In 2003, The Onion had an “article” with no text that was just the headline “Taste Acquired” and a picture of empty beer cans.

The cocktail-averse I know all seem to like:

Margarita

Paloma

Pineapple, whiskey and lime

Mojito

You do not need to enjoy cocktails, there is plenty of other food and drink to build a palate, but if you want to learn to like the spirits and liqueurs in them, fizzy water is a way - I find whiskey & tequila in particular too strong to be able to taste and enjoy them, and most liqueurs way too sweet, but one shot in a glass of Topo Chico or other good fizzy water to dilute them? That lets me actually taste what people enjoy about them. Which then lets me think about what I might like them mixed with.

And I would like to plug !cocktails@lemmy.world we can make recommendations based on what you already like.

If you want to get into cocktails, I can think of a couple ways in.

1. White Russians. Pleasant sipping cocktail if a little heavy because of the cream.

2. Crown and coke. Crown Royal is technically a whiskey. Many of its fans don't identify it as such, and neither do many whiskey fans. A shot of crown stirred into a glass of cola will present as a glass of cola with a little bit of an interesting flavor added. From there you can graduate to bourbon and coke, Jim Beam or Jack Daniels are common enough and pair well with cola. If you survive this long, maybe try this experiment: order a whiskey and cola, and then a rum and cola, find the differences in those flavors.

If you're up to those shenanigans, maybe try going to a bar on a Tuesday afternoon when it's a little slower, talk to the bartender tell them you're wanting to explore cocktails and see if they'll mix you smaller portions of a couple drinks like that, so you can test A and B. You would be amazed what that can do to open up your palette. If I handed you one glass of neat scotch, it might as well be a goblet of gasoline. If I hand you two glasses of different whiskies you'll find some flavor in there.