

That’s gotta be a different gene, bourbon and rye taste like bitter wood to me (because of tannins from the cask aging) instead of the boozy vanilla that many people claim it tastes like, yet (decent) vodka tastes completely neutral to me. But I do believe that some people perceive alcohol itself as bitter while others do not.
Do you dislike bitter flavors in general, like coffee, tea, or salad?
Can you elaborate on that? I’ve never seen anything about people adding water or other mixers into their sake (except the rare case of sake cocktails, which are definitely not the default way of drinking sake).
That said, I usually add water when I drink sake, but I do that because that’s what I do with most of my alcoholic beverages; I never got the impression that this is the normal way of drinking it.