Non alcoholic drinks at work

And yet plenty of people would wear a Jack Daniels t-shirt, wouldn't they? And no one would bat an eyelid.

OP please come back and clarify because ‘non alcoholic malt drink’ is the tagline for Supermalt which is absolutely not a 0% beer!!!

there are also lots of supermarket dupes of this

it’s literally a malt flavoured soft drink. Kids drink it.

If you want to normalise NA drinks then you can't start determining where and when they can be imbibed. It contributes to the stigma frankly.

Also if I saw this at work I couldn't bring myself to care and doubt if I would even notice, I don't tend to take an interest in what other people are eating or drinking, it's not my business to be honest.

No way I could work up any upset about any colleague drinking a zero alcohol drink at any time.

I’d think it was really odd if a colleague had a Fanta or any soft drink before lunch as I couldn’t stomach that. But I accept that’s a ‘me’ anomaly, shrug my shoulders and move on with my life.

It wasn't that long ago when it was the norm for pubs to be full at friday lunchtimes of people in suits having a pint or 2, and heading back to work.

I'd have no issue at all with someone drinking 0% beer or whatever at work - if they prefer the taste of that to coke or whatever, what's the problem?

But then it's a matter of choice as to whether you choose to bow to that prejudice and other people's assumptions, or if you cheerfully go ahead and know that you demonstrably aren't doing anything wrong.

There will also be people at work who will criticise women for not wearing makeup or heels - because they believe that it 'doesn't look professional or give the right impression'. Do you kowtow to their opinions or do you make your own perfectly acceptable choices for yourself?

Surely if people were that desperate to drink at work they’d just put it in a cup or a Chillies style or Stanley type mug.

For some reason, objecting to somebody drinking a soft drink at work that bears a passing resemblance to an alcoholic drink - even though they always clearly say '0% alcohol' or 'alcohol-free' on them if you want to have a look to assuage any doubt - reminds me of the people who make a song and dance about colleagues who need a poo at work quietly going and doing it in a designated toilet cubicle.

The quoted article basically says the same thing : "it's just prejudice" - "it's optical, not logical". Not sure why you're feeling contradicted.

I'm a teacher.
I remember when we routinely went to the pub at lunch time.

I would have zero issue with 0% beer in the staff room.

That's just one opinion, though; it isn't universally-accepted fact.

You've no actual reason to assume that somebody will be drinking an inappropriately alcoholic drink at work, rather than an appropriate non-alcoholic soft adult drink that looks similar - it's just prejudice.

Any more than if you saw somebody drinking a glass of what is almost certainly apple or grape juice, you would automatically assume that they must be a weirdo with no sound judgment skills who is drinking wee.

Now that the 'stigma' has been largely broken about people choosing NA but not wanting it to be obvious that they aren't drinking alcohol like everybody else (maybe fear of being bullied or mocked), I think it would be more helpful for companies to start designing and labelling cans and bottles distinctively differently from the alcoholic versions.

They could still keep the brand name on there but make it clearly different - the same way as Pepsi and Pepsi Max are clearly related and made by the same manufacturer, but are easily identifiable from a glance as to whether they are the version that is full of sugar or not.

Amazing how that answer just summed up everything that needed to be said in 2-3 short paragraphs. The OP's question has been answered :)

I think Mel Robbins 'Let them' theory would work well in this instance.

I’m a teacher and think it would be absolutely inappropriate to be seen drinking 0% beer!

When I was about 17 we had a sponsored walk, a revolutionary idea in the 1960s, it was almost 30 miles and there was a designated lunch stop, all our bags were taken there in teachers' cars, who had been patrolling the route. I got my bag out, my lunch and a tupperware beaker with a lid. It contained lime juice and I pulled a can of Heineken from my bag, as I was pouring it there was silence, all the staff were gazing enviously, they'd been told by the Head no-one was to stop at a pub or consume alcohol but no-one told us! I was never allowed to forget it, three years later I was in a small supermarket in London where I was working and I heard someone say Still on the lager then!, it was one of my former teachers.

I think there are two issues why you probably wouldn't give it to kids:

1. It still has the 'mature' taste that most children would just really not like - maybe the beverage equivalent of Brussels sprouts.

1. It could become a 'gateway' for children to alcohol and encourage them to try 'the real stuff' before they are legally and emotionally old enough.

I personally drink NA wine and beer because I have made my own active decision that I don't want to drink alcohol - but if I did want to buy alcohol for me to drink, there's nothing stopping me and no reason why I shouldn't.

I actually think it's a great thing that NA drinks with a 'mature' taste are now going a lot more mainstream. If adults want actual alcohol, absolutely fine (in appropriate situations); but there's so much pressure in our society to be drinking 'adult' drinks when people shouldn't or don't really want to, it's good to he able to have 'adult' drinks freely available but without the single aspect of them that many people don't want, can't handle, have religious or moral objections to and causes all of the problems that are associated with what is otherwise just a refreshing beverage.

I think that, if people have a big problem with somebody drinking a harmless soft drink at work, because they personally are too fixated on associations with alcoholic versions of similar drinks and cannot separate the two, it really does sound like a them problem.

I wouldn’t drink it if I was customer / patient / child facing, surely beer breath is the same regardless if it has alcohol?

if in an office environment I don’t see the issue and feel it will become more and more normalised. Younger generations drink less alcohol but want more alternatives to fizzy drinks.

I can’t see the issue. 0.0% beers are very refreshing, not too sweet, and are a completely acceptable drink to have with lunch at work. The problem is in people’s minds only.

I mean in terms of what society does as a whole. So much stuff around whether food/drink is a treat is about a wider social context. E.g. oysters are a fancy treat now, but used to be food for the poor.

I remember when I was about 11 or 12 at school. We used to nip out at lunchtime and get cans of Shandy Bass from the Spar shop in town.

Wild idea… just don’t drink it for breakfast?

Why? It´s just a malt drink, with zero alcohol. This is a you problem.

I wonder if it'll become seen as fine over time. I'm kind of conflicted because I like the treat feel of a 0% beer. You lose that if you drink it for breakfast. But a mocktail would be fine, so logically 0% beer is fine.