I’ve always found it amusing to observe the 18 year old spring chickens who are finally legal to drink publicly (not behind closed doors anymore!) and go all out with their drinking antics, just to make the most of this new exciting age of theirs. I mean, you only get to be 18 for 365 days in your life, before the novelty of being a newbie adult slowly starts to wears off as you get older.
When you hit your early 20s, you’re still partying it up, but at this point you usually like to party it up with a little more style, as opposed to just going anywhere and drinking anything because you don’t know any better at 18. At 18, you’re bound to mix too many different alcoholic bevs in your system because you don’t know what will clash with what, or that you’re putting way too much salt on your hand as you prepare for that killer tequila. Not to mention the way you devour that lemon wedge afterwards, because your throat is burning and you need to relieve your singed taste buds.
Smirnoffs are a big trend amongst 18 year olds, since they’re a step up from the UDLs and vodka cruisers that they used to skoal when they were 16. A Smirnoff bottle also fits nicely in your hand and can be swung around wildly as you dance it up like there’s no tomorrow. Beer is also a common bev amongst the youngsters as well, because you can get it at any party or drink store really and it’s refreshing to have it cold when you’re thirsty.
In your early 20s, you’ve had a few years in the party scene, so you know where to go to get those cheap drink prices and what drinks will get you smashed without having to spend too much money. You’re usually not as impulsive as you’d be at 18, unless you’re actually planning to get hammered because it’s someone’s birthday or just because you feel like it.
Sometimes you’re content to enjoy a couple of vodka lemonades and avoid the excess drinking and vomiting saga, since you really can’t be bothered dealing with that hangover the next day either. A nice scotch never fails to satisfy your senses either, and a wine always adds that nice rosy complexion to your cheeks and makes you feel all warm and giddy.
People in their late twenties usually take the time to actually savour the taste of their drinks, like the refined taste of grapes in a nicely aged wine, or the rich taste of a Glenfiddich scotch that you can’t relish as much in a cheap scotch. For the late twenties experts, it’s quality over quantity: they generally have a sharper sensory experience when consuming their drinks, as opposed to an 18 year old who just wants to get smashed on a large quantity of alcohol.
An 18 year old generally doesn’t care about the quality of their alcohol, since they’re just going to chug it straight down. It’s all about having a hell of a crazy night out for these spring chickens; getting smashed, doing some crazy stunt on the dance floor and hooking up with somebody that they won’t even remember the name of the next day.
Yes, you do get your well groomed 18 year old who doesn’t like to drink much (or at all), and you can encounter somebody in their late twenties who really doesn’t care what they drink as long as it does its job in loosening them up. Not everybody is the same, but this is just a general perspective of drinking habits that I’ve observed in different age groups over the years. For the 18 year old spring chickens, it tends to be the cheap hard stuff that will send them straight into a drunken stupor, whereas for the late twenties experts it usually consists of more sophisticated alcoholic beverages that they will spend more money on so that they can enjoy, and of course the buzz that accompanies the taste is always a bonus.
As for people in their early to mid twenties, they usually swing between the two extremes on the pendulum depending on their moods and what stages of their lives they’re in. Some people get over their drinking stages and prefer to enjoy themselves without getting too intoxicated, but then others want to relive their 18 year old stages all over again and therefore they indulge in excessive amounts of alcohol. I guess our twenties are called the roaring twenties for a reason, and what’s a better way to let loose and enjoy these awesome years of our lives than with a drink or ten in hand?
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