if you are pining for a glass of red/white/beer etc

[LadyMaryCrawley]

My lovely DH just found this site:

www.alcoholfree.co.uk/

It has a really wide range of stuff, I have been longing for a glass of something grown-up with my dinner instead of flavoured water!

When I say "longing for" I mean "really quite fancy", I'm not a total lush!

I really like becks blue- their alcohol free beer. Tastes just like the real thing. Have to say that when the pining gets bad I have the odd alcoholic drink. Never more than a couple of units a week. Am 34 weeks PG and baby is so wriggly I don't think it's done it any harm!!!

I second that, I currently have several becks blue in my fridge, really works actually, still gives me that psychological " ah having a nice relaxing beer" feeling! In fact when drinking them I have to keep checking the label to make sure it's alcohol free!!

I've been drinking the odd small glass of wine too but also virgin mojitos, tonic water with a dash of bitters and Erdinger low alcohol wheat beer, which has less than 0.5% alcohol in.

I recently discovered that in some Italian delis they do a kind of non alcoholic Campari and soda drink which is great mixed with OJ too. (I miss my negronis)

I tried some non alcoholic wine and it was rough.

I've had a few Becks Blue, it's ok but I find it a bit sharp-tasting, and I'm not really a beer-drinker.

Might try the non-alcoholic Campari and soda drink though!

ivanpoo, where have you got the erdinger from? I've seen it mentioned elsewhere but not found it on sale.

I think Becks Blue is the best. Kaliber tastes like sick and cobra is really sweet. I used to get a holsten pils one but haven't seen that for yonks.

Even so becks blue is only good for one or 2, more than that i feel sick (i sometimes wodge a piece of lime in it to take the edge off) . I ordered loads of non alcy wines and they were all vile. The only thing drinkable was the non alcy 'champagne' if really really cold.

If i fancy a beer or a glass of wine i just have one tho.

Brug I found it in Sainsbury's alongside the other non alcoholic beers but I know from friends it can be a pain to find.

The Campari and soda type drink is called Sanbitter (the San Pellegrino one) but I found a make in my local Italian deli called Stappj. It costs about 50p for a tiny bottle, it's just nice as a change from the usual juice, coke and soda water options. There's also one called Crodino which is quite similar.

As someone who previously enjoyed beer, lager and real ale, I find Becks Blue almost undrinkable. It's better than Kaliber and Bitburger Drive, but only just.
It's NOTHING like the 'real' Becks-tastes much more artificial, and is only palatable when very, very cold.

The alcohol-free Erdinger, imho, is the best one out there. That and Schneideweisse, which can both be found in good pubs and, occasionally, supermarkets.

Alcohol-free wine is vile so I don't bother. Would far rather have an occasional small glass of the real thing, or a small serving of white wine with a lot of soda and ice.

One of the other particularly nasty ones is alcohol-free Koppaberg, it's so sickly sweet that Appletise would be a more convincing substitute.

Another vote here for Erdinger and against Becks Blue. You can buy Erdinger at the big Tesco Extra shops or if you do an online Tesco shop.

I'm a cider fan and have Kopparberg pear alcohol free, feels to me like I'm having a proper drink. I love it!

Having tried Becks Blue (tastes synthetic) and Cobra (tastes odd), I can recommend Bavaria which you can buy at Sainsbury's. I find this tastes like a proper lager.

If I want a glass of wine I have it. I think completely denying yourself something just makes you want it more and I'm not going to wind myself up about a couple of glasses a week.