Is there anything as nice, refreshing, comforting or all of the above as the first sip? It can be just about any beverage that you would want to let sit in your cup. Consider the end of a week where the days felt longer than the week itself and how that first taste of a wine instantly soothes the soul. Maybe the anticipation of the taste of that morning coffee while you wait for the grounds to finish transforming the water into that caffeinated nectar that somehow dissipates the fog from your minds car window.
Any beer league player, or even the pro after the culmination of a successful season celebrating the win on the final game of the playoff can tell you just how good that first beer tastes. A good friend of mine once described it as an angel delivering down your throat. Don't get me wrong, often that first drink, tastes like a second one is the right idea. There just isn't anything as good as that first one though. Winning makes it taste even better.
A bad drink can also have the inverse effect. There is nothing as bad as the first sip of really bad tequila for instance. A second drink of it isn't as bad, likely because your prepared...or pickled, regardless its funny how the opposite can also hold true. The first taste of coffee..with spoiled cream. The sip of a wine that's gone bad. Here is the great part though...return those things and follow them up with a really good cup of your favourite selection of whatever you typically bathe your teeth in, and the first taste can once again be achieved. It's why people take a bite of pungent cheese after each drink at a wine tasting or so I am told. For years, I always thought it just went well with wine, but the truth is that the aficionado is searching again for that sought after first sip. It's not a bad way to try, but it never truly replaces it. Once you have that first true sip, you just can't put that genie back in the bottle so to speak.
I wonder what the time limit is before that first sip gets reset? I believe it's a matter of circumstance. Every morning that first taste of silky java tastes like that start of the day...but what if you don't get to have it? What if you had to wait a week or more? Ask a soldier how good that first beer tastes after a dry deployment. I bet that first sip gets amplified by a factor of a thousand...and very likely the second sip as well. Could it be that moderation is indeed the key? Is it actually true that absence also may also make the palate grow fonder? It sounds like a great experiment. If anyone wants to try it out, please get back to me...my coffee is almost done brewing and I don't want to miss that first sip.