August 19, 2013

"Malt liquor, it's a helluva drink"

From the NYT:
The study, carried out over the course of a year at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, found that five beer brands were consumed most often by people who ended up in the emergency room. They were Budweiser, Steel Reserve, Colt 45, Bud Ice and Bud Light. 
Three of the brands are malt liquors, which typically contain more alcohol than regular beer. Four malt liquors accounted for nearly half of the beer consumption by emergency room patients, even though they account for less than 3 percent of beer consumption in the general population.

Okay, but keep in mind, as you might have observed while watching The Wire, that the tastes of emergency room patients in inner city Baltimore are not necessarily demographically representative of the whole country.

84 comments:

Red Sand said...

I'm guessing they're not seeing too many cases of Malt Liquor alcohol poisoning on the weekend after finals at the hospitals near Johns Hopkins either.

Anononymous said...

SNL: Coldcock

Mr. Anon said...

Never drink an alcoholic beverage that is named after a firearm.

Anonymous said...

god willing ill one day be in a position to risk medical emergency on macallan 25 alone

Anonymous said...

Mr. Anon said...
Never drink an alcoholic beverage that is named after a firearm.


Also don't drink anything named "arrogant bastard" or "butthead". Dont crude down your beverage of choice. Keep it classy and upscale.

Perhaps one of Steve's larger points is that fewer white people drink malt liquors in any significant percentage anymore.

Of course, white americans dont have to. They now have craft micro beers, especially IPAs. IPAs probably come the closest to malt liquors as far as higher alcoholic content.

Come to think of it, you dont see many black folks heavily represented in the craft micro brewing industry. Hmm.... Must be racist. Has to be racist, right?

David Davenport said...

Steve, what do you make of this? THis breitbart.com fellow thinks "Elysium" is left wing. Breitbart.com is a supposedly anti-Lefty, anti-Progressive web site.

'ELYSIUM' TANKS: MATT DAMON NEW 'KING OF THE LEFT-WING FLOPS'

by JOHN NOLTE 19 Aug 2013, 7:30 AM PDT

...

Damon officially stole the title of "King of the Left-wing Flops" Sunday when Box Office Mojo reported that director Neill Blomkamp's "Elysium" has zero chance of reaching $100 million. That is actually a pretty generous assessment of a film that will likely have to crack $400 million worldwide just to break even.

...

What has to be especially galling to Sony is that Damon's presence might have hurt "Elysium." After two weekends and without the politically-divisive Damon as star, Blomkamp's "District 9" -- which cost only $30 million and starred no one -- had already cleared over $72 million.

...

All of this likely serves to explain why Damon was so shamelessly dishonest during his "Elyisum" promotional blitz. "I don't think it is trying to saying anything," Damon assured potential ticket-buyers as news of "Elysium's" left-wing agenda started to dribble out.

...

Anononymous said...

SNL: Coldcock

Anonymous said...

Those kinds of drinks (Bud light? Really?) might be associated with people getting into fights, but not anything that requires real inebriation. Even Steel Reserve is a pathetic 8.1 ABV. A real drunk will go for the fortified wine or plastic-bottle vodka first, and is less interested in bar fights than getting bent.

Whitehall said...

Actually, I find many malt liquors to be very good. They are called "malt liquors" because state regulations limit the alcohol content of "beer" to some degree, usually 5%.

Without that legal recipe limitation, a brewer has an addition degree of freedom, including make a brew with 6 or 7% of the good stuff.

"Olde English" is particularly good in flavor and impact but that's a subjective choice.

Note that I am not a "vibrant" drinker, living and have lived in Silicon Valley, Marin County, and other tony and non-vibrant California islands of privilege.

Clearly, the "study" is bogus - how the heck do you get drunk on Bud Lite?

sunbeam said...

Only Malt Liquor I ever really liked was Crazy Horse.

Not sure what they do different, or my inner Indian was coming out. I think it does taste different though.

Colt 45, the Bull, those just taste plain nasty.

sunbeam said...

Oh, and I was surprised as heck that "Ripple" really existed.

I thought that and Fatburgers were something they made up on Sanford and Son.

Anonymous said...

sunbeam said...
Oh, and I was surprised as heck that "Ripple" really existed.

I thought that and Fatburgers were something they made up on Sanford and Son.


Of course it was real. Some of their writers included Richard Pryor and George Mooney. They wrote from their experiences.


What it does serve to show, is just how unfamiliar white folks are with the bros experience.

Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to consider liquor sales as a function of proof oz/cents. After all, most poor folks who want to get hammered are value drinkers. Beer and malt liquor is refreshing and gets you drunk slowly allowing you to grab ass with your friends for a while before sliding off your bar stool. On the other hand if you prefer drinking alone you can get alcohol poisoning for under $5 by pounding a cheap 400ml bottle of Hiram Walker Kirshwasser. Of course you would probably find the experience of siphoning gas more pleasant.

Whiskey said...

Fatburgers is an LA institution like Pinks.

OT a Vdare reviewer also said Elysium was leftwing open borders. So there you are. Review is on Vdares site, if you don't read it every day you should.

Anonymous said...

Colt 45! Love it! It's got a sweet after ..
problem is-taste and gets you boy howdy. Problem is-I can't find it in my local store-6 pack-12 oz.- and I have to go urban to find-and I might get cooties-so-Newcastle Brown Ale por mi

Anonymous said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cup-noodles-spark-fla-juvie-riots-article-1.1430668#ixzz2cQWJtHaa

Good thing the game wasn't over malt liquor.

Anonymous said...

Dont crude down your beverage of choice. Keep it classy and upscale.

I've been drinking cognac for years. I found out a little while back that it's a popular drink in the rap community, so much so that it's a stereotype. Who knew? I thought I was being all fusty old guy and it turns out I'm vibrant.

I gots ta git me a Glock and a pitbull and a grill.

Anonymous said...

The Malt Liquor Menace is nothing compared to the IPA menace. If western civilization is to survive, the IPA fanboys must be purged from all positions of power and influence.

I lack the vocabulary to adequately condemn the sort of bloodless 105 IQ manchild that pontificates endlessly about the joys of his favorite overly-hopped, limited release nerd potion.

If a straight man gets emotional about the word marriage equality, IPA is likely his favorite tipple.

If he compulsively plays video games while sitting next to an unremarkable cat that is his pride and joy, he does so while sipping on an IPA.

If at a party he asks you if you've read the latest "thought provoking" article from the Huffington Post or The Atlantic, he will gesticulate with a IPA in his hand. Likely, it will be the same one he's been nursing for the last 2 hours.

The IPA Drinker: no better enemy, no worse friend.

-The Judean People's Front

Mr. Anon said...

"Anonymous said...

I've been drinking cognac for years. I found out a little while back that it's a popular drink in the rap community, so much so that it's a stereotype."

Hennessey even came out with a "Hennessy Black", presumably to appeal to their "urban" customers. Although they've also come out with a "Pure White" Cognac, perhaps to appeal to a more aryan clientele.

Speaking of cheap booze, here's an interesting factlet: the Neil Diamond song "Cracklin' Rosie" is actually about a brand of fortified wine that used to be popular on Indian reservations.

Anonymous said...

Every cat is remarkable. I have two cats, one I got from a shelter for $60 and another I bought from a breeder for $1200. Pound for pound they are both as good as gold.

Cats are living art.

mm45 said...

We had a malt liquor fad at our school in the early 90s. Mickey's Big Mouth was the favorite. Cold '45 was the most mainstream choice, safe for white people. Red Bull was preferable to Blue Bull. Crazy Horse was nasty, and nothing good ever came out of drinking it. It was something the alphas would foist on the betas pretending it would make them cool. The hour of power (a shot of beer every minute for an hour) got upgraded to malt liquor, which was the least you could do. Mencken writes about drinking contests in the 30s where guys would put away 25-30 bottles of malt liquor, and without going to the bathroom (that disqualified you). We didn't approach that level. I was in the go to Prague after graduation generation so I'll always be devoted to real Pilsener. However there is not much genuine pilsener available back home, so IPA is a reasonable alternative if you're on a budget

Anonymous said...

IPAs probably come the closest to malt liquors as far as higher alcoholic content

IPA has absolutely nothing to do with alcohol content. Traditional IPA is not much stronger than most other styles of beer. Unless you are thinking of Imperial IPA. In which case also think of Doppelbock.

Dave Pinsen said...

I'm skeptical that there are many folks who need to be hospitalized from a night of drinking beer or other alcoholic beverages in the usual manner. Ordinarily, if you 'overdose' on alcohol, you throw up, and that's the worst of it. The way to get seriously ill is to bypass that defense mechanism, by getting intoxicated much faster (chugging or funneling) or bypassing the digestive system all together (vodka soaked tampons). That or combining alcohol with copious amounts of illicit drugs.

