>>24460940
I think it depends. I have some friends in their early thirties who still mix spirits with sugary drinks because they don't like beer or wine and still want to get a buzz at a party, but most people do end up acquiring a taste for it.
Personally, my dad let me sip his beer from the time I was maybe 5 or 6 years old. I probably just pretended to like it because I wanted to participate in an "adult" thing. Slowly, I started enjoying it for real. When I was a teenager and old enough to drink on my own, I started off only liking beer on a hot day, though still genuinely enjoying it I certainly didn't prefer it to a soda. I was mostly just drinking to get drunk. But soon, you develop a taste for it, and the moments you enjoy a beer in become more common.
The same thing happened with wine. At first I just had a glass if it was served at dinner. One day, though I didn't like wine at the time, I was having a pasta with a tomato sauce and I thought "I don't really like wine, but a glass of red would go nice with this" and slowly you start appreciating the taste until you enjoy it on it's own.
I had similar experiences with Whisky or Rum. You start mixing this drinks and slowly you don't appreciate the sweetness of a mixer and want to savour the flavour of the spirit. In a way, I wish I never developed a taste for harder liquor because it's expensive and probably a bit too strong to want to drink more than once a month.
