Has anybody else lost their taste for alcohol?

I think absent was referring to pure alcohol - if you drank that you would not live to comment, I think!

I may have an unsophisticated palette but I sure as heck can smell the difference between whisky and beer that's for sure, maybe I'm alone in thinking most types of alcohol have their own distinctive taste/smell. But then why do people inhale the smell when sampling wines/whiskey?

When I was young, the 'working classes' didn't drink wine and I can remember when my husband and I first bought some in the 1960's - of course we began on the dreadful Blue Nun but progressed through the years to drier wines, which we would order very bravely in restaurants.

I lost my taste for most sweet things many years ago - it drove my daughter mad when I was living with her, as I would buy a block of nut chocolate and eat one piece a day - she is a chocoholic. I think she thought I was doing it to spite her in some way, but any more just feels sickly to me. Now, I buy very dark chocolate, over 80% cocoa content, but it is very bitter so I choose the type with some burnt almonds, or orange chips. Again, I eat one square per day. The only chocolates that I cannot resist are the expensive brands of chocolate brazils - I go mad and have a box every Christmas! I usually choose ice-cream for dessert in restaurants, and at home I have rum and raisin, or coffee with a bit of cream, which I still love.

My mother never lost her taste for sweet things and neither has my sister, so it obviously does not happen to everyone.
Do men have less of a sweet tooth than women? I have never heard a man admit to being a chocoholic!

Good point Absent. It's an unsophisticated palette. I think if my first taste of alcohol had been the 49p bottle of 'Riesling' from Augustus Barnett which I was once offered (and drank - with difficulty) I would have said I didn't like it either.

I don't understand how anyone can say that they don't like the smell or the taste of alcohol – when it has neither. I can appreciate that you don't like certain alcoholic drinks, but beer neither smells nor tastes like gin, whisky neither smells nor tastes like Champagne and Western brands of vodka have no taste or smell of their own.

I could have a bottle of the nicest wine at home and it would be left unopened by me for years. Occasionally I will have a Sauvignon blanc if I am having a meal in a restaurant and had a couple of glasses at a cocktail party recently which made me really tired. I also had a glass of beer last week when having lunch at a pub, but I just don't have the taste for alcohol, I prefer green tea. I wish I could say the same about my cravings for chocolate which is getting worse. In the last few years I have been addicted to fruchocs (dried apricts in chocolate), chocolate bullets, then I loved Freddo frogs, recently I have been eating bubble chocolate. I am a chocoholic.

I have not drunk alcohol for ages - probably 20 years. I did enjoy it, but seemed to have no tolerancec for it at all and would feel very sick after just a glass of wine. I couldn't seeing the point of self-induced suffering so gave it up. I do not miss it - and I am a cheap date!!

MY daughter took me to a couple of vineyards in NZ - they had lovely little restaurants and you could buy the wine quite cheaply.

I stopped drinking back in March when I started on my diet - but when we were in the Sonoma Valley in California in September I did go to a few wine tastings. (And we did bring back one bottle of a beautiful Merlot with us for a special occasion). We were very taken with the way the wineries there provided lovely patios and decking where you could go along and take a picnic - and buy a bottle of their wine to accompany it!

I have never really been a big drinker though, as, apart from anything else, alcohol makes me miserable - which is not good when everyone else is happy.

My daughters and their friends used to drink San Miguel because it was so cheap, and in Monaco they could buy two litres of rot-gut wine for about £1, from Prisunic. Fortunately, they both stopped smoking and drinking when they were pregnant. They never resumed smoking, but once their children were older they both became social drinkers again.

Greatnan We had a party in Hongkong in 1975 at which the only drinks served were San Miguel beer, out of a machine supplied by the brewery, and jugs of Harvey Wallbangers. I seem to remember that I bought at least five bottles of Galliano

We have cut down on alcohol because of the calories more than anything else (and the cost!)

The older you are the more difficult it seems to be to keep your weight under control so only having a drink at weekends has certainly helped.

Friday night Gin o' Clock is now a much anticipated treat.

Does anybody remember Harvey Wallbangers? Oh, the hangovers they gave me! With old age comes wisdom?

I haven't lost my taste. I'm just a social drinker who doesn't seem to socialise much these days!! Boo Hoo!!

nightowl I also love cocktails!

I haven't given up anything I enjoy, Mamie! As I said, I have lost most of my taste for alcohol, but I still enjoy the odd glass with a meal, mainly in company.

Certainly haven't lost my taste for wine! But I am careful most of the time - at least a couple of days off each week. I cannot drink spirits any more, though, and no longer even like the taste.

So is it GNHQ who are drinking all the wine on our behalf?

Well I don't think enjoying a glass of wine with a nice meal will kill you either!
I think I have posted before about my lovely French doctor who said, "You could give up wine, cheese and everything else you enjoy and you might live a bit longer, but it would feel like a very long time"....

I think I am addicted to tea and walking but I guess neither of those will kill me!

Echo that, nightowl. There's an alcoholism gene in my family which fortunately seems to have skipped my generation and my sons'. However, if I buy chocolate, I can't stop until it's finished. Addiction? I think so.

I never really liked the taste of alcohol and at am glad to have reached an age where I no longer feel I have to make excuses for not drinking it. I do like a glass of pimms in summer and a nice cocktail, but alcohol for me is probably no more than an annual experience.

I have close past and present experience of how alcohol wrecks health and lives and I'm sure that as something to do with my underlying suspicion of all things alcoholic. I suspect I have an addictive gene myself, but mine translates to chocolate (unfortunately for my waistline)

I had a glass of wine last week, the first I'd had since Christmas [and not sure I had any then either]. I only drank it because it was part way through the day, I was desperately tired as I hadn't been sleeping well and I was 'too tired to sleep'. So I knocked back half a glass of Lidl's best that the S.O. buys and slept like a log for the afternoon. I stopped drinking when the children were small as all I wanted to do was stay awake, and I never really started again. Went through a phase of having a glass of sherry at night to use up the Croft that we always used to get from work at Christmas but, when that had gone I never replaced it. I have to say the Lidl [or it might be Aldi] 's best was very nice.

I don't think I ever really acquired a taste for it , even the smell puts me off so I just gave it up completely many years ago... having an alcoholic husband (now ex and deceased) certainly helped make up my mind to go teetotal.. People still offer me drinks even after all these years...
I drink water or low calorie 'something'.

I rarely drink now, used to like a glass of wine but only if it was decent stuff. Cardiologist said I should not drink so I stopped but do have the odd glass of Champagne at celebrations.
Like Greatnan I find panache is good on hot days and is good with a curry.
I drink a lot of water, sparkling and still but not tap water as it tastes horrible. There is a lot of building work in the area and they are adding extra disinfectant to the water.

As I live by myself, I never drink by myself. If I'm out for dinner and then I will have a glass of wine or scotch or gin. I can go for weeks without having a drink. Especially now as DD2 is five weeks away from having Baby No 3 so when I'm with her, she doesn't drink and her husband is not a big drinker. DD1 and her husband are also not big drinkers so I seem to have got out of the habit of drinking.

I do like a Pimms in the summer! I also love Elderflower cordial with lots of ice - very refreshing. And good old tap water works for me!