In the early '90s, Rutgers University officials would warn about the dangers of drinking by pointing to the death of a fraternity pledge in the '80s. The scuttlebutt had been other drugs were involved, but even if it were only alcohol, it struck me that if only one guy died from drinking in several years when tens of thousands if students drank every night, drinking must be pretty safe.

" In which case also think of Doppelbock."

A brewery called Stoudt's out in Pennsylvania Dutch Country used to make a delicious honey doppelbock which had about 8% alcohol by volume. In my experience, that's about the limit for beer to be recognizably beer. Once they start jacking the alcohol content up higher there are trade offs in carbonation, flavor, etc., and it becomes something else.

Matthew said...

I'll see that SNL "Coldcock" video and raise it one by Uncle Jemima.

Anonymous said...

Not mentioned but popular out here in Hawaii is Kirin Ichiban which is a surprisingly good mass produced malt that's a great replacement for those occasions when you would drink bud/miller, I.e. beach/porch/outsid.

Outside that remember there are cheaper crappier beer than OE or bud light, ..... Busch/Coors/pbr all come to mind.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Fred Sanford, and prefer for special occasions the combination of Champagne and Ripple, known as "Cripple."

dearieme said...

I don't know whether you can get it in the US, but allow me to recommend Innis & Gunn Original Oak Aged Beer. It's 6.6%, which is stronger than I would like, but it is a delicious drop.

alexis said...

When is there going to be a purple drank study?

Here's a site dedicated to 40 oz connoisseurs.

Monroe Ficus said...

Schlitz IML (ice malt liquor) is the way to go. Schlitz OML (originial malt liquor) is only 5.5% abv, barely a malt liquor. IML is 8% abv, as high as you can get without pouring vodka into it (Boilermaker)

Whitey Whiteman III said...

So, all these years, Eazy-E was saying, "Bitch, pass me my Ripple."

Ex Submarine Officer said...

"Every cat is remarkable. I have two cats, one I got from a shelter for $60 and another I bought from a breeder for $1200. Pound for pound they are both as good as gold.

Cats are living art."

Come the Rpevolution....

Conatus said...

Let us not forget Old English 800, the favorite malt liguor of wasps. When I resided in the northeastern quadrant of the District of Columbia, a couple of sixteen ouncers and a pack of cigs was guaranteed happiness for some front porch sittin' time.
From Wikipedia Malt Liquor
"Today, malt liquors are most often consumed by a different demographic. According to a study by Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in California, malt liquor is the alcohol of choice of the homeless and unemployed, which explains the resulting stereotyping of the typical consumer"

Bill said...

Circa 1993 they came out with Cool Colt, mint-flavored Colt 45. It tasted as bad as it sounds. It failed in the market and didn't last more than a year.

Re Mencken's "malt liquor": I think that was his fancy term for plain old normal beer. The historical period where Americans drank the hardest and the mostest was the Jacksonian, I've read, not Prohibition.

Anonymous said...

The Malt Liquor Menace is nothing compared to the IPA menace. If western civilization is to survive, the IPA fanboys must be purged from all positions of power and influence.

To think, if you only understood that correlation isn't causation you could have saved the time and we could have been spared your boring rant.

carol said...

Pfft..I'm here in Whitopia and lemme tell you, all the C stores now carry not only the lines you name but also there is Mike's Harder lemon, lime, marguerita, hard cider etc at 8% alcohol content. All in huge single cans you can grab while gassing up along with the Red Bull and 5-hr energy drink...don't leave town without!

Anonymous said...

I was going to a party at a friend's in the less tony section of the People's Republic of Cambridge back in June, and I didn't think to bring any beer; as a beer snob of the first water who confines most of his beer consumption to Belgian ales, I don't ask any host to supply me with my preferences. I stopped at a liquor store near my destination and found nary a craft brew in sight, but instead row upon row of 40 oz. bottles of Pabst, Heineken, Colt .45, etc. So I turned the hat sideways and purchased some Olde English and Steel Reserve. What crap!

IPAs aren't that strong, and the overly-bitter craft brews, despite what the hopheads on the West Coast might believe, don't appeal to many outside their circle of deluded aficionados. They're pushing the Double IPAs now, where the extra alcohol lessens the hop bitterness. There are some doubles that are quite good: Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewery in Cali, Heady Topper from The Alchemist Brewery in Vermont and Up The Creek from Thomas Creek Brewery in Greenville, SC. Most are dreck.

