I'm with you on the coffee -- never touch the stuff, though unaccountably I like the smell.

A girlfriend once theorized that I'd formed my opinion as a child and should try again, since tastes mature. We started black -- blecch -- and then went one teaspoon of sugar at a time.

I loved iced tea (especially Arnold Palmer style, mixed with lemonade), but I could count on one hand the number of cups of hot tea I've had in my life. Maybe three? Weird. Something about it. I don't hate the taste of hot tea (and I like the idea of it), but I don't enjoy it at all.

I'm a coffee drinker. Dark with regular milk (hate creamers, half n half), no sugar. Iced coffee year round. The most frou-frou I get with my java is a red-eye (coffee with a shot of espresso), with steamed milk. Oh, and when I lived in L.A. ('96-'02) I was addicted to the Vanilla Iced Blended at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I'd have a couple of those a week. Delicious, but wack as crack.

[sorry, hit "submit" by mistake]

Anyhow, five minutes later she said, "If we keep this up you're gonna get diabetes. You don't like coffee."

Alex, don't you find Tazo's Early Grey a little bitter? Twinings does it for me.

When people learn I'm a tea drinker, they assume I'm all snobby and picky about it. I'm always getting exotic whole-leaf stuff and little tools and accouterments at gift-giving time. Yet I'm no more picky about my tea than most people are about their coffee. If you forced me to stick with Tetley from the grocery store, it would not end my world.

Then there are the people who, when you're visiting, tell you they've got "lots of different kinds of tea -- just go find what you want!" And the cabinet is choked with all kinds of herbs and flower petals and whatnot, without a single speck of actual camellia sinensis to be found.

I have become a pretty big rooibos fan, though.

I also love espresso straight up, and cappucino -- but that's not frou-frou.

My mother boasted throughout her years that she never drank coffee. I guess you could live without Champagne, too. I couldn't.

[1] i'm the same way - i like the smell of coffee but have never had an actual cup of coffee.
i didn't try tea until i was in my late 20s/early 30s (my mother's family was probably going to revoke my indianess at some point) but i have come to enjoy a nice cup of hot tea on a cold morning albeit with a ton of sugar and milk

Up through college I never touched coffee. Couldn't stand the stuff. Then I got a job as a child care worker, working the 2 pm - midnight shift, and discovered I needed coffee. I have a cup or two every day. But during the workweek for breakfast I have a cup of tea.

I'm sure there's something common that I haven't tried. Can't think of it at the moment.

I get by with 2-3 cups during the weekdays, but I’m a coffee fiend on the weekends. On a lazy Saturday I’ll often get the shakes mid-afternoon and be confused as to why, until I remember that I’ve eaten one banana or piece of toast all day, couple with 5 or more cups of joe. French press is where it’s at.

There’s not many foods I haven’t tried at least once. I’ve always loved the cheddar/parm/manchego type cheeses but had an aversion to blues or anything too soft (brie, camembert, etc.) but recently inexplicably jumped full on the blue cheese bandwagon, though I still can’t stomach the stinky/runny cheeses.

To take up Alex's question:

For someone who is no pillar of virtue when it comes to what I put in my body (let's just say neither the swimsuit modeling people nor the temperance union have me on speed dial), I've steered clear of some very common vices. Coffee I mentioned above. And I've never smoked or inhaled a molecule of tobacco, save for what people blew out in bars.

Don't think I've every tried cottage cheese, either. I love most cheese, but it just... looks yucky to me, okay? Also it was very big for dieters when I was a kid in the 70s, which didn't make sense to me: You want to slim down, so you're eating a bowl of cheese??

Never puffed a cig, smoked a joint, or did any other drugs.

as a child i was an extremely picky eater - so was my brother and in some cases our tastes didn't go together. bless my mom because she cooked to both of our likes and dislikes. i have now become a much more adventurous eater. but, i've never had bologna.

this thread is child's play for all of us though - thelarmis will have a field day :}

[10] Ditto, but I did have a few cigars once upon a time.

[0] I am pretty sure that I am the only person in my class in law school who did not drink coffee regularly - or at least that's how the dean remembered me.

I have drank coffee a couple of times, just to try it, but the taste is awful. No thanks. Beyond that, my mother was (and is) such a compulsive coffee drinker, that I can remember being a kid and hearing her complain about getting headaches on the days she didn't have her fourth or fifth cup by the afternoon. That was enough to turn me off coffee for ever.

