My friends managed to 'steal' it from their fathers. XO Henessy Cognac was the first spirit I gulped at a Chinese wedding party in Jakarta months later.

Soon, it violently attacked my olfactory senses and shocked me thoroughly, but the bride and the bridegroom visited each table making multiple toasts with ease.

Smooth and luscious, Napoleon cognac was the first spirit I enjoyed with cheese years later together with a German engineer until he suddenly remarked how 'surprisingly good a drinker' I was, which made me realize that the bottle was already half empty.

I was embarrassed, but cognac has since become my favorite spirit. A Tesseron Lot No. 53 I had at a Corney and Barrow dinner and a Hine cognac remain the most memorable.

The first whisky I had was at the Scottish Whisky Heritage Center in Edinburgh, Scotland. At £5 (US$7.67) per shot, it was raw, brutal, terrible.

Its high alcohol content rudely assaulted my nose and yet the seller went verbose saying it was flowery, fruity and so on.

Some years later, this disappointment was placated by Knappogue Castle 1992 single-malt Irish whisky.

The first local spirit I had was the tongue-burning cap tikus secretly offered by a friend in Minahasa, North Sulawesi.

Distilled from the naturally alcoholic sap of arenga (sugar) palm, this home-industry product (80 proof) has claimed many lives.

The highest proof spirit I ever had was a Chinese rice wine offered in Singapore. At 150 proof, it provided a warm, silky, massaging stream going down from mouth to stomach, a much smoother burner than mei kuei lu chiu, another Chinese spirit with dried rose aroma.

Another Chinese spirit I tried had dried snake, scorpions, sea horse and other animals and herbs in it. It has unique, smoky and earthy flavors.

Among rice-based spirits, Japanese sake, hot or cold, is my favorite because of its clean, smooth and refined taste but Chinese shaoxing wine, despite its rougher texture and earthier flavors, is a delight when served warmed with sweet dried plums soaked in it.

However, the Vietnamese rice wine I had after a memorable dish of beef noodle soup (pho) on the streets of Hanoi was worse than the ciu or arrack, a locally made Chinese rice from Dadap, West Jakarta.

Smooth with nutty flavors, it was sold secretly in a 600 milliliter used Aqua bottle without a label for Rp 23,000 (US$2.36).

A frequent drinker told me he mixed it with duck eggs and honey to maintain his stamina. It was not bad but I like the other arak, Middle Eastern anise liquor, better.

The vodkas I have tried, including those Swedish and Russian, also dealt a brutal blow when drunk neat, except the French vodka Grey Goose.

The earliest version of rare St. Benoit eau-de-vie was also difficult to enjoy, despite its complicated processing. Gordon's London Dry Gin, considered the most popular gin in the world (80 proof), is fine but I prefer it as a cocktail.

I like Bombay Sapphire better. Triple-distilled, the gin contains more exotic botanicals than Gordon's.

To enjoy tasteless spirits, I need the addition of other ingredients except soft drink to make them 'drinkable'.

I like a pisco sour (Peruvian brandy with sugar, lime juice, egg white and Angostura bitters) but not a whisky cola, a favorite among my Thai friends.

The most memorable experience I had with a bland spirit was having it as a cocktail and lit, then sipping it with a straw while listening to US jazz musicians playing live my favorite songs at Le Meridien Jakarta's Tiga Puluh bar.

However, I need no addition if the spirit is already sweet such as saguer (Minahasa term for sweet alcholic drink made from the sap of sugar palm tree, known as sagero in Merauke, ampaw in Manokwari or ballo/ balok in Tana Toraja, which can be made into higher-proof sopi); brem (Bali's sweet fermented rice wine); legen (a refreshing drink from the sap of the lontar (Asian palmyra) palm tree) and its higher proof version, tuak.

The most memorable tuak I had was during dinner at Toraja Heritage Hotel in Tana Toraja with an Indian intellectual Gopa Thampi. It was mixed with grenadine syrup and fruit brandy.

Although cleanness might be an issue, these traditional drinks are usually natural and less harmful than cap tikus and its many other variants, home-made or industrially made, secretly or openly, such as pinaraci, lapen, RB (Robinson) and the Topi Miring whisky, which will cause death if mixed with methanol, gasoline and other harmful stuffs.

A particular drink that has been around for a long time is Anggur Kolesom Cap Orang Tua (30 proof).

This liquor, made from fermented grapes, grape spirit, kolesom (local ginseng) extract, sugar, caramel, sodium cyclamate and saccharin, is used in Javanese herbal concoctions called jamu.

Some jamu sellers substitute it with a cheaper alternative like anggur buah kuda mas (30 proof) which contains grape, papaya, tomato and starfruit distillates mixed with artificial chocolate coloring.

The taste is of course awful, even for a frequent drinker I know who continues drinking, however, because he believes it is a tonic.

Premium versions of anggur kolesom were once offered on board the national flag carrier Garuda, but I like aged cognac better, preferably with a light, sweet tasting Cuban cigar.

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