I'm not a big fan of cola or lemonade, and find them too sickly to drink all evening anyway, so I'm looking for suggestions for alternatives. Tonic with a slice of lemon, and salted lassi are already on my list. Any other ideas gratefully received!
Well, the absolute worst thing ever is about to happen to me - next week I start a long-term course of medication that means I can no longer drink alcohol.
Rivella, Apple Schorli (or any fruit juice mixed with fizzy water), milk, yogurt drinks, water (with or without bubbles), flavoured waters, alcohol free beer with a dribble of lemonade (crap to drink alone).
Buy a SodaStream and a variety of syrups.
Being fridge cold for all soft drinks makes a big difference ...... luke warm is just, well ..... luke warm .
Cheers. I think Rivella and Apple Schorli fall into the "too sickly" camp, unfortunately