I’m doing my best to stop drinking, but my local only has Heineken 0 available. What else do you lot drink that I can reliably get in the pub, which isn’t full of caffeine or sugar?
Water is about all I can think of but I’m wondering if there is something I can ask for that I’m overlooking. I’m hoping this will be like when I learned about pesto; I couldn’t believe I had gone so long before eating it.
If it’s a place that serves tea and coffee, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll do decaf or green tea.
I don’t recommend drinking three pints of it, though.
If you’re a regular, you might be able to persuade them to try a few other 0% beer options, like Guinness 0% or “Nowt Peculiar” etc
Otherwise, yeah, it’s water or fizzy water, optionally with some juice or cordial in it.
Guinness 0% is truly top tier, its about the only one of them (out of the sparse few I’ve had) that tastes as good as the ‘full fat’ version
Worst thing about ordering non-alcoholic drinks (like NA beer or mocktails) at a bar is that they charge you the same fucking price as drinks with alcohol. That’s a ripoff.
I like HOPWTR. Guinness - there’s two versions, one properly carbonated like real Guinness and the other version which is carbonated like soda pop. The “real” one is fantastic, hardly tell the difference between that and real Guinness. i find the majority of Athletic’s NA selection mediocre at best, but they have a few decent standouts like their Moscow Mule. Corona makes a really good 0.0% beer, it’s close to the real thing. Franziskaner Weissbier is a good NA, too. Tanqueray makes a 0.0% gin and tonic, decent, and you can make a decent a fake Aperol Spritz using NA prosecco and one company (Monetto) makes the fake Aperol.
The desire for NA drinks is really growing. The difficulty is finding a decent shop that carries a good variety.
I quit drinking ~3 years ago, and I don’t miss the buzz anywhere near as much as I miss the huge variety of flavors that alcoholic beverages had.
When I’m feeling like not drinking, I usually go for ginger ale or ginger beer, but they’re quite sugary. Cutting them with water or a lot of ice can help. Juices universally are pretty sugary too so cutting with them is delicious but not really healthier.
My other go to is soda water with bitters or a small splash of bitter liquor. Bitters are high alcohol but you only get a few drops at a time which is comparable to “0 proof” drinks which can have some trace amounts of alcohol still. Many bars have a variety of bitters and aperitifs so its a bit like having an herbal tonic soda jerk. A squirt of lime or other citrus, or a few syrupy cherries, will also add to such a mocktail.
To be fair, beer and liquor are poisons, and they have tons of calories from unfermented sugars and the alcohol breaking down into more carbs in your body (hence beer guts). If your goal was to lose weight, stick to water. But if it’s just to cut back on booze, juice and sugar soda aren’t so much worse for you.
I drink tonic water. Yes it is also full of sugar, but going to the pub is never the healthy choice.
Otherwise, sparkling water with a slice of lemon and lots of ice is very good, too. At home I put a shot of apple vinegar in it, gives it a cider-y taste.Lime and soda was always a popular pub drink for non-drinkers.
Isnt the lime sugar though?
A bit of sugar is ok, I just wanted to avoid the frightening amount in things like coke.
I’ve been in the booze echo chamber and it never rooted as an idea until now. Thank you
I’m a fan of ginger beer or any soft drink with ginger bitterness.
Straight tonic is also a good one.I was going to suggest tonic, too, BUT, depending on the market, the tonic out of the gun can have loads of sugar, in the US at least. Bottled tonic like Fever Tree is pretty low sugar.
Lime and soda or soda lemon and bitters.
This was a good one, I started here and landed with apple and soda.
I’ll try this tonight and report back, thank you.
In a similar vein, I quite enjoy a cranberry and tonic
Somebody mentioned soda and angostura bitters and I quite liked that. Slightly similar.
Bitters is 44% alcohol in the UK. Though I know non-alcoholic bitters is a thing because there’s a soft drink with it in Oz.
Where are the soda bars at? I’ve been making my own at home with club soda and various fruit sweeteners like elderberry.
I’ve seen a couple soda/dry bars open in my city. One only lasted until the Kickstarter money ran out and the other quietly rebranded and started serving alcohol.
Certain markets just don’t work, unfortunately.
I have lime and soda, all bars do that You could also try googling dry bars in your area.
Orange juice and lemonade is way nicer than it should be.
I like the idea of a glitch drink.
glitch drink.
?
The ‘way nicer than it should be’ phrasing just made me think that way
Guinness 0% is the only alchohol free thing that I’ve found to actually taste like it’s original counterpart. Most places seem to have it these days.
Avoiding sugar is going to be difficult as it’s the default for non alcoholic drinks. As others have said lime (or other mixer) and soda is probably the best bet.
To add insult to injury I’m finding that a lot of the non alcoholic options tend to be priced higher too.
I’ve heard it justified as it being expensive to remove the alcohol, but so much of the original drinks price is alcohol taxation that I think it’s just because they can.
I’ve heard it justified as it being expensive to remove the alcohol
That’s bullshit. all they do is add small shot of alcohol dehygrogenase enzyme, then aldehyde dehydrogenase.
It’s made from yeast and cheap.
Wait, so could we just have a dropper of that in a pocket and use it tactically to neuter drinks during an endurance session?
I was thinking more along the lines of half a pint of coke costing more than a full pint of larger ☹️
You’re right though the non alcoholic beers are usually more too.
A very popular non-alcoholic drink in Germany is “Apfelschorle”. It’s half apple juice and half soda water. While apple juice is still pretty sugary, you cut that in half by adding water. In British pubs they often have fruit juice in small bottles, so just pour that in a pint glass, add soda and you’re done.
This was the favourite last night, thank you for this. It’s tasty and looks normal around the usual beers and ciders at the table. I’m probably going to keep drinking them.
But be careful. Before you know it, you’ll be reporting people to the police for throwing their rubbish into the wrong bin.
Isn’t cider non alcoholic?
No? It’s fermented fruit
Americans (and maybe other English-speaking countries, I don’t know) call some common kinds of non-fermented apple juice “cider”. To get the alcoholic one that the UK calls cider, you need to ask for “hard cider”
Those countries are daft
This guy’s American! Get him boys!
Now let’s not start calling others names.
In the UK, most cider is alcoholic
Ask for a glass of tap water and tip $10
You’ll likely get free non-alcoholic drinks free the rest of the night.
I’m 10 years sober… I started the tip thing because I didn’t think it was fair to go to an establishment, listen to the music, enjoy the scenery, and pay nothing to anybody. Especially because I cannot emotionally justify spending $7 on a diet pepsi that’s 60% ice.
Didn’t really realize it was going to happen, but it seems like staff really appreciates that and then treats you really kind in turn.
What else do you lot drink that I can reliably get in the pub, which isn’t full of caffeine or sugar?
Water.
Only thing at a bar you can reliably get that isn’t alcohol, full of sugar, or caffeinated is water. Aside from soda, they’ll have cranberry and orange juice for mixers; but juice is even more sugary than soda.