I did and do like tea, primarily Earl Grey, and [3] I'm with you FreddySez - its Twinings all the way. I keep a box of individual packets in my desk at work, along with packets of natural turbinado cane sugar (2 packets per cup of tea is my preferred way to have it). But if needed, any Earl Grey with any sugar is fine with me; I am no tea snob.

[4] Years of working in my cousin's Italian pastry shop taught me an important lesson about espresso, or more particularly, espresso with anise flavor added: it must be an ingredient in rocket fuel, because that's what it tastes like.

[11] ms october, if you ever decide to try bologna, fry it. Fried bologna is awesome.

Tazo Chai! I recommend it! (It's a Burt Lancaster thing)

It will set you free Alex . . . In so many ways.

[13] MFD - Diner reference!?!

[10] I never did heroin. Or crack. And I'm glad I got out of that whole scene before meth came along.

Cottage cheese. Yes, I never tried that. It's spoiled milk. Neither have I tried kidney pie. On the other hand, I did eat haggis when in Edinburgh. Pretty good, actually.

Never had coffee, tried a sip when I was very little and my grandma's and couldn't understand why anyone would drink the bitter stuff. Tried another sip 30+ years later and my opinion hadn't changed. Love the smell though, always pause near the coffee grinder at the supermarket to enjoy the aroma. Nothing smells like morning like coffee.

I've never had a hamburger. Last tried a bite of one summer 1980. Tried to bury it in ketchup, mustard and pickles. Nothing helped, the texture just doesn't work for me.

I'm a incredibly picky eater so I stop the list here but the list of things I've never had is extensive and, frankly, pretty sad.

No coffee for me, thanks. Me with coffee is a Bad Idea; the story began with me as an infant zipping around the family apartment drinking from my Mom's cup whatever she happened to be drinking (usually coffee; 1 tsp Maxwell House, 2 tsp non-dairy creamer, 3 tsp sugar)... at some point, I had the chicken pox and I was taking penicillin for it; after I had taken it I zipped along until I saw Mom's cup as usual and took a sip. Mom came along unsuspecting and took a sip... Mom was highly allergic to penicillin. THWAP!, in an instant she reacted and nearly fainted. She eventually recovered of course, but the family was from then on more attentive about leaving stuff around for me to grab. For the longest time I only drank coffee that my Mom had made or I made for her.

My youngest sister diverted me to tea early on because diabetes is a big factor in my family on both sides and because coffee was wayyyy to stimulating for me (more on that later). Of course I drank Lipton for the most part, but as the females in the house (Mom, my two sisters and even my niece) became more sophisticated in their tastes, so did the types of teas I would discover in the cupboard. Earl Grey, Oolong, Orange Pekoe, Dragon, Chamomile, Green, Ginger, etc... my sister Dorothy has become somewhat of a tea connoisseur (snob) and uses the loose-leaf types of teas, but my niece likes Tazo and Twinings. Me, I grab the variety box whenever I think to make tea, as I'd grown accustomed to being restricted to tea, but I dI love to experiment with different teas when they are accessible.

About that... the reason I'm restricted to tea has a lot to do with my sensitivity to coffee; I turn into a Gremiln when I drink coffee. The last time I touched coffee was during a particularly difficult stretch of production; I had come off a commercial that had went into serious overtime (try 22 hours), and my production partner needed me that morning so we could shoot a commercial for his favorite cigar shop downtown. I was dead on my feet with no sleep, but he was unsympathetic beyond relieving me of my AD duties and letting me eat something and sit idly by while he and his cameraman shot footage. But since I was driving, he insisted that I drink some coffee to stay alert. I warned him about the consequences throughout, but he was so insistent that I decided to oblige him; after all, I was the one with the car and it was necessary for me to transport us and the equipment to our next location.

Well, I went next door to the corner store and ordered a nasty black cup of coffee with three sugars... the minute I took a sip, I felt rage brewing up from my belly and breaching my already deteriorated senses. The next thing I new, I pulled the car up in front of the shop to a space that he was supposed to be saving, but was instead occupied by a patron of the cigar shop he was seemingly chatting idly with. Traffic was backing up as I waited for the person to move, but they kept talking. I got out and started barking at my friend to hurry up and get his stuff, and when the person he was talking to came up and tried to make a joke, I let him know in no uncertain terms that I was Not In The Mood. "I happen to be a cop picking up an order, yunnow" he began, but I was already in I Don't Give A Flying Eff mode, overstimulated by bad coffee and egged on by my producing partner's total misjudgment of my condition, but before fur started flying through the Fashion District, he came back out with his things and settled the brewing storm.

As we drove off, he casually remarked, "remind me me never to let you drink coffee again, my friend..."

