Cold ones, that is, and not counting water or zero-alcohol beers, gins etc etc. As much a quest to find something palatable when alcohol is unavailable, inappropriate, ill-advised or just plain unwanted.
Me, I struggle to find something I return to, but the San Pellegrino Melograno e Arancia (pomegranate/orange pop) is a one I quite like at the moment, as is any not overly sweet ginger beer: I quite like Bundaberg.
Ideas and suggestions, please.
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I like San Benedetto Green Tea with cactus juice, but recently haven’t been able to find it anywhere. Instead, all the local supermarkets only have San Benedetto Green Tea with matcha. I don’t want matcha, it tastes horrible. I want cactus juice.
A nice glass of water is lovely on a hot day.
Before carrying too heavy a load home from the local supermarket became beyond me I used to drink lime cordial with tonic water and a dash of angostura bitters now I just drink tap water.
Jinx
I’m assuming that’s a product?
Shower gel?
Albatross flavour?
Listen to pencilsqueezer on this. Perfect non-alcoholic drink.
I also enjoy a ginger and lemon flavoured Kombucha.
Does kombucha taste of tea, a worry that has always put me off?
Not at all. The sugar is fermented by the bacteria, leaving a refreshing, sugar free fizz.
This is my new discovery:
Ginger shot – made with apple juice, ginger, lemon juice, more lemon juice and Malpighia glabra (no, me neither – described as an insipid, sour-tasting tropical fruit). Best added in small doses to fruit juices, it kicks like a mule, but is alcohol-free.
Moju ginger shots are good; great on festival driving home day, after the last band.
San Pellegrino (aka middle class Tango) particularly the Pomegranite or Blood Orange variety.
Fentimans range goes down nicely – Ginger Beer highly recommended
Tea – plain and simple. Builders
Cold? Builders’ tea?
A man of taste @rigid-digit
Fitzpatricks Sarsapariila is my go to in the summer months, but their Strawberry & Kiwi and Lime & Lemongrass cordials are also highly recommended, They also do flavour tester packs to try some of their range.
https://mrfitzpatricks.com/our-drinks/
I like a drop of elderflower cordial or ginger beer.
This won’t help you, unless you visit Sweden, but my drink of choice is Brämhult’s “Dragonized Lemonade”, which has freshly squeezed lemons, apple juice, dragonfruit and yuzu, and is extremely pink and addictive in every way.
Unfortunately it’s also quite expensive, so I try to buy it only occasionally, which is facilitated by only being sold in two stores near me.
I’m a mostly water drinking person (because LADA) but I do at times drink a small bottle of Schweppes Russchian if things are supposed to be festive. A slice of lime in it doesn’t hurt.
Fresh carrot juice. Can’t beat it.
I do like the Pret A Manger carrot juice.
In fact, now that I think of it, the best smoothie I have ever had was a carrot and ginger one, in Nimbin, the counter cultural oasis/hell near Byron Bay, Oz.
Just carrot and ginger?
Arf! An, um, interesting town…….
I like an orange juice and grapefruit juice mix.
About 25% grapefruit and 75.% orange.
The sharper grapefruit adds a bit to the sweeter orange.
It doesn’t have to be freshly squeezed at home. I use supermarket juice, though avoid juice from concentrate.
Clearly not a man on a statin…
Arf! I had to come off statins given awful leg and calf muscle cramps, coming on after about 6/12 use. Took about 2/12 to dissipate. Awful. My diet isn’t (that) bad, I’ll take my chances.
Sour cherry juice drink if I can find it. Delicious.
I like the sound of that!
It’s the bomb.
I too like the sound of that: kriek without the kick!
Fitzpatricks do a Sour Cherry, Red Grape and Hibiscus cordial!
https://mrfitzpatricks.com/our-drinks/fruits-and-flowers-traditional-cordials/
I don’t think it would be ruined with a shot of vodka either.
Plain tonic.
Rhabarberschorle (rhubarb syrup) 50/50 with sparkling water. Ideal summer drink.
Hmm, possibly. I like the flavour of sour rhubarb, but not the fizzy expensive tins that pertain to be rhubarby.
I make my own Rhabarberschorle.
Recipe, please, Sir!
Apple juice (not from concentrate). Sometimes diluted 50/50 with Tonic.
Red Grape juice (not from concentrate) diluted 50/50 with filtered/spring water, or Tonic.
Filtered/spring water.
Lemon(ade), lime (juice) and bitters. An Aussie concoction, at least I think so, never having encountered it before Mrs thep came into my life. Had to spend a lot of time explaining it to UK barpersons, anyway.
Had similar in South Africa, with added Grenadine.
Irn Bru
Good quality ice-cold coconut water is my tipple of choice after a hot day at the beach. It has to be good stuff from the refrigerator, not the long-life or canned stuff. Best brand I’ve found here in Oz is Raw C in the 2l bottle (not the tetra pack).
Another good one that can be hard to find is hopped water: soda water infused with hops. No calories, but allows for a satisfying beer burp afterwards.
I tend to avoid anything classed as “soft drinks” (e.g coke etc) and at home it would be mainly plain water during the day, although I do have a small glass of orange juice first thing in a morning.
We also tend to do a lot of “smoothies” with whatever fruit we have – being on a tropical island there’s usually plenty to choose from. We do without the yoghurt (so it’s more a fruit juice) as the wife doesn’t take dairy. Helps with our 30 different fruits/veg a week. Top tip – a small bit of celery in a smoothie is fantastic.
If we are out at the hawker centre and having spicy food, I do like a sugar cane juice – probably not that healthy though.
Tomato juice. You can still add all the zing, save the vodka, that you would add for a Bloody Mary.
I do confess that Old Tom bottled mix is rather good. I had forgotten about that, but it doesn’t really quench thirst, being a bit too soupy in consistency.
Salt lassi. Thirst quenching and very refreshing. Not sweet lassi though, yuck.
Lidl does a very nice Mediterranean tonic water. I find tonic a nice drink for a gentle, non-alcoholic kick.
The store also does a couple of very good non-alcoholic appertivos whenever its Italian week comes around.
One of diet Irn Bru, builders tea (no sugar), or, if I’m being posh, fizzy mineral water.
Sparkling water. Simples. I had a bottle of San Miguel alcohol free lager on Saturday and as I expected it was horrible. Worth a try but a failed experiment.
Kinnie. Anyone who has been to Malta will know it. Usually get a supply from Santa.
I have but I don’t, @salty , please expand!
Kinnie is a soft drink with a bitter Orange flavour. The “Taste of the Mediterranean”.
https://kinnie.com/
When I drink Irn Bru I am transported to childhoods spent on the Aberdeenshire coast, when I drink Kinnie I’m back in Malta.
I’m suddenly getting a wave of Tsitsimbira, or corfiot ginger beer, tasted but the once, on a first honeymoon, back in 1981.