Foul First Drink

Data: [drinks beverage as his face contorts in profound disgust] Oh, yes! I hate this! It is revolting!
Guinan: More?
Data: [without any hesitation whatsoever] Please.

— Star Trek: Generations

Alcohol is cool, right? Many people enjoy a good drink now and then. For many people, the first sip of booze after a long day's work or a stressful situation is a feeling like no other. And of course, it's something that only adults can do, so kids and teenagers often look at it with awe, awaiting the day they finally have the chance to try this seemingly wonder-drink that will immediately transport them to a state of bliss.

However, getting to this point often requires a lot of prior experience with alcohol. For many people, alcoholic beverages often carry a surprisingly bitter taste that takes some getting used to. Therefore, many people trying alcohol for the first time, especially children or teenagers for whom booze has long been a Forbidden Fruit, tend to react poorly to the taste. The association of alcohol with euphoria and relaxation often makes said abrasive taste a shock to those with little drinking experience, who expect drinking to be a calming experience from start to finish. Seasoned drinkers may argue that, used properly, the harsh taste of alcohol enhances its relaxing properties, encouraging one to take things slowly, carefully considering each sip, but again, it often takes some time to get to this point.

May result in a Spit Take. Or simply a grimace from a teenager trying to look cool in front of their friends. Or an utterance of "I think I'm going to be sick".

Can overlap with Gargle Blaster, though not necessarily as this trope is meant to say more about the drinker's lack of experience than the drink itself. May occur with the cloudy, overproof hooch produced by a Hillbilly Moonshiner.

Also doesn't necessary overlap with Can't Hold His Liquor, since this has to do with reacting poorly to the taste of alcohol rather than becoming intoxicated. If a parent forces a child to experience the bitter taste of alcohol to cure them of their desire for it, it's a Radish Cure. Compare A Tankard of Moose Urine, which is about bad tasting alcohol in general. May happen to Kids Raiding the Wine Cabinet. Contrast Beergasm.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Early on in Attack on Titan, Dot Pixis gives Eren Jaeger (a teenager who presumably hasn't had a drink before), a swig from his flask, which results in a Spit Take.

Comic Books

• One Young Justice event saw all the teen superheroes being turned into adults while the adult superheroes were all reverted to childhood. During this time, Tim Drake (who was Robin at the time) became an adult and took advantage of the situation to visit a bar and hang out with his dad, who is unaware that it's Tim. He decides to try having a beer but immediately spits it out all over his dad.

Fan Works

• In The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, Clover the Clever is roped into a drinking game having never consumed alcohol before. When she first takes a gulp, she does manage to swallow it, but she does wonder aloud how ponies drink something so bitter, to be answered with a simple "We don't drink it for the taste" from someone else.
• A chapter in Vineyard Shrine shows Emma Barnes sneaking into her dad's wine cellar for a sip (after watching Taylor's constant drinking in school), only to spit it right back out.

Film — Live-Action

• In House Arrest, having imprisoned their parents in the basement of Grover's house, the kids all decide to try some alcohol. They all end up spitting it out.
• In Jack, while the titular character is in a state of depression, he takes advantage of the fact that he is a 10-year old with the physical body of a 40-year old to go to a bar and have his first alcoholic beverage. He orders a Shirley Temple, and he starts to drink, to which he first reacts by doing a Spit Take. After a few more sips of it, however, he grows accustomed to the drink (the Shirley Temple is an odd choice for this trope, since it's traditionally a non-alcoholic cocktail, and even rather kid-friendly due to its sweetness).
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: While at Alex's treehouse, Spencer and Martha eagerly try the margaritas Alex made since they're technically old enough to drink alcohol while trapped in Jumanji, but after one sip, they decide not to finish them.
• Not realizing what kind of drink he'd just been given, Garth in Wayne's World 2 reacts to his first taste of whiskey by spitting it out and saying "This Coke's gone bad!"
• The Parent Trap (1998): Discussed, but justifiably subverted. 11-year-old Hallie, disguised as her twin sister Annie, asks to taste the wine while dining with her mother and grandfather. Her mother says she's not sure "Annie" will like it, presumably because she never let the real Annie try alcohol before. But since Hallie was raised on a vineyard with her wine connoisseur father, she handles it fine and even gives her opinion on the taste. To cover her slip-up, she claims she picked up the knowledge at camp.
• SHAZAM! (2019): One thing Billy Batson does in his Older Alter Ego as Shazam is buy beer. He and Freddy take one swig of their beers and then spit them out soon after.
  Billy: That tastes like actual vomit.
• In Star Trek: Generations, Data drinks his first bit of alcohol. With his new emotion chip installed, he gags on every sip and hates it, describing the drink as revolting. He still asks for more.
• Ultraman Cosmos 2: The Blue Planet: One of the peaceful Gyashi aliens, Shau, upon seeing a bottle of champagne for the first time, decide to take a swig. But being a centuries-old alien living under the sea, she's absolutely unused to the taste to the point of reacting with a Spit Take.

