What you drink has to do with many factors, depending on your age and stage of life. Teens often drink whatever they can sneak or buy cheaply–whatever goes down the easiest. College students? Beer–or maybe drinks that make a person look sophisticated. Twenty-somethings on up: Depends on who you are and what life path you’ve chosen.

We want to know: How has your drink of choice changed over time? But first, we’ll share our own drink histories:

Leah: High school: I had a sip of beer and some sips of wine coolers. College: Kamikaze shots, lined up at the campus pub. The drinking age was 18. Vodka in the shower before parties. Piss beer at frat parties, grain alcohol-spiked punch or mixed drinks, such as Long Island Iced Teas. In short, whatever got us drunkest fastest, or whatever was around. I don’t remember drinking wine. Year abroad in Paris, then all over Europe: Carlsberg Blonde beer, red wine–from a box, from a baby bottle, however I could get it. Sometimes that licoricey French aperitif. On the Greek Island Ios, tequila slammers. Post-college years: Traveling cross country with my boyfriend, we drank Miller Hi Life from the bottle. Then, later in Manhattan, I stopped drinking almost anything else but wine–white wine, red wine, Sangria, rose, port wine–a trend that continues to this day.

Caren: My drinking experiences as a teen involved sneaking whiskey sours at family events if there was a bartender on the scene. Age really didn’t seem to matter to anyone back then. In high school, I remember being on the beach in Florida during a vacation with some friends and making facial contortions as I sipped a Miller Lite–so disgusting to me then. In college, while I did stupidly go for whatever was in the grain-alcohol-infused punch bowl (didn’t everyone?), it was always too sweet and never tasted good. That’s when I started actually acquiring a taste for beer. After college and once in the work force, frozen margaritas were the greatest happy hour treat, until I drank too many and woke up with the worst tequila hangover–stayed away from it for a couple of years thereafter. From that time on, I’ve really developed such a love for the taste of wine (and slightly heavier beers like Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada) that it’s almost not worth drinking any other type of alcohol. An occasional bloody mary over brunch (though I could take or leave the vodka), but it’s really wine for me these days…

To offer your thoughts, please add a comment below.

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We Want to Know: Do/Did You Ever Drink With Your Parents? What Was That Like?

Caren: My parents were European, and some form of alcohol was always close by. They sipped wine at home with dinner, Slivovitz (plum brandy) or bloody mary’s with friends. If I asked for a taste, they always said yes, and as I grew into adulthood, we enjoyed countless dinners together during which the wine flowed freely. My parents were often the life of the party, twirling on the dance floor like no one else existed. I have fond memories of my father–who had a beautiful voice–belting out Romanian and Russian songs as if her were an Eastern European Pavarotti. I’m not sure it was the alcohol that made them love life at those moments, but I imagine it was a potent enhancement. So, yes, I’d say that I partied with my parents, and most of those memories are good ones!

Leah:  I never knew you could drink with your parents till college. My mother is a recovered alcoholic, so we never had liquor in the house, growing up. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had was drinking with my friends’ parents. In college, I so envied my friends whose parents would take us out drinking. A few of my wildest nights in college were spent drinking with my friends’ parents: once, in Paris, drinking wine at La Coupole, and then at various bars and another time, at a fancy dinner in my college town, where the wine was flowing. I just remember singing “Dixie Chicken” at the top of our lungs when we got back to our apartment. Drinking parents=parents who could still have fun + a bonding experience, the one time adults and their children could even the score. I felt sorry for my mom, since she was denied that pleasure, and I always hope, like Sara Eckel (who wrote this week’s post) that I’ll be able to enjoy drinking when it’s appropriate and that I’ll be able to ride the party bus when I want, if I want, no matter how old I am!

We Want to Know: How have your parents’ drinking habits affected your own?

We Want to Know: Has Anyone Ever Embarrassed You With Their Drinking?

We Want to Know: How has your faith/religion/culture affected or influenced your drinking (or not drinking) throughout your life?

We’d love to hear from you about your guiltiest drinking pleasure–past and/or present.

So…what was it?