Drinks I can buy while out/at the pub that contains sugar?

[KatyMac]

No sweetners and not water

I'm finding the list frighteningly low

I think I am reliably down to a 'cup of tea' or coke from a bottle or tin

Anyone found anything good?

Thanks for the Appletiser tip too. Will buy a bottle or two of that next shop!

Yes I refuse to drink it now. Never would have thought it if A G Barr.

Yuck, who wants to drink water with sugar. Nobody's saying it's a drama, but going to the pub is a common activity, and we don't all want to drink alcohol all the time. It's ludicrous that soft drinks we used to have in pubs are sometimes not available.

????? When I go to the pub and don’t drink alcohol (if driving), I just have water. They must offer it free here wherever alcohol is being served, not sure about in the UK. I wouldn’t pay for a soft drink at a pub whether it had sugar, no sugar or magical sparkles in it. Happy to pay for the alcohol though when I do drink.

Yeah if I don't have cola ill have an orange and lemonade., I also like gingerbeer I might have that.

What's that got to do with anything? Plenty of us do enjoy something other than water when we go for an evening out but aren't drinking alcohol. It's hardly unusual.

I only like Rose's Lime Cordial (if I'm not drinking booze) so I carry a small travel bottle (the plastic screw top ones you're supposed to put shampoo etc in to take on planes) with me in my bag wherever I go. It's very concentrated so I can make up about 2 pints from it.

I started when I was pregnant and needed to up my hydration and have carried on. DH even gave me a lovely metal hipflask to carry it in but sadly the acid in the cordial rusted the inside so I'm back using the plastic shampoo bottles.

The replacing sugar with sweeteners to avoid the tax has removed the San Pellegrino & Causton's fizzy apple & rhubarb from my list of grown up alternatives. Wish I liked Coke as they've stood their ground (outside of the US where they put corn syrup in instead of sugar) but all the brown fizzy drinks are yuck to me.

@Latenightreader where do you find "original Italian flavour" San Pellegrino? I was gutted when the lemon went.

@1stWorldProblems I've found lemon in quite a few supermarkets and a couple of cafes (very rare though). I think I saw it in Waitrose first, but bought the orange in Sainsburys a fortnight ago. I was really excited.

I didn't know Cawstons had fallen too - bother. I have a can of the fizzy rhubarb in the cupboard, will check it.

@Latenightreader thanks. On investigation the cans look subtly different so will keep an eye out. Cawston's removed the rhubarb syrup that have it a kick in 2018. So it's just juice & fizzy get more which is good in that they didn't add sweeteners but bad in that it now tastes like their fruit juice (which I like) watered down with fizzy water (which I don't) rather than a different beast - a fizzy drink. So you're safe if you like the current taste but sadly I preferred the old formulation.

If someone said "we aren't producing alcohol anymore" (or chips or doughnuts) there would be uproar! Or if they said you can only have alcohol free beer

But soft drinks are fair game

I have to avoid sweeteners due to having pku and appletiser is my go to. For now.

I avoid sweeteners

Almost impossible

Brit if, Schweppes and even Fever tree all have sweetener, even in their non-light versions

Sweeteners trigger migraines, as can alcohol

Orange juice and bottled full sugar coke is a safe bet imo

Lime and soda maybe? That probably also has sweeteners now

Or a coffee and you add sugar

I'd probably go for a juice and add soda if you want fizz then you will have natural sugar.

Orange juice, pineapple juice, tomato juice. Not cranberry.

I either go for tea, coffee, erm thats it now

I used to have non alcoholic lagers but I cant have carbonated drinks now, so unless I can drink a white wine (my tummy is not always up to that), I can barely drink anything

You need the Paisley Drinks Co. They do natural ingredients, including flavours. It’s fructose rather than sucrose. You can buy direct on their website. Some pubs and cafes stock it but that’s mainly up here, I think

I know this is mad, but you could go semi-DIY. Order a soda water - or plain water - and add a sachet of powdered:

electrolyte hydration mix

iced lemon tea

fruit

or a glass of milk and add Nesquik?

Good question I can't stand sweeteners and they're also terrible for your insides

Some places local to us stock belvoir farm drinks or franklin and sons which are still ok. In Devon we found Luscombe drinks quite a bit which are sweetener free, national trust places also stock these

Appletiser or half juice/ half soda or sparkling water. We all go bonkers on artificial sweeteners. Or just have water and a nice pudding.

Also cawston press but not generally available in pubs

@KatyMac Yes, isn't it crazy! Soft drinks are everyone's kicking post and so many people get so self-righteous over them. Yet a barista-made drink in a coffee chain can be laden with calories and nobody bats an eyelid. Fruit juices are no healthier anyway. OK, so you get vitamins, but you don't get the fibre that makes fruit a healthy choice, and fruit juice in large quantities gives you too much fructose. At least coke in the UK is just sucrose. I'm lucky because I like coke best, and most pubs still serve the real thing. However in one that had only diet drinks I asked why, and when I got the predicted answer about health, I pointed to the menu and told him there wasn't a single healthy meal on it. Everything with chips except pizza. A drink I sometimes have is soda and lime. If they can do it with fresh limes, so much the better, but if not, then lime cordial is OK. Instead of slapping on a sugar tax, the government would have done bette to simply have controlled the quantities served. Many cafés serve 500ml bottles of coke - too much for me and I usually leave some undrunk, but many people will drink the lot, getting 210 calories instead of the 139 from a 330ml can or glass bottle. In fact at home I drink 250ml cans, just 105 calories. In Europe a lot of places serve 250ml bottles, and it's enough. The whole thing's batty. Many years ago I remember a teacher bought us all cans of coke on a school trip. Really nice of him, but that would have everyone up in arms now.

I would just have a glass of iced water, and bring a pouch of my own vanilla sugar or just sugar to mix with it.

I often bring a little squeezy bottle (tiny thing) with fresh lemon and lime juice to put in fizzy water, or just ice water. You could add sugar to that maybe.

Appetise. It’s just apple juice & sparkling water, no added sugar or sweeteners and almost always available in most pubs.

I agree that soft drinks in pubs are a nightmare I hate sweeteners and also dislike fizzy drinks. Fruit juice is too sweet and sugary and not something to drink all evening. Luckily I can still drink Guinness.