Literature

• The Belgariad: Garion is served his first beer when the main characters visit a noble estate. Feeling out of his depth as a Farm Boy in famous company, he drinks it to act grown-up in front of his aunt, but regrets both the flavour and the buzz.
• Captains Courageous: A variation when Harvey smokes a cigar offered to him by one of the rich men aboard the ship. He pretends to like it, but the harsh smoke stings his eyes and makes them tear up.
• The Indian in the Cupboard: When Omri is caught stealing liquor for Boone from his father's cabinet, his father forces him to drink it. He doesn't like it and finds it hard to swallow.
• Mermaid (2011): While exploring a shipwreck, Lenia finds a jug tipped over on the floor, with rum still inside. She takes a sip, immediately spits it out, and eats some fish and sea flowers to get rid of the awful taste.
• Dolphin Trilogy: In Dolphin Boy, Rupert has John served a very dry wine in one of his attempts to get John to embarrass himself in front of Della. Sure enough, John spits the wine onto the tablecloth in front of all the guests.
• In I Wish You All the Best, Nathan, Meleika, and Sophie talk Ben into going to a Wild Teen Party where one of the guests has smuggled in the contents of his dad's liquor cabinet. Ben is offered a cup of beer and chokes down two sips, fighting the urge to spit it out, so they won't look like a wimp in front of Nathan. Todd says, "Maybe you're not a beer man!" and pressures Ben into taking a shot of strawberry tequila, which doesn't taste like strawberry at all and burns on the way down. Ben has a panic attack, partly because of the effects of the alcohol.

Live-Action TV

• Subverted in 30 Rock. The main cast gets involved in a drinking contest, and eventually needs to rely on Kenneth to help. Since he's extremely sheltered (to the point of thinking coffee is evil), the group thinks they're doomed — but then Kenneth takes a sniff and remarks "This smells like hill-people milk! I've been drinking this since I was a baby!" He promptly starts throwing back shots with ease.
• The Big Bang Theory: This happens nearly every time Sheldon is knowingly introduced to alcohol. In one episode, he visits Penny at the bar of The Cheesecake Factory, takes a sip, and spits it back into the glass. Interestingly enough, if he isn't informed about the presence of alcohol, the taste doesn't seem to bother him, such as an early episode where Penny offered him a "virgin Cuba Libre"(a rum and coke without the rum) that turned out to be "a little slutty".
• The Incredible Hulk (1977): In the pilot movie, Death in the Family, the Hulk encounters a hobo at a campfire, eating discarded fried chicken. When the hobo sits still, too flummoxed to do anything, Hulk concludes the hobo is no threat and sits opposite him at the campfire. The hobo offers the Hulk a piece of chicken, which he sniffs warily, then eats it "bones 'n' all." Then the hobo offers Hulk some of his whiskey, which the Hulk also sniffs, then begins to drink. Stunned by the alcohol, he spits the stuff into the campfire, which makes it flare up. This sends the Hulk roaring away from the site.
• The Middle: In "Toasted," Sue turns twenty-one and Frankie takes her out to a bar. After taking her first drink, Sue makes a face and says, "I think there's something bad in this." Frankie responds, "That's the alcohol."
• Modern Family:
  • A subversion: for Haley's twenty-first birthday, Claire and Gloria take her to a bar for her first drink. However, as Haley has been drinking since long before was legal, she has gotten used to alcohol and has to fake disgust in front of her family members to pretend it's her first time.
  • Played straighter in a Season One episode when the family heads to Hawaii for a vacation. Haley has what's implied to be her first drink — wine coolers — and hates it, ending up completely drunk and miserable.
• Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy is in her late '20s, but she has been locked in an underground bunker since junior high and has never tried alcohol. When she does try her first cocktail, she grimaces and chokes out an "alcohol tastes...good."
• Invoked on The Walking Dead. After Daryl and Beth are separated from the rest of their group in Season 4, a despondent Beth decides it's time to try alcohol and tries to drink from a bottle of Peach Schnapps. Daryl decides this is a terrible first drink, angrily smashes the bottle, and takes Beth to a moonshine still that he had previously discovered. Beth is, of course, disgusted by the taste of the backwater hooch.
• Doom Patrol:
  • In "Sex Patrol", Dorothy chooses to stay up past her bedtime and participate in the party celebrated around the restoration of Danny out of a desire to experience the life of a grownup after spending most of her life being physically 11 years old in spite of being over 100 years chronologically. She finds an unattended martini and takes a sip, only to find that she doesn't like how it tastes.
  • In the third season, Kay Challis is briefly liberated from her alternate personalities for the first time in decades, and having never experienced being a grown-up before, she asks Cliff for a beer. She takes one swig and immediately spits it out.
• In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", Admiral Ross tastes Romulan ale for the first time and is quickly overwhelmed. He notes that he was one of the few officers who actually abstained from the ale, as it was until recently illegal in The Federation.

