Do you have an official evening tipple of your life?

I was thinking about how people treat the things they like. Some people find a beer, say Coors or Asahi Super Dry, that they love and it becomes the official evening tipple of their lives. Others, such as me, might love Bud* but need variety. When it comes to food and drink that are my favorites I'm quite philandering. Sure, I have some comfort food and drinks such as the previously mentioned natto (delightful), but more often than not I like to keep my favorites as benchmarks or as a long ago left homeland that I may rarely return to but still hold dear. I'm especially this way with wine. There are some bottles that have left a deep impression on me and I'd love to revisit them anytime, but usually I buy a different bottle of wine every time I hit the bottle-o (Aussie colloquialism). Interestingly, I have a stronger loyalty to types of something, rather than to specific somethings. The nerdy grape Cabernet Franc gets me going every time, as does Belgian beer and Italian food.

What's interesting is that people who usually stick to one thing, often stick to one shitty thing. I can understand drinking one flavor of juice if it was, let's say that delicious (and deliciously expensive) pomegranate juice from Pom, but what's up with people who drink Cool Aid everyday? Back to beer. People who drink the same brand of beer everyday religiously often enjoy Piss Water Light. Why not a Duvel? I get it that the good stuff is pricey but if you're only going to drink one type of beer at least make it an Yebisu.

Maybe it's about what the idea 'favorite' means to people. To many it's equal with comfort rather than delight. After all (unless you're a dog or baby), you can only be delighted by the same thing so many times. The promiscuous of us are looking to be delighted. Perhaps we care less about something being our favorite (familiar and well-worn) than about something being fresh, exciting, and adventurous. It doesn't always have to be new, but it does have to intrigue. Perhaps that explains my love of Laphroaig, the self-styled "most richly flavored of all Scotch whiskies" and mildly bitchy, slightly quirky-looking hot women.

*Bud=Budweiser Budvar from Budweis, Czech Republic