I want to add two more things. It was noted recently that milk actually neutralizes the antioxidant effects/benefits of tea, so that's something you want to consider with your next cup of tea, especially if that's the reason why you drink it. Another thing is my brother turned me on to Raw Sugar; the kind they sell in the brown box in fact. It seemingly has less bad effects on you than refined sugar and was recommended by a few trusted sources, so I've used nothing but for the last few months. In fact, I just had a doctor check on my blood sugar recently and it's gone down significantly from when I had it measured four years earlier and was discovered to be just entering pre-diabetic zone. The significant drop to a normal level had a lot to do with me changing my diet/eating habits and deciding to be more active (including the type of work I do), but switching to raw, unrefined sugar didn't hurt either. >;)

Coffee = teacher crack. hmmmmmm. My grandpa used to drink tea all the time. He came over from England when he was 13. I used to drink it with him when I was a kid. Only drink it now when the wife makes it b/c we're out of coffee. She's the reason I started drinking coffee in the first place. We hung out at the local dive in high school talking into the wee hours of the night. She drank coffee and I thought she was so sophisticated.

Interestingly, I HATE beer. Hate the taste, and can't understand how anyone tolerates it, much less loves it.

A threesome might fall into the "seems so common but haven't tried it", but I doubt there's much interest in that discussion on this board. :-)

Yunnow how when you're a kid and you'd see a commercial and think, "Mom, can we get (insert product)?" I did that a lot, and that's how I know I don't like a lot of things. Breakstone's Cottage Cheese stands out immediately. A funny commercial would get me to try the nastiest stuff. Oh, and Dannon and Yoplait yogurts. I reacted with much skepticism and trepidation when my sister introduced me to TCBY in my teens, but it proved to be unnecessary as I fell in love with frozen yogurt. I've actually grown to like granola bars and wheat bread, but I never touch Triscuits or any type of wheat cereals; in fact, I was a stoic on Frosted/Corn Flakes for years while my sister was a revolving door on cereal brands that I learned firsthand to dislike. And screw oatmeal, unless it's in cookie form. Baloney? Well, I did eat it when we didn't have a choice, but grew out of it somehow. Lots of stuff my folks ate that I insisted on not eating; liver, liverwurst, mac and cheese, collard greens, onions, spaghetti (though I would eat pizza, lasagna and ziti, hah!), peas, carrots, etc. Now I will cook with (but not eat unless finely chopped) onions and I make a mean spaghetti, not to mention carrots and similar veggies I ashewed as a kid (but still no peas or collard greens), but the rest is still a no-no. Now I take heat for mac and cheese, but I just prefer not to eat it. And liver? My father would put mounds of black pepper and drown it in hot sauce when he would come by and cook it, but it always still tasted like concentrated cigarette ashes to me, just like collard greens. And liverwurst, that was just obnoxious. My Mom loved the stuff.

[20] Agreed! (on all counts, yes... >;)

My once a year sandwiches: Liverwurst, Sardines, PB&J (no, not all in one)

Don't get me started on Underwood Deviled Ham with Mason Reese.

I did not taste watermelon until I was 20. I can't believe I missed out on that deliciousness for 2 decades. And I have eaten exactly one sliver of banana in my lifetime. Nasty.

I've never tried Liverwurst.

Yeah, it's a funny knock on people who drink tea that they are automatically effite snobs. I guess it's a British thing. Or an association that all things British come with high manners. Go figure.

[20] [22] I think there is something of an "acquired taste" to beer. That said, it really depends on what kind of beer you try; lots of divergent tastes/flavors beyond just regular "beer" taste (i.e., Bud, Miller, Coors Light, etc.). And yes, I am a beer snob.

[13] MFD! No, or if it was, it was unintentional. My brother used to devour fried bologna when we were kids, by the pound. I can't think of bologna without remembering that.

[26] Uncle Woodrow let me have a sip of his Shaefer Beer when I was a kid; I immediately spat it out and gagged for a while as my uncle smiled, apparently it was to teach me a lesson. He admits it's much of an acquired taste, though he hasn't had a beer in nearly thirty years. I was shocked when my sister mentioned she liked Heineken; she also was a non-beer drinker for as long as I could remember, but hey, she's married to a guy who is a part-time bass player who likes microbrewed stuff.

