What difference does it make whether people prefer Irish, Scotch or Bourbon? There's no right or wrong. Why do some people think they are superior because they drink one thing or another and try to make out that by drinking spirits neat or with water is somehow better than mixing it with coke, lemonade or other mixers?

Surely it's all down to taste and preference and I really hate this spirit (not just whisky/whiskey) snobbery like people who choose to have their prefered spirit a certain way is somehow wrong.

Why do some people look down their noses at people who prefer to drink one type of whisky, gin or whatever over another? What's wrong with a nice house whisky or gin or vodka so long as you're happy drinking it?

Surely it's all down to personal taste and preference and one particular whisky or spirit is no better than the other it's just a matter of what suits your pallet and how you like it.

I hate being made to feel as a Jack Daniels and Coke drinker that i'm somehow not as refined as someone who likes Jameson or Glenmorangie or whatever and people who think that by adding mixers to spirits is somehow uncouth and neanderthal. What's wrong with enjoying a good whisky with a mixer? Why does that make me somehow less of a connoisseur just because I like to mix my spirit.

Actually I can still tell the difference between a smoothe more expensive spirit even when mixed so people who say things like, 'what's the point in having a good whisky if all your gonna do is drown it in coke' are talking absolute rubbish not to mention what business is it of theirs anyway? I'm the one drinking it so surely it's up to me how I choose to enjoy it.

You tell 'em love!

It's like these Camra people who like to look down their noses at people who drink lager and use words like, 'it's all chemical rubbish.' What codswallop! It's laughable really. It's just a different recipe for the same thing...Beer. Just brewed with different ingredients. One is no more superior to the other it's all a matter of taste.

It's like saying, 'I eat shepherds pie so that makes me more of a food connoisseur than someone who eats cottage pie because lamb is a more expensive meat to beef and anyone who likes to eat it with ketcup should be put up against the wall and shot at dawn.

I couldn't drink spirits neat let alone enough of them to appreciate the taste but I have to admit sticking coke in them does somewhat defeat the purpose.

A whiskey liqueur like Irish Mist, wouldn't add anything to that though.

Liquors are different though. They are sweetened to make them more palletable to drinking them neat. I really don't think liquors are supposed to be mixed but again if that's what you like then who am I to argue. I also think it depends whether you're intending to drink or sip it. Neat spirits I find impossible to drink. Even sipping them I find unenjoyable. I can manage Glayva though because the honey takes the edge off it but even so I couldn't drink it. Sipping only.

I don't think coke ruins whisky. Personally I couldn't stand neat whisky as it just tastes too harsh like drinking neat alcohol. I may as well be drinking meths. Adding coke takes the edge off it and allows me to drink it comfortably but still allows the flavour to come through without it setting my lungs on fire. It also makes it last longer and believe it or not I can still tell the difference between house whisky and a single malt even when topped up with coke so I wouldn't say it's a waste enjoying a good whisky with a mixer.

I think the price might have something to do with it.

Drink what you like but I do recall my former sister-in-law drank Scotch and coke and I always kept a bottle of cheap whisky just for her, I refused to waste the good stuff.

Urgh, tell me! Im a CAMRA member as are a bunch of my friends, but Im a lager drinker - I get ridiculed every time I order a pint! Even Freedom lager, heaven forbid I ask for a pint of Carling...!

Absolutely no business at all. You enjoy drinking it the way you enjoy drinking it end of.

However as one of the Whisky snobs you elude to, Yes I love a JD and coke, jeez I even enjoy a High Commissioner and lemonade!!

I have some really good single malts and just wouldn't mix em.

Even in snob circles there's snobs within snobs!

With ice or just still mineral water. Me I like an ice cube sometimes and get laughed at

But just drink what you like when you like.

That's my tipple of choice

Some people are dicks