What was your introduction to grown up drinks?

[ianrauk]

Was, or is that is, it beer? They always called it malt liquor.

Beer, liqour, booze, call it what you will ok....

 

[vernon]

Lifted from a posting that I made last year:

I've never lost my liking for sherry and port acquired as a four year old who discovered the Christmas stash in the pantry. Come unveiling of the Christmas spirits, the bottles were best part empty and the mystery of my strange behaviour over the preceding weeks was finally solved.

I'm off to the kitchen to pour myself a port now. If only I had some Christmas cake with a thick layer of marzipan under the icing.......

 

[colly]

Earliest would be the froth off my Mum, Dad's or Nan's beer. Probably about 4.
Other than that it would be Watney's Brown Ale from round the back of my mate's Dad's pub, stolen of course.

Freemans beer is always better.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I went on a residential music course with my school to a big posh mansion in Devon. 14 at the time, there was a pub nearby with the obligatory strong cider (and a lack of scruples on the part of the publican). Before that, the odd red wine progressively less and less watered down. Mind, the family has a tradition of managed alcoholism with very few booze-related deaths and pretty good lifespans. Our genes deal well with hangovers too. (Though cycling uphill early the next morning is virtually impossible.)

 

[400bhp]

My cousins on various family do's stiffing me with beer. Don't know the age-perhaps 10?

Don't really drink anymore.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

The way the Aged P tells it the first time I got pished I was 5 or 6. Sweep, our pet cocker spaniel, and I, discovered the joys of Black Velvet sitting under the top table, LOLS it was the dining table in our council house, after I had acted as page-boy at my eldest sister's hurriedly arranged first wedding. The dog got completely legless and pished itself in the kitchen and I was sick as a dog when I went to see. I've never really felt the same way about mushroom vol-au-vents since. My parents and all the other guests were, needless to say, utterly, gloriously stosious, and thought our antics hilarious.

 

[Maverick Goose]

Calvados on a school trip to Normandy aged 13

 

[coffeejo]

Another tiddly toddler here. Apparently my grandfather picked up his glass to discover it wasn't a whatever-with-tonic but lemonade. I, so the story goes, slept the whole afternoon.

Aged 11 or 12, some friends and I finished off the discarded but still containing some booze glasses and bottles in the marquee after a wedding. Spent the next few years experimenting with various cheap ciders and spirits ... alcoholism runs in the family so it's not really a surprise that I was headed that way myself. Stopped in time, just, in my early twenties.

 

[jayonabike]

My dad had a bar built in the living room when I was a lad and every now and then I used to help myself to all different kinds of alcohol. Mainly shorts as I could neck one quickly when no one was around. I think that's where I got my taste for whisky and other shorts from as that's all I mainly drink now and only have a beer occasionally.

 

[ayceejay]

My fambly didn't drink, yet at Christmas the sideboard had a bottle of scotch, gin, one of sherry, port, another of martini. Mum was out and we had some friends round messing about, I was eight. My dad asked me to pour him a drink, when I asked what ? he said casually "oh anything". Just for a laugh we took a tall glass and going from left to right we made a cocktail from everything on the sideboard, it even overflowed. I ceremoniously served it. When I got back to the sideboard there was a white ring burned into the varnish where the glass had been, there was a universal drawing in of breath because we thought that we had poisoned him and we each took on a pose of innocence until he reappeared and asked for another. What my mother said about all this when she returned is a story for another day.

 

[Telemark]

a very careful wee sip off my granny's glass of dark ale that she sometimes had with her lunch, when I was about 6 or 7 years old...
As granny liked it, I thought it must be extra special, but was sooo disappointed, it tasted awful . I still remember it very vividly, the whole thing, including what I was wearing (which is very unusual for me). That first sip put me off any type of beer until my early twenties, when I discovered that it was actually not all THAT bad . Still not a big drinker though - which is no bad thing, as far as I am concerned. More pennies for other stuff .

T

 

[swee'pea99]

Cider at a party, aged I dunno - 10? I remember sliding down the stairs giggling like a loon. And I think I remember throwing up, but everything was a bit hazy, so I can't swear to that bit.

 

[marknotgeorge]

My dad used to work on the coaches. Many a bottle of cheap French plonk came home...

 

[slowmotion]

Serious oblivion came from Clan Dew, a fine blend of British wine and Fine Scottish Whisky, aged for about a week. It tasted exotic to a teenager, and was a pretty cheap way of visiting a different place.

 

[mr messy]

Can't believe we haven't had Mad Dog mentioned yet......all you little cc shrinking violet wallflowers