Newspaper Comics

• Calvin and Hobbes has a cigarette variation of this trope, where Calvin's mom allows him to smoke a cigarette his grandfather had left behind. Calvin promptly reacts horribly to the taste and starts gagging.

Webcomics

• El Goonish Shive: In this EGS:NP comic from an arc parodying Role Playing Games, Rhoda drinks a beer for the first time and is disgusted by the flavor.
  Rhoda: [wheezes] What in... People drink this stuff?!
  Catalina: It takes a little getting used to.
• Homestuck: Rose's first sip of her mother's wine as a teenager tastes awful and results in her spitting it out immediately. She becomes an alcoholic several years later.
• Original Life has a downplayed example: Fisk and Elizabeth's bokukko daughter Janie challenges Tommy and Lucy's son Leo to a beach volleyball match. After hours of intense play, Janie ekes out a win. At the extended family barbecue, Tommy offers Leo a bottle of beer for being a good sport. To everyone's surprise, Leo guzzles the stuff with ease. Lucy is aghast, and Tommy can only sputter, "I thought he'd hate it." Leo regards the bottle with the commentary, "I can see how this would be an acquired taste."
• Tales of the Questor: After choosing their careers Qunetyn's dad takes him and his friends to a tavern to celebrate. Quentyn takes one taste of a beer and immediately goes outside to throw it up. Blackberry sherry (a mild wine) proves more to his and his friends' liking and the next morning, they wind up wondering what they did that night, and even later it turns out the waitress accidentally gave them blackberry brandy instead.

Web Video

• Critical Role: Campaign Two: Caduceus Clay is a tea-loving cleric who has been sheltered at his family's temple his entire life before he decides to travel with the Mighty Nein. As such, since this is a Dungeons & Dragons world, he struggles to find something to drink at the first tavern they stop in. When Nott gets him to try whiskey for the first time, he ends up coughing and tries to take the edge off with milk, which doesn't help. Six drinks in, he still thinks alcohol tastes terrible, to which Beau replies, "You don't drink it 'cause it tastes good." ^note  Because he is a 7-foot-tall firbolg, the fact that it takes more drinks than average to give him a buzz is referenced as a factor as well.

Western Animation

• The Boondocks: In "The Story of Thugnificent", Riley sneaks into a party hosted by Thugnificent, who offers him a cocktail, which Riley spits out as soon as he tastes it.
• The Simpsons: In "Bart's New Friend", Homer is hypnotized into believing he's 10 years old again and does not remember anything he's done past that age. When Dr. Hibbert gives him a sample of beer to test the strength of the hypnotism, Homer instantly spits it out and complains about the flavor.
• The Venture Bros.: In "A Very Venture Halloween", Dean learns that he and Hank are clones from Ben, who also gives Dean his first beer to help cope with the revelation. Later, Dean tells Hank he learned something important, but he decides against telling Hank about the cloning and instead says that "beer taste like pee-pee".

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