h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It will soon come to light that Mexican farmers are fertilizing their avocado trees with marijuana buds. Single malt Scotch has the whole alcohol content thing going for it. As for marmite, I really couldn't tell you. If some were found at my house, I'd have to call in a chemical waste disposal unit.

Of course, it could just be that we like these things only because everyone else hates them, and deep down, we want to be hated. Or we hate everybody. Or I should give up my career as a psychoanalyst.

The number one undisputable aquired taste in the world?

BEER

There is no doubt about it. Give some to a ten-year old who's never tasted alcohol and they'll think it's mule-whiz. But try and stop a teenager from suckin' down a Bud, Corona, or Guinness. Personally I like Tecate with lime (the salt's optional).

Another aquired taste?

Habaneros

The HOTTEST edible substance in the world. I like just a very tiny dash in my chili or salsa. It makes my nose run, my eyes water, and sometimes I get the hiccups.

I think Jalapenos are also an aquired taste. You have to get used to the heat before you can enjoy the flavor. Very tasty! Especially fried Jalapenos. Unfortunately they are more prone to give me the hiccups than Habaneros, even though they aren't as hot.

I'm not entirely sure about beer. When I was five years old, I had my first taste, and it tasted like mule piss. Or clydesdale piss, to be more precise, since it was Budweiser. Twenty years later, I stand before you as a dedicated beer swiller, and I still think Bud tastes like piss. As a teenager, I sucked down suds that were nasty, but only because I couldn't buy it myself, so I had to drink what was at hand. There are beers out there for every taste, if you take the time to do the homework (and what a pleasant homework it is!)

On the Bud front, what do you expect from a brewery that puts *rice* in beer. Have they *no* soul?.
I just visited their site to double-check before I wrote, so now I'm no longer confused about your 'Clydesdales' comment.
As far as I'm aware, they don't use the horses in their advertising over here. I guess using such a (presumably?) British breed would make the beer seem a little too unAmerican for their trendy, tasteless UK customers.
Here, we get images of all-American blue-collar workers sinking a Bud after a hard day at the foundry, or some borderline patronising advert involving Native Americans.

I'm sure that you are right about chemicals. This would explain the popularity of pork pies. When I buy one, I eat about half then bin the rest because I don't like the taste. Next week in the supermarket I pick up a further supply of the damn things, and the cycle is repeated.

Or are they using subliminal advertising in amongst all that dodgy background music?

Buy yourself a pie
Buy yourself a pie
You, you fat *******,
Buy yourself a pie.

This may also explain where football chants come from, and why the whole crowd suddenly knows all the lyrics that no-one has ever heard before.

Ah, budweiser. I heard that not only did they steal the name from the great Czech brewery (who now brew Budweiser "Budvar" - an altogether more impressive and tasty brew) but they did it on the same day that the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia!
And yes - they do use rice.

Oh, the United States also brew Budweiser then?

OK, to tell the truth, I knew of the US Budweiser before I heard of the Czech one, and it's even later that I was told the terrible story of their stealing an existing name. In the meantime, I met a Czech person and one of his big ranting topics was precisely that everyone thought Bud was American. The easiest way to annoy him was telling him how much you loved Budweiser (I personnally prefer actually).

I agree Beer is an acquired taste.

However, I can't be arsed to acquire such a taste. So I still don't like beer. Mule piss is a good description for it!

2/3

At the age of fourteen I began studying hard to acquire a taste for . I applied myself unstintingly and after four years I could drink it without wincing visibly.

Funny isn't it? It seemed somehow important at the time.

I think I didn't like all too much at the beginning, but I surely pretended to. In time I became a genuine addict.

How about coffee then? I used to fing it so when I started drinking it: I was 14-ish, entering college (or whatever you call the school you enter at that age) and thinking "now real hard life begins, I have to be in tip-top shape right from the beginning of the day and therefore I must drink coffee". Wasn't that ? Hard life indeed

Funny thing is, I never became addicted to coffee; normally I have one espresso (what the Spanish call a 'solo' and the French 'un petit') per day, but if I don't have it, even for weeks, I don't miss it at all.

I tried to become a pipe-smoker in my twenties, but it just made me sick, and when I stopped that I didn't miss it either.

Someone has pointed out that there are also strong non-chemical addictions, such as trousers. Deprive a trousers-wearer of his and he will act out classical withdrawal patterns.

Also games, of course, movies and music and the like.

Trousers? Well if I had to walk around in boxer shorts I would certainly feel uncomfortable .