Non-alcoholic festive tipple

[jcp123]

Does anyone have any suggesgestions for a nice, not too sugary, non-alcoholic festive tipple?

I'm sort of hoping for a short (port type) drink alternative, a mulled wine type alternative and a freezing cold dry bubbly champagne alternative. I've tried a few fruit presses but nothing comes close. I was hoping someone may have some good suggestions.

not sure if this is what you are thinking of but i will be having this with my Xmas dinner/

Its simply fruit and water and no added sugars.

I like the ones in glass bottles, as opposed to the juices.

(although the juices are yummy too!)

Hello, my friend made me a non alcoholic mulled cider on sat night and it was lovely. It was just apple juice, cinnamon stick, cloves and a few other things you would put in a mulled wine, then just warmed through

Mulled apple juice can be nearly as nice as wine - I've never made it, but was served some recently that was gorgeous. You can get sachets similar to those you get for wine (or you could probably just use the ones for wine) - add to the heated juice along with bits of orange and cinnamon sticks, etc.

orange juice mixed with cranberry juice is lovely....go to your local farm shop ( if you have one ) i get lovely apple juice from there...

Our health shop had samples out to try of non-alcoholic ginger wine, winter fruit (very purple and not madly sweet) and an orange one that I can't remember have you tried your local health shops?

ikea glogg - alcohol free mulled wine, its a bit sweet so just water it down and warm through!!

I'll second the bottle green spiced berry cordial, warm its lovely!

How's about these?

Port alternative: hmm, tricky. Perhaps a bicerin - coffee and chocolate? That's more on the Baileys tip tho.

Mulled wine alternative: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/13370/mulled-apple-juice

Champagne alternative, I'd go for elderflower cordial, with a mixer of either lemonade or soda water, depending on how sweet you want it.

I had a version of a mojito recently too, replace the rum with apple juice, or leave out entirely (www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4077/mojito)

And here's an old, but still useful article: www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/jun/18/how-to-drink-non-alcoholic?INTCMP=SRCH

If you stick to the rule of thumb that so many cocktails are just sweet + sour + mixer (+ er, booze) - you shouldn't go too far wrong =)

Waitrose does a sparkling alcohol free wine called Chapel Hill - not too sweet... but is my only treat and I can pretend it is the real thing!

I love the PP's idea of making a mulled cider, in fact am going to do this now!

Waitrose also do an alcohol free cider but it is does have suphates in which are a problem for me (allergy).

But.. Westons do 2.5% organic cider which is really gorgeous so I will make it with that (guessing there won't be much alcohol left after heating it).

I've just bought my festive tipple from Ikea - non alcoholic mulled wine and pear cider. Haven't tried either but hopefully will be ok. Will be 36 weeks at Christmas so to be honest will be chancing a small glass of bubbly, too.

bottle green spiced berry cordial is lush and my favourite festive drink. Also whittards do a winter spice instant tea [not sure what it's called] but it's lovely as a hot drink. I didn't like the Ikea Glugg it was a bit too strong spices, water it down with some apple juice and water.

Spiced Warmed Apple Juice is easy to make yourself, in the spice aisle in your local supermarket they should have a mulled wine spice bag, it's fine to warm through with Apple Juice.

Ooo this thread is useful - I usually like very dry/short drinks that you can really taste the alcohol in and hate sweet drinks so I was wondering the same as you re xmas drinks...

what fantastic suggestions. Will definately try the mulled apple juice recipe and check out the Ikea and recommende wines. thanks!

Sainsbury is doing a mulled berry drink. It's quite nice (IMO better than IKEAs non alcoholic glogg). I love mulled wine and i'm gutted i'll be missing out this year.

smoggii-- I had the mulled berry drink too - agree tis very good.

Sooo miss mulled wine. Grew up in Germany where we'd drink it all Xmas.

Sainsburys also have a dealcoholized fizzy rose and de-alcoholized red wine which isn't at all bad.

Second the IKEA glogg idea. Very mulled-wine esque. I just make it with hot water from the kettle, about 1/3 glogg and 2/3 water. Yum!

I'm going to try the Rosy Apples and Lebanese lemonade out of this list :) love elderflower and orange blossom water!

I just bought a mulled wine alternative in M&S.

how about bringing alcoholic mulled wine to the boil for a couple of minutes? or would that ruin the taste?

Ginger beer is good (the posh stuff, not the cheap cans), but don't be confused by the recent ad campaign for Crabbe's alcoholic ginger beer, as that is alcoholic, and rather nice . Even normal ginger beer, if it's the good stuff, has a certain amount of fermentation so tends to have 1% or 1.5% alcohol, but I hardly think jcp123 junior is going to emerge with FAS, clutching a bottle of vodka, after a few glasses of that at Crimbo .

Apple juice mixed with sparkling water is a nice alternative to white wine or champagne.

I've been drinking slimline tonic water with a slice of lime which actually doesn't taste too dissimilar to a real G&T. Nice and refreshing too.

Second the tonic and lime thing. You can kind of kid yourself it's the real thing. Also, a Virgin Mary (like a Bloody Mary but no voddie, obviously, so just tomato juice and worcester/tabasco to taste) is nice if you don't like sweet drinks (I don't), plus you can feel sort of virtuous as all that tomato is probably even good for you?

Elderflower cordial dilute with tonic or soda might be a nice chilled white drink alternative, although might be a bit on the sweet side?