to wish there was a nice alternative to booze

[lessonsintightropes]

I am currently on my two week wait TTC. I love wine and beer and fags. I have managed to sort out the latter by switching to VIP E Cigs, and haven't had a fag for a fortnight, which after 20 years of smoking feels like a major achievement!

But for someone who didn't have a brilliantly helpful relationship with alcohol before TTC, I do miss wine. I've tried Eisberg dealcoholised white (tastes like the smell of cat wee - horrid) Waitrose low alcohol cider (v nice, almost as good as the real thing, but still 1% so in minimal quantities only and don't want to get used to drinking it), Sutter Home Fre red blend (smells nice, tastes like ribena). I have a bottle of Torres Natureo in reserve in the fridge which I haven't yet tried.

I know that some women's taste buds in pregnancy go off all their favourite sorts of booze, and to be fair, the smell of spirits is rank and can't imagine drinking any. I also would really like to change some patterns so drinking isn't part of my normal evening routine, and feel free to judge away, but before TTC it really was. The only non alcohol substitute I seem to like for a whole evening so far is bitter lemon.

If you have any, I would be super grateful to hear some reasonable alternatives to have during a night at home - this is all fairly new to me as before TTC was out most evenings and am going stir crazy!

There is...it's called Yoga.

..Ginger Beer...

..Lemonade/Lime and Angostura bitters

...Lemonade/Ginger and Lemon Grass Cordial

...Cranberry and Blueberrry (Strawberry or Raspberry) Cordial with Lemonade...

I second the booze-free Becks.

YANBU.

I am teetotal (thanks to loving the booze just too much ) so I've been trying out a few non-alcoholic drinks.

I like Becks Blue and Bavaria. I also like neat tonic water; it's got a good, bitter taste which is lacking in so many soft drinks.

...not totally non-alco but Brothers Toffee Apple Cider is Lush !!!! (4%) - maybe you could dilute it with lemonade ....

The tesco sugar-free 'shandy' is great if you ever fancy a beer, tastes really beer-y and only 10 cals (discovered it when on Slimming world diet because it's 'syn-free'!)

otherwise I also like ginger beer, Becks Blue, Cobra Zero and the obvious 'shloer' type drinks. not 'Equator' though that's rubbish.

Tonic water

Schloer

Ginger beer

Orange juice and lemonade.

Used to drink every evening now I am down I 1 evening a week, too much of my life was taken over by mild hangovers

I liked Erdinger when I was pregnant.

Good luck with TTC by the way!

I bought myself loads of those nonalcoholic drinks like Ame and Shloerthat look like wine in a glass. I drank them out of a wine glass so didn't feel like I was missing out. Also got heavily into elderflower cordial with fizzy water.

Becks Blue - my pregnancy drink of choice, DH also drinks it if he fancies a beer midweek.

Had some Sorrell 'wine' the other days which wasn't brilliant but better than most dealcoholised wines.

Appletiser rocks. And Rio in a can is also very nice non-alcoholic. Also fruit juice mixed with sparkling water. If you want to change your drinking routine, why not try some hot drinks like herbal teas, hot chocolate, decaf coffees etc?

...have your tried any of the Soda Stream "Cocktail" range - they have Margarita / Cosmopolitan and Mojito - you could just buy the syrup mix and use bog-standard lemonade or fizzy soda water to make up to the right quantities - would make a nice looooooooooonnnnnnnnggg drink..

I'd have a ginger beer in the pub when I met up with people after work - Luscombe's fiery one was a particular favourite. I can see how bitter lemon'd be nice too...I favoured stronger-flavoured stuff that wasn't pretending to be booze. Though I'd have the odd hakf of Guinness too...

Ginger beer. Or sparkling water with a big squeeze of lime. Bottlegreen drinks are ok too.

I gave up booze totally for Jan this year and finally kicked the kids-in-bed-open-the-wine habit.

Good luck with the ttc

I like a rock shandy when I'm on driver duty - its basically half lemonade, half soda and a few drops of angostura bitters, which makes it a pretty blush colour. It's really good. Not too sweet. Also like apple juice topped up with soda, and if you go to Holland and Barrett they sell this ginger cordial stuff, it's mega spicy but great with soda...

My mum and I say (every week while drinking wine), that if someone could invent a 0% crisp dry white then they would end up a millionaire.You just don't get that dryness without alcohol.

...Lorina's Fizzy Pomegranate - comes in a nice flip top bottle which you can reuse to if you want to make your own cordial drinks too...

Also M&S used to do a fizzy Rhubarb drink - again in a posh bottle...

Can you tell that I have been there and probably drunk every type of non-alcoholic fizzy drink going ...................

Mocktails. Morrisons and Tesco (and possibly others) do a nice mojito in the fruit juice aisle, which is mostly just lime and mint.

Oh yes, elderflower is really nice. Someone else mentioned fizzy water with lime, I particularly favour San pellogrino with fresh lemon. Nice!

I used to drink a LOT of wine but once pregnant couldn't bear it. My DS is now 2 and I can just about tolerate a spritzer. I used to very much enjoy my weekly pint of bitter though! Apple juice and ginger ale was a good, not too sweet, booze free beverage.
It still makes me cross that a decent non alcoholic drink is so difficult to source and expensive when out.
Good luck TTC!

Ooooh, I want to try fizzy rhubarb!