The rest of my family, otoh... aunts and uncles and cousins and such, they had a good time. My oldest sister was a big beer drinker (Bud and Coors were her favorites) and my brother was for a time, but he eventually became a wine aficionado. My niece is a budding wine connoisseur, but not nearly as proficient as my brother. My Dad... well, let's just say that's one reason why my parents separated. Mom sipped an occasional glass of wine or champagne, but understandably barred me from even thinking about alcohol. Not that I didn't try on occasion; I've tasted vodka (watery) and whiskey (it burns!), but my condition prevents me from drinking anything of that nature, which was proven one night at a party in DC. Even if I wanted to, I could never touch the stuff.

"So…Is there anything out there that you’ve never tried that seems so common?"

as ms. october states in [11], this thread was custom built for me! hopefully i'm not too late to the tasting table...

"I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life." me neither! and i can't stand the smell. i'm happily surprised how many folks here haven't had coffee either. i guess i'm not so alone...

alex had me until: "I’ve been a three-cup-a-day tea drinker..." i've never had tea, either. not a regular hot cup or iced tea, which is gospel here in the south. ya know what though, on tour in '98/'99, i did imbibe a few cups of Chai Tea. surprisingly, Indian & Thai are my favorite foods (whoda thunk it), so i tried the chai. it wasn't bad, but it didn't sit well with me.

i love beer! i guess it can be considered an 'acquired' taste. i guess i acquired it immediately! love at first taste. : ) my main drink, is sierra nevada pale ale. never had champagne. don't do shots or mixed drinks. never had that jaegermeister...

this month marks 18 years since i've had red meat, but i used to eat bologna and hamburgers, etc...

never had cottage cheese. didn't have a salad til i was about 23 years old...

i guess i kinda trump everybody here with some easy stuff! i've never had: an apple, cake, twinkies, brownies, sugar cereal, jelly (that's a lie. once, when i was sick. it was...purple), a pear, lobster, liverwurst (since it was mentioned), clam chowder and a gazillion other foods that are probably considered everyday and common, but i can't think of them right now. they just don't even register with me...

give me some hints on 'normal' foods. chances are, i've never had them... : )

[13] thanks shaun - one of these days i will fry up some bologna.

[18] good tip on the raw sugar chyll. i'll get some for my tea - i eat a lot of sugar/sweets, so a way to "cut down" will be good.

[28] thelarmis sometime last year you said you have never had a cupcake man - so i knew you would have a lot to contribute!! :}

[29] nope, never had a cupcake! good memory. though i love the bit about cupcakes from frank zappa's "muffin man"!

keep 'em comin'. i'm sure i'll bat 'em down w/ my sensitive taste buds! : )

[30] Pizza?

[18] I hadn't heard that about milk & anti-oxidants. Thanks. I do use milk in my regular black tea (Red Rose, I've got dozens of their little figurines) and I got a box of white tea so now I have a mug of white tea (naturally decaffeinated) in the afternoon.

[31] i think i would have to say that pizza is my all-time very favorite food on the planet. i'm from queens, so to me, it's all the major food groups in one. you can breathe now, rbj! : )

[30] what about tuna sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, eggs, yogurt?

I was a carb junkie .... pasta, potatoes, bread ... cereal for dinner.

After years of the world's fastest metabolism (TM), it finally slowed down, and I developed the dreaded "muffin top".

I finally got sick of my "muffin top", and since the beginning of the year, have cut out about 95% of the starches (I have some wheat wraps or brown rice on occasion, and a slice of za once in a while). But I've stopped the late-night snacking, and gotten more fruits/veggies/water/fish oil and fiber in my diet.

Result ... 15 pounds lost in 6 weeks.

[33] you'll be impressed with this list, ms. o!

tuna sandwiches - check! didn't have my first one until i was 24 though. like chyll will, i really only trust it at home, making it myself. still, i'm not a huge fan of the smell. i had never had mayo until the tuna sandwiches. i've gone on kicks where i'd eat them all the time, but i'm not on one now. last one was about a year ago...

grilled cheese - hell yeah! love 'em : )

eggs - most definitely. just scrambled (with ketchup!) or an egg & cheese omlette. yummy!

yogurt - um, no. ick. i did spend part of a summer working at a yogurt shop in lynbrook. my best friend had worked there and lotsa cute girls worked there, too. never did taste the yogurt though. i do love chocolate ice cream. can't wait to have a Carvel cone next week when i'm in NY!

[34] i'm with ya on the carb and metabolism deal. that's definitely been me! i feel fat this week, but it's prolly just the beer! ; ) i'm still pretty skinny and underweight...

[32] Phew. Otherwise would have had to send you to Gitmo for some pizza-boarding.

Jambalaya? Shrimp? Po' boys?

I love coffee... I just drink it black (got used to it that way when the place I used to work would run out of creamer and sugar). The last few years I have started drinking hot green tea (maybe it was those Joe Torre ads that got me started... ;-) ). The only problem has been that since I just drink the green tea without any sweetner, now the good ol' southern favorite of sweet iced tea has started to taste too sweet for me. My wife even makes fun of me now when we go out to eat and I order my iced tea "unsweet". I usually look at her and say "Torre!!" (in a Seinfeld/Newman kind of way...)

[10] Me neither, Diane.

[13] Good call on the fried bologna, Shaun. You can get it on a biscuit at a lot of fast food places down here.

[37] cool on the pizza, i'm afraid not on the other stuff. i'm not a fish fan...

[38 / 10] i used to be a heavy cigarette smoker. it was like another lifetime ago. prolly been a decade (or more) since i puffed a cancer stick... tried pot 3 times in high school. never more than 1 hit. one time, i didn't even inhale! true story. i guess i did it wrong. never been stoned. hated it more than anything. gross. i just don't get it. at all. never did another drug ever...

beer. now, beer. mmmm, beer. i don't drink often or a lot, but i do love beer! : )

No on coffee, any alcoholic beverage (beyond a few token sips of champagne for a toast here or there), smoking (of any kind), or anything illegal. There are a few things I don't like and avoid, but that I've had (mushrooms, guacamole, sushi--the last because it's too bland), but in general I think I'm a pretty open minded eater and have at least tried just about everything you'd normally come in contact with.

thelarmis, if you don't eat all that stuff, what do you eat? Other than pizza and beer, that is?

Skittlebrau anyone?

[41] Skittlebrau? Never heard of it, what is it.

[42] Here ya go:

http://tinyurl.com/ybpuv5u

http://tinyurl.com/yd2zdwm

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Skittlebrau

[42] It's exactly what you think it is. There's also Poprocks and Diet Coke, but I wouldn't recommend that, just stick to coffee if that's what blasts ya >;)

I also learned in film parlance that "rocket fuel" is black coffee with eight sugars. Ooh, I could only imagine...

Thelarmis the Crafty Man! Ahh, pizza; the Official Second Meal of Movie Sets. Ironically, I didn't try pepperoni until I was grown. No mushrooms, still... ha! My niece and I ordered a pizza once and when it arrived, we opened it up and exclaimed at the same time, "Mushrooms?!?!?" Mom laughed; they um, gave us the wrong order...

My next mushroom encounter happened at college; my dormmates all pitched in to order a bunch of pizzas and when they arrived, the majority of them had mushrooms. I was so mad I stalked up and down the hallways, growling "I don't eat no damn mushrooms!" They all howled in laughter while the most sensible one of them tried to reason with me (Just pick them off!), but I would have none of that. As far as I was concerned, the pizza was infected, and peeling them off would not change a thing.

In retrospect, I may have overreacted just a bit. But I'd rather eat caramelized Styrofoam chips than mushrooms...

[45] I'm with you on the mushrooms...

[43] Why does my comment [43] say "Your comment is awaiting moderation." ?

Tea, always tea. Coffee makes me ill. Tazo has some good stuff, but Harneys has even better. I am a tea snob, but sometimes tea bags are what you need.

I havn't had a Coke (or any cola related dirnk) since I was 5 years old, the tatse makes me want to vomit.

Have never once tastes a fried/scrambled or boiled egg..looking at someone eat an egg really makes me queasy.

Also have never once eaten a tuna fish sandwich, the smell again makes me queasy!

But bring on the beer (of all kinds!), pizza, and recently, burnt to a crisp whale meat (yes, I know..it's immoral, etc etc etc, but damn damn tasty!9

[48]

Every time you eat whale meat, Jesus drowns a kitten (that is then eaten by a whale) :-)

[49] I'm doomed :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_VHJtTJlkM

I drink coffee constantly. With the hours I keep at work, it's a necessity and I genuinely love it. I take it black, no sugar and coffee with milk and sugar I find disgusting (consequently, I loathe coffee ice cream). When people like Alex tell me they don't drink coffee, it honestly weirds me out - because I cannot possibly imagine *not* drinking coffee. It's just integral to my day. That said, I am not a coffee snob or connoisseur.

I do love tea, and no, I don't think of it as an effete beverage. It just doesn't do for me what coffee does. The aroma of tea brewing is okay, but the aroma of coffee brewing can alter my mood drastically.

I am rather fond of alcoholic beverages of many kinds (mainly beer and scotch whisky), but I don't consume them on a daily basis. Maybe once or twice a week, tops. Yes, I am a beer snob.