It amazes me the the monks can make high-octane ales (10%+ alcohol) of such complexity and nuance. It starts a lot of conversations at parties when people read the label on one of my bottles of Affligem Tripel: Since 1076.

Anonymous said...

Mickey's Big Mouth is like drinking from a toilet.

Camlost said...

I'm with Fred Sanford, and prefer for special occasions the combination of Champagne and Ripple, known as "Cripple."

Actually, Fred G used to refer to that as "champripple" on the show.

In the early days the rappers used to trumpet the virtues of St Ides and Old English 800 (called OE or 8-ball)

I thought that and Fatburgers were something they made up on Sanford and Son.

What it does serve to show, is just how unfamiliar white folks are with the bros experience.


Fatburger or ripple are hardly unique to "black" experience, both of them are created, owned marketed and sold by white folks. Fatburger is notable because it's so cheap and accessible to blacks, and because a lot of the locations have liquor licenses so you can drink there - this is especially important in ghetto areas where you don't have any decent restaurants or bars.

Mike said...

The IPA Drinker: no better enemy, no worse friend.

-The Judean People's Front


Could you be one of those that will call some light colored, low alcohol content, low calorie, absent of flavor beer a "session" beer?

When I hear someone use the term "session beer" favorably, I know I'm in the presence of someone that owns his own shopping bags.

Anonymous said...

I'd have thought the most dangerous beers would be the most advertised on the assumption that the dumbest would disproportionately drink the most advertised?

Anonymous said...

"Every cat is remarkable. I have two cats, one I got from a shelter for $60 and another I bought from a breeder for $1200. Pound for pound they are both as good as gold. Cats are living art."

Cats carry a mind control virus.

Anonymous said...

Is this the first step in banning drinking-has the stigmatization begun? Are drinkers the new smokers? Nah, don't worry about it?
To combat shyness, I drank very heavily when I was young (early teens), and surprisingly it worked, but I did (and said) many things I regret to this day (I don't have a Facebook account)-I actually sustained an injury which still affects me. When I started smoking, towards the end of my heavy drinking stage, my appetite for booze deminished, to the point where I am now an occasional drinker, but I still like to get bombed because people are more fun when they are drunk-I could never understand solitary drinking.
So why is it that PSAs showing tracheotomies and necropathy related to smoking are ubiquitous, while we rarely see a flower girl's head sitting in her mother's lap as the jaws of life peel open a limousine that has been smashed by a wrong-way drunk driver?
Why do office workers get so annoyed at a little secondhand smoke that might subtract a week or two from their 96th year, but laugh when their kids come home staggering with a newly acquired case of chlamydia?
The only reason that makes sense to me is that alcohol is our most commonly used aphrodisiac and nature wants her Betas to keep having babies-it gives passion an advantage over reason. Smart people drink more because it takes a bigger dose to keep them unreasonable.

Evil Sandmich said...

Colt 45! Love it! Problem is-I can't find it ...

Yeah if one goes to buy it in Cleveland, best to have a concealed carry permit when visiting those proprietors.

The Malt Liquor Menace is nothing compared to the IPA menace.

I'm sure there are some IPA nerds on here. These guys are like the hot sauce aficionados who can eat whole habaneros because they've so completely burned out their insides. IPA fans should just buy bags of dried hops and eat them out of the bag and skip the 'beer' step altogether.

Svigor said...

I've been drinking cognac for years. I found out a little while back that it's a popular drink in the rap community, so much so that it's a stereotype. Who knew? I thought I was being all fusty old guy and it turns out I'm vibrant.

I gots ta git me a Glock and a pitbull and a grill.


Lol. Other end for me. I heard it was the Detroit/Rapper bev of choice long before trying it. Damned if they don't have good taste in the 'hood. A good cognac is the bee's knees, far easier to sip than scotch. Jack is pretty close, though.

Beer's got too many calories.

Cats are living art.

They're great for modeling sociopathy for clueless honkies.

Anonymous said...

Anonyous said: "I'm with Fred Sanford, and prefer for special occasions the combination of Champagne and Ripple, known as "Cripple."

Fred also called it Cham-pipple. His combo of Maneschewitz and Ripple was Maneschipple. I'm not sure if Grady had a different name for it though.

One thing I found interesting was that Lamont's friend was Puerto Rican. They didn't have 'Ricans in Los Angeles in those days. Obviously a New York writer...

Power Child said...

