AF drinks review thread

[CardiganOfDoom]

I thought I'd start a thread where I can keep a track of the AF drinks I try. Anyone is welcome to join in.

So much more available now than there were when I first stopped drinking.

My favourites...
Lyle and Scott Noughty - expensive but good for a treat and tastes just like Prosecco. I've struggled with drier wines and this is perfect.
Sainsbury's own brand AF red - think it's Tempranillo - the only one I've found that doesn't taste like fruit juice - it's about £3
Sainsbury's and Tesco also do a cheap own brand sparkling which I prefer to any of the others apart from Noughty. Much drier.
Beer I like Lucky Saint.
Lyre's spirits are good but I bought the martini set and it was dire so I'm just working my way through the gin.

You clever lady!! I’m now going to save my little lime juice bottle. Rather annoyed that I threw one out quite recently! And also try out other bitters that I never knew existed. Very exciting... Rock n Roll.

Andadietcoke - thanks for those recommendations. I've noticed my tastes have changed since I started this, and the wines I liked above I'm now finding too sweet. A decent red would be great for picnics if we ever get any summer weather.

Stayingvigilant According to this Reddit thread, Fee Brothers bitters are not actually always AF, but are sometimes quite low. It's their rhubarb I'm using, so the alcohol percentage for my PEE is actually lower than I calculated.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/2nrhgb/feebrotherssbittersdoocontain_alcohol/

@CardiganOfDoom

Andadietcoke - thanks for those recommendations. I've noticed my tastes have changed since I started this, and the wines I liked above I'm now finding too sweet. A decent red would be great for picnics if we ever get any summer weather.

There's also an M&S one that isn't too bad - Merlot I think. It has a hot air balloon on the label.

Not a review, as I've not tried these, but they look good!

nonsuchshrubs.com/collections/all-products

Also putting this up here, as I'd really like to find an AF wine that's palatable. This subscription is a bit spendy at £30 a month, but might be worth it.

wisebartender.co.uk/club-soda-wine-club-subscription-1635-p.asp

Have you seen Urban Cordials? They’re £6 for 500mls so hardly cheap. Their apple and pear based flavours are my favourites. There’s an apple, cinnamon & clove that’s nice with hot water - a bit Christmassy.

@StayingVigilant, oohh they sound lovely. Sometimes blackcurrant squash just doesn't cut it !

Wow OP thanks so much for starting this thread. I am intrigued to hear about different bitters - sounds great.

I like the m&s sparkling apple or sparkling apple and pear, and they both are nice enough looking bottles to take round to a friend's house.

Am a big fan of the ginger/lime/mint combination, or indeed just rose's lime cordial on its own with bashed mint leaves added.

Another thing I've started doing is making my own mango lassi, but it's pretty fucking indulgent - mango pulp (you can buy tins of it) yoghurt and milk blended and served with ice.

When I say cordial "on its own" I do ofc dilute it! What I mean is that rose's in itself has a good strong enough taste.

Full sugar though. I can't get on with artificial sweeteners. It's still all a lot less sugar than booze, right?

@SeeYaBeYa, , I thought you meant undiluted! Had to read it twice! I'll pick some up.
The lassi sounds lovely. I'm not a lover of milk though. I could do it with mango pulp, yoghurt ( love natural), and perhaps a dash of milk.
Thanks.

And yes, definitely less sugar than booze. I sometimes have an af beer and chocolate amounting to at least 500 cals but it keeps me off the wine, so good enough! ( if I were binge drinking, the calories would be at least 1500!).

Lol @Amdone123! Re the lassi, you can totally experiment with ratios. I don't like tonnes of milk generally either.

Lots of great ideas, thanks! I'm a big fan of ginger and mint too, plus a bit of chilli. In fact I made a chilli and pineapple kombucha which was lovely, if a little sweet. My next batch is pineapple and hop, which is turning out even better - nicely bitter.

What is kombucha?

I am thinking of experimenting with making my own sharbats. I really like all those drinks that you get in hot countries where they don't have a big tradition of drinking a lot of booze, places like Azerbaijan and so on.

Wikipedia has a good summary, but basically it's tea that's fermented using a SCOBY - a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. The bacteria oxidise the alcohol produced by the yeast so it stays very low to zero alcohol. Supposed to be very good for your gut biome.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha