To ask for your best non-alcoholic drink suggestions?

[WhatWouldKalindaDo]

I am making a real effort to drink less. My alcohol consumption really crept up over lockdown and lead to poor health and me feeling dreadful. I've now been alcohol free for a couple of months and am really proud of this.

However, Christmas is difficult when you don't drink! This will be my first alcohol free Christmas and I'd love to have some suggestions of some enjoyable drinks so I don't feel like I'm missing out.

Thanks!

If you like fruity lager the non alcoholic strawberry and lime koppaberg tastes just like the real thing

I will be serving virgin mimosas in the morning, Nosecco and orange juice or mango juice.

Passion fruit and lemonade
Rock shandy
Iced tea
Lime and lemonade
Ginger ale

Always in a nice glass. To me a nice glass makes everything taste even better.

We don't get a lot of these fancy sounding drinks that you have mentioned, but I am going to have a look for something similar as they sound great.

Gordons do a non-alcoholic gin, and cans of non-alcoholic G&T

I like gin-less tonic. I put all the fruit and garnishes in, just not the gin!

Sparkling water with a splash of cranberry juice and a lime. Tart and refreshing and not very calorific!

Some of the flavoured tonics are good on their own. But be warned that pink grapefruit tonic looks like sparkling rosé so don't drink it out of a wine glass on a hot day when you are on a teams call at work.

Roses Lime and mint cordial with chilled fizzy water, ice and a slice of lime.

Also I recently gave someone a bottle of zero alcohol Martini and they liked it ( haven't tried it myself).

The robinsons cordials are nice, we make a mocktail with the lime and mint one - add some apple and elderflower juice and top up with lemonade/fizzy water/tonic depending on your sweetness preferences.

I've been doing Dry January for a couple of years and will be next year.

One of the things that got me through was getting my DD(12) to mix me up non-alcoholic cocktails. I bought in loads of low sugar fizzy drinks (Aldi have some really cheap ones), squashes, juices, lemon slices, ice, nice glasses and straws and she had a field day. I bought a 12 box of non-alcoholic fizzy drinks but the bottles were tiny and full of sugar, and expensive for what they are.

There's some nice alcohol free beers out there and the Tesco non-alcoholic G&T in cans is really nice.

I have developed a bit of an addiction to Real Kombucha's pretend champagne! It's absolutely delicious - not far off proper fizz in terms of taste. Dry Dragon is my favourite, but Royal Flush is also very drinkable! realkombucha.co.uk/

I like ginger beer. Not to everyones taste. And some of the sparkling elderflower drinks are nice.

I like fresh orange or pineapple juice with tonic water and lots of ice.

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude

Seedlip with ice and tonic is one of my favourites. I like all the varieties.

Was going to suggest this. Vey lovely bottles as well; they feel like a real treat.

Also, a restaurant I go to has a cranberry non-alcoholic cocktail that features almond syrup. Don't know where you'd buy it, but it's delicious and really makes the drink.

You can make mulled apple juice if you fancy a mulled wine alternative. Just add all the usual mulling spices to any old apple juice and heat.

Fentimans rose lemonade/dandelion and burdock/ginger beer
elderflower flavoured sparkling water,
kopparberg alcohol free pear cider, (quite sweet, tastes like pear drops!)

aldis do some nice bottles of mocktails,
also just plain sparkling water infused with festive fruits/mint (think jug of pimms!)
Iced coffee/tea

Nosecco is a really good Prosecco alternative, sold at most supermarkets

Martini has a non-alcoholic Aperitivo range. Two flavours - Vibrante (citrusy taste) and Floreale (delicate floral taste). Lovely with tonic water, and very refreshing.

Hot apple juice with cinnamon. Like a nice Christmasy mulled cider

Fevertree Mexican Lime Soda, or their Clementine or Rhubarb tonics are lovely. I sometimes add Seedlip or other AF ‘spirit’ but you can’t really taste it over the tonic tbh. You can add a splash of bitters for interest. I actually quite like McGuigan’s Zero Sauvignon Blanc too but it needs to be super cold.

Not really the same but I'm heavily pregnant and craving a baileys😭. Has anyone found an alternative to it for the Xmas period?

Buy sugar syrup, sparkling water, lemons and rosemary. Juice lemons (3ish) then add sugar syrup to taste (I like it tart), put in a big hug and top up with sparkling water. Chuck in a couple of springs of rosemary and give it a stir.

Really nice and fresh. No weird sweeteners. Bloody fast to make.

Enjoy!

I've had to go almost alcohol free for health reasons found most non-alcoholic still and sparkling wines unpalatable except for Nozeco and M&S sparkling Muscat which taste like the real thing. To my delight DS pointed me in the direction of Lyre's Italian spirit as a non-alcoholic version of Aperol. It's sold on Amazon and I can now enjoy non-alcoholic Aperol Spritz that tastes like the real thing. Lyre's apparently do a whole range of non-alcoholic spirits but I haven't explored any more just yet.

Non alcoholic mulled wine really hits the spot for some reason. I like the IKEA version ("Glogg") and M&S do a good one too.

Also a few weeks ago a friend gave me non alcoholic Gordon's and tonic in a tin and it tastes nearly the same!

@shas19

Not really the same but I'm heavily pregnant and craving a baileys😭. Has anyone found an alternative to it for the Xmas period?

I've not tried it, but there's this

drydrinker.com/product/alcohol-free-irish-cream/?attribute_pa_select-size=case-of-12&affc=07fc3599-58a3-4c7b-a268-15017a9db620