I visited a younger cousin in lower Manhattan back in 2006. She was about 17 or 18, and she had a bunch of friends who dressed really weird and talked about art a lot (I didn't know it yet, but these were hipsters). All of them were privileged white kids from the surrounding wealthy neighborhoods.

Anyway, I had no plans one night so I went with my cousin and her hipster friends to a house party further downtown. I considered it a form of spectatorship--see what the kids are up to these days. I was in my early 20s, so I could passably blend into the background.

Most of the people at the party were carrying little black plastic bags, each one with a 40 ounce bottle of malt liquor inside it. I thought it was weird because as far as I know, only drunks and ghetto black people drank that stuff.

I don't know if drinking malt liquor has become a trend among the Millenials, or whether this was an isolated phenomenon relegated to south-Manhattan hipsters.

C. Van Carter said...

As a youth I enjoyed Rainier Ale (aka "Green Death"), which had a more sophisticated flavor than it ever got credit for. There are Belgian beers with higher alcohol content than many malt liquors, but also taste fantastic.

countenance said...

So it's the fault of the malt liquors that those that drink it end up in ERs, not the blacks that like to drink it.

Marlowe said...

If one cannot drink beverages named after weapons I guess I'll have to forgo Charles Wells' Bombardier and Kentish Spitfire ale.

And what about the ethnic cleansing happening once again, north of the border, perpetrated by the forces of repression against the good folk of Glasgow who like to quaff the odd bottle of Bucky:

J Chandler & Co applied to the Court of Session in Edinburgh this week for an interdict against Strathclyde Police to prevent bottles of Buckfast being made to carry anti-crime labels.

The company has accused Scotland’s largest police force of “ethnic cleansing”, arguing that the stickers would stigmatise the Buckfast brand.

The Glasgow-based Strathclyde Police force has asked a number of off-licences and convenience stores and to apply the small, round stickers to bottles, which will allow them to track where a bottle is bought, making it traceable if it is then involved in a crime or found to be in the possession of an under-age drinker.

They may take our Bucky but they'll never take our freedom! Could Neil Diamond record a song about it? The Cumbernauld estate has a lot in common with an Indian reservation.

Power Child said...

Anonymous of 8/20/13, 7:38 AM said:

Cats carry a mind control virus.

My wife and I both prefer dogs, but we have a cat for some reason. One night the cat wandered over and meowed and started scratching the carpet, which I knew meant that either she wanted to play or she needed her litter emptied. So I got up and walked over to her litter box. That's when it hit me:

People train dogs. Cats train people.

Power Child said...

Okay, one more thing to say, this time on topic.

Drug prohibition is a legacy cause of late 1800s/early 1900s Progressives. A century later their descendants, the modern Liberals, are still full on the cause, and one of the things that keeps it appealing is that it gives them an excuse to blame the bad behavior of minorities on something other than minorities.

The inertia extends beyond illegal drugs to include legal ones as well.

Anonymous said...

One of your more interesting readers is interviewed here.

To paraphrase Rihanna (or one of her Norwegian song writers): He might be bad but he's perfectly good at it.

Anonymous said...

My favorite term for a person who drinks until he blacks out is "time traveler".

Anonymous said...

Anon Said:To think, if you only understood that correlation isn't causation you could have saved the time and we could have been spared your boring rant.

.................................................................................

Reread my boring rant and see if you can find any causal statements, fanboy.
.................................................................................
Mike said: Could you be one of those that will call some light colored, low alcohol content, low calorie, absent of flavor beer a "session" beer?

When I hear someone use the term "session beer" favorably, I know I'm in the presence of someone that owns his own shopping bags.

.................................................................................

've never heard the term before, but thanks for the warning. These "session beer" SWPLs sound almost as bad as west coast IPA nerds

Personally, I find that beer is only worth drinking when it's been distilled and aged in oak.

- The Judean People's Front

Anonymous said...

I believe it. I have been a slave to my cats for the past four decades. I'm constantly shopping for their food and toys. I drop thousands of dollars on vet bills when they get terminal. And the other day I realized I've taken four times as many pictures of my cats than my kids. It's really getting out of control. I'm considering hyperbaric therapy. It worked for Mr Spock when he got bit by the nervous system invading flying gummy pizza.

Sgt. Hulka said...

countenance said..."So it's the fault of the malt liquors that those that drink it end up in ERs, not the blacks that like to drink it."

Lighten up Francis

keypusher said...



Advertising is expensive. Really cheap, terrible stuff hardly gets advertised at all. A classic example for hard liquor is Popov vodka.

