations are very loose, primarily distinguishing unaged spirits from aged spirits, and there are a couple of crossovers.
When tequila was first popularized in the US (by the Tequila Sunrise cocktail, I reckon, which became big in the 1970s) the lightest, unaged tequilas, Blanco ("White", unaged) or Plata ("Silver," matured up to 2 months) were all most bars even carried. Later Reposada ("Rested," aged two months to a year in oak barrels, light amber in color) began catching on among consumers who wanted a smoother liquor for drinking straight, in tequila shots. Then as the American taste for tequila grew and matured, so did the demand for Añejo (Aged 1 - 3 years in small oak barrels, medium amber in color), which was what whiskey folks would call a "sipping" liquor, meant to be slowly enjoyed, straight. And the designation Extra Añejo (aged over 3 years, darker amber) wasn't even created until 2006. So should Extra Añejo be considered a dark spirit, since it is aged and has color and a more pronounced and complex taste than Blanco? I think most people in the industry still consider it a clear spirit because it is a tequila.
Or how about rum, made from molasses? Light rums, like Bacardi and Ronrico were classed as clear spirits, because they were unaged and clear in color, but dark rum, aged in heavily charred barrels and tasting of residual molasses, clearly seems more of a dark spirit. But unlike other dark, aged spirits it is primarily used in mixed drinks, so ??
I'm not sure, but I think the reason the industry made the distinction in the first place was because brown spirits require large warehouses to store the barrels over time, while they age, and long term financing to hold the inventory. So the financial dynamics of the "dark spirits" business are very different from clear spirits, where the product can be bottled and sold as soon as it is made.
That's just my opinion, but I think it makes sense.
I'm old and I like bourbon, gin, tequila (gold or silver) and rum (clear or otherwise!).
I don't think liquor preference is a product of age; what you do with it is as cyclical as any other fashion. My parents drank highballs, manhattans and martinis; 30 years ago no one my age would have looked twice at a martini, but now they're all the rage again. Go figure.
I'm 21-years old and my liquor of choice is scotch. Mind you, I'm a slow-sipping kind of drinker, and dark liquors have more flavor. If I'm drinking purely for the sake of getting drunk (which is rare for me actually), I'll opt for (straight) vodka, gin, or Jager. No mixed drinks touch these lips (with the exception of maybe a bloody mary once or twice a year).
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