If you go by results, the most dangerous stuff is whatever alcoholics drink...which would make Popov as dangerous as anything out there.

Anonymous said...

I thought most of the alcohol-related hospital trips in Baltimore were the result of overindulgence in Chateau Lafite-Rothschild '29.

Peter

Anonymous said...

Thanks for leaving out your usual bit on the virtues of Natty Light this time, Steve.

heartiste said...

Malt liquor is (relatively) sweet. Blacks like sweet-tasting food and drink. That's why blacks drink malt liquor (and other notable brands like purpa drank).

IPAs are gateway craft beers for white guys who spent their whole lives drinking Coors Light. American brewers about 20 years ago decided it was time to up their game to match the Euros, and their first forays into real beer were IPAs. But the best craft brews are not IPAs (although some IPAs are world class, like Russian River offerings). The really good stuff that tickles the fancy of beer snobs are the sour beers and barley ales. Many stouts are great.

Women hate hoppy beers. Women love wheat beers and other fruity light beers with pictures of smiling suns on the label. Women, like blacks, have a taste for sweet things.

Generally speaking, the more refined your palate, the more you appreciate bitter or sour tastes and avoid sweet tastes.

We are living through both a golden age of beer and of TV. So, the current Gelded Age hasn't been a total wash in terms of cultural enrichment. Oh, I suppose we are also living through a golden age of independent broadsheets aka blogs.

Anonymous said...

"Mickey's Big Mouth is like drinking from a toilet."

Yeah, toilet to toilet, Mickey's always returneth from whence it came.

Anonymous said...

Fatburger wasn't created by whites - it was created by blacks and for most of its history it was black-owned, although it's current owner is white (and with organized crime ties)

SGOTI said...

"If one cannot drink beverages named after weapons I guess I'll have to forgo Charles Wells' Bombardier and Kentish Spitfire ale."

We always called Mickey's Big Mouths "Brain Grenades", because they were shaped and textured like an old fashioned WWII grenade, and the old lid had a pull tab within a cap that you yanked off and dropped.

Occasionally you had to affect some class and military dash and sip a few French 75 cocktails. Pocket artillery booze, not bad (although not a big gin fan).

Truth said...

"Generally speaking, the more refined your palate, the more you appreciate bitter or sour tastes and avoid sweet tastes."

Let me go out on a limb here; your palate happens to coincide?

Anonymous said...

"The Glasgow-based Strathclyde Police force"

Scarier unarmed than most armed police forces.

(Also Glasgow might be an interesting extra bit of evidence for the idea that a pervasive urban gang-culture can preserve high levels of violence when it has faded elsewhere.)

heartiste said...

Let me go out on a limb here; your palate happens to coincide?

d'ya ever notice how children like sweet sugary foods to the exclusion of every other taste and then most of them grow out of it?

Mr. Anon said...

IPAs are overrated crap - most of them taste like piss smells. I would rather drink ANY mass-produced Mexican, Japanese, Czech, or Polish beer than an IPA.

Mr. Anon said...

"keypusher said...

Advertising is expensive. Really cheap, terrible stuff hardly gets advertised at all. A classic example for hard liquor is Popov vodka."

The "Aristocrat" label looks pretty scary too - it's on the bottom shelf of every liquor store I've ever been in.

Truth said...

"d'ya ever notice how children like sweet sugary foods to the exclusion of every other taste and then most of them grow out of it?"

Roissy, (I think that sounds more Alpha than heartiste, buddy, sorry) with all possible respect, and I do like your writing; kids are not exactly the metier of PUAs. No, negs, and 2-sets and hypnosis are.

Yes, children like sweets when they are young, but this s a physiological adaption toward instant caloric consumption. Kids also like hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, cheetos, french fries, pizza, etc.

Seriously bud, you should knock up a couple of these 10's you are negging between the sheets, You and Ross Jeffries could be modern day Charlamagnes save the white race all by yourselves!

Antioco Dascalon said...

No, he's right. There is definitely a correlation between bitterness and more sophisticated palates. Take chocolate. Most people like milk, aficionados like dark, which is much more bitter. Most newbies like white wine or sweeter wine, experts tend to prefer red or more complex (i.e. less sweet) wines. Hard alcohol: amateurs like sugary colorful cocktails, more sophisticated drinkers prefer whisky or other not-at-all sweet concoctions (including bitters!). Coffee: most like lots of cream and sugar, or even mochacchinos, while aficionados like espresso straight, which is much less sweet. For almost every food or beverage that has an elite following that will pay top dollar for a sub-type, that more expensive type tends to be far less sweet than the entry level item. Even dessert tends to be this way. The cheap desserts at fast food or chain restaurants are very sweet, while top restaurants often have much less sweet desserts, even using savory ingredients.

Dave Pinsen said...

Re some of the beer snobbishness above: when you are thirsty on a hot day, nothing beats an ice cold lager. I like Asahi, but pretty much anyone will hit the spot. Lagers are one beverage that countries from Korea to Mexico seem to do well.

Also, if you want more alcohol in a carbonated beverage, there are some pretty decent bottles of cava available for under $10.

Anonymous said...

For cooking only: Hiram Walker Kirschwasser

Simply put, Hiram Walker Kirschwasser is firewater, as rough as cheap mixto tequila or rotgut grappa. It makes the eyes tear almost as well as household ammonia, opens the nasal passages like smelling salts, smells midway between (delicious but wild) Luxardo Maraschino and plastic-bottle vodka and burns the mouth and throat like fire. As per (Pernod Ricard property) Hiram Walker's claim for this, I don't doubt that it's naturally flavored, but I also doubt that it's made like real kirschwasser. There's probably some grain alcohol involved in its making, which in principle doesn't have to make it bad--traditional himbergeest is made with grain alcohol--but in practice often means that the various other compounds in good eaux de vie that mitigate alcohol's burn will be in short supply

http://www.epinions.com/review/Hiram_Walker_Liqueur_Kirschwasser_750ml_Hiram_Walker/content_548588916356?sb=1

heartiste said...

There is definitely a correlation between bitterness and more sophisticated palates.

Not only that, but more bitter and sour foods are healthier as well. Dark chocolate. Cruciferous veggies. Fermented grains. All better for you than their less bitter alternatives. Paleo eaters have known this for a while now. A refined palate is a healthier palate.

I've read a theory that children prefer sweeter foods because their growing bodies need the insta-calories, and they can better accommodate the resulting insulin spikes. But as we age, bitter foods begin to taste more inviting, and that may be the body's response to changing physiological needs.

Adults who continue to stuff sweet and high glycemic crap in their mouths are in a sense palate-stunted children. I also suspect there are broad racial differences in taste receptor preferences, which would explain why Troof can't outright deny that blacks disproportionately love that tooth-rattling grape soda. He has to snark around the issue.

Anonymous said...

I picked up a few bottles of Hevelius Kaper beer imported from Poland.Although it says beer on the label it really must be some sort of malt liquor as it was rated at 8.7%.
I also got myself a 40 oz bottle of King Cobra malt liquor rated at 6%. Made by Anheuser Busch.
I'm going back to to the store to pick up a few more bottles.

Anonymous said...

Heartiste said:Adults who continue to stuff sweet and high glycemic crap in their mouths are in a sense palate-stunted children.

.................................................................................

Sweetness may please the underdeveloped palate but a sweettooth hasn't always been a sign of plebeian origins or immaturity. A good Port, Madeira, Tokaji, or Pedro Ximenez Sherry probably scores higher on the Brix scale than Kool-Aid or any cheap "Drank." Hard cider is sweeter than malt liquor, yet middle-class Euro-Americans can publicly drink it without accusations of bad taste.

The ability to enjoy bitter flavors is probably a better indicator of mature taste than a dislike for sweets. Cognac, Bourbon, Aged Rum and even Scotch are sweeter than the flavored vodkas favored by many urban young women, but they find the oak tannins, esters and phenols overpowering.

That said, I've known many a peat head whose appreciation for Islay malts is as philistine as the brothas' uncritical love of sugar or the IPA nerds' hop fetish. Rather than look for complexity, balance, etcetera, all three groups seem to seek out the sweetest/bitterest/smokiest drink available.

-The Judean People's Front



.

Truth said...

"Troof can't outright deny that blacks disproportionately love that tooth-rattling grape soda. He has to snark around the issue."

But dude, you have to admit, you got a minor woodie just thinking about an America; cerca 2113 populated by descendants of you and Ross Jeffries.

Dave Pinsen said...

"Sweetness may please the underdeveloped palate but a sweettooth hasn't always been a sign of plebeian origins or immaturity. A good Port, Madeira, Tokaji, or Pedro Ximenez Sherry probably scores higher on the Brix scale than Kool-Aid or any cheap "Drank." Hard cider is sweeter than malt liquor, yet middle-class Euro-Americans can publicly drink it without accusations of bad taste.

The ability to enjoy bitter flavors is probably a better indicator of mature taste than a dislike for sweets. Cognac, Bourbon, Aged Rum and even Scotch are sweeter than the flavored vodkas favored by many urban young women, but they find the oak tannins, esters and phenols overpowering."


A lot of folks prefer to mix hard cider 50/50 with beer (some bars call this a snakebite) - cuts the sweetness and acidity a bit.

Re scotch, even the sweeter ones aren't really that sweet compared to bourbon or rum. And in any case, to an unrefined palate it all just tastes like alcohol straight. A typical city girl will drink any of it in a diet coke.

Silver said...

"Hard alcohol: amateurs like sugary colorful cocktails, more sophisticated drinkers prefer whisky or other not-at-all sweet concoctions (including bitters!)."

I've drunk whiskey, vodka and brandy straight for years without having developed any kind of a liking for it. When it comes to night life I prefer to it alone (friends get in the way more than they help is my experience) so I rarely find myself "pre-gaming" over long periods of time. I still prefer to walk into a venue slightly buzzed, though, and the quickest way to do that is hard liquor straight. For me the stuff tastes as almost as awful today as the first time I tried it - there's no way I'd ever touch it if it didn't contain alcohol. Beer, on the other hand, I might actually have the occasional glass or two of even if it didn't contain alcohol, especially with a meal.

sbarrkum said...

IPA=India Pale Ale

from Wiki
By the mid-18th century, pale ale was mostly manufactured with coke-fired malt, which produced less smoking and roasting of barley in the malting process, and hence produced a paler beer.[5] One such variety of beer was October beer, a pale well-hopped brew popular among the landed classes, who brewed it domestically; once brewed it was intended to cellar two years.

Among the earliest-known named brewers whose beers were exported to India was George Hodgson of the Bow Brewery, on the Middlesex-Essex border. Bow Brewery beers became popular among East India Company traders in the late 18th century because of the brewery's location and Hodgson's liberal credit line of 18 months. Ships transported Hodgson's beers to India, among them his October beer, which benefited exceptionally from conditions of the voyage and was apparently highly regarded among its consumers in India.

Anonymous said...

Hard to take this study seriously when it mentions Bud Light but not Cisco. I don't know what they put in the latter but holy shit it will knock you on your ass after you make a fool of yourself.

Mr. Anon said...

"Silver said...

When it comes to night life I prefer to it alone (friends get in the way more than they help is my experience) so I rarely find myself "pre-gaming" over long periods of time. I still prefer to walk into a venue slightly buzzed, though, and the quickest way to do that is hard liquor straight."

Yeah, like YOU are probably a good employee.

Anonymous said...

""Every cat is remarkable. I have two cats, one I got from a shelter for $60 and another I bought from a breeder for $1200. Pound for pound they are both as good as gold. Cats are living art."

Cats carry a mind control virus."

O fcol. And they cast spells that made Goody Atwood cause pins to enter the girls' bellies...

These may or may not be men you admire, but Adolph Hitler, Napoleon, and Julius Caeser were terrified by cats, as was a coldly autocratic black woman boss I once had, who called the police one morning to remove a cat she saw on her porch. The police thought she was using the word "cat" to mean a dude. Nope. CAT. She was totally freaked by them.
My pyschology professor, a Hungarian medical doctor, and no PC addict, said that bullies hate cats; people who have something to hide, they don't want others to know about, hate cats.
He was such a gruff man himself, I would have thought he was a cat-hater but he loved them. So did Lincoln and many artists and writers. Don't know about scientists, though i think Einstein was a cat person.
Cats were often thrown in the fire during witch hunts--the citizens of Paris were famous for this until a Polish born French Queen, wife of Louis XV, put an end to it, she being a cat lover.

Nobody is more aware of "
mind controlling", as practiced by the mass media (short hand term).
There are worse mind controllers out there to worry about than cats. Or any other animal. It's people we have to worry about.

Anonymous said...

A taste for sugar may be innate for kids, but if one gets no sugar during childhood, the taste tends not to develop. As far as blacks, Africans traditionally did not like sugar, and children would often be rewarded with a handful of salt, if they did any chores. Even today, African men think cakes are food for women and children. Neither gender, in Africa, likes chocolate much. Festive cakes are white or yellow.

Silver said...

"Yeah, like YOU are probably a good employee."

Hehe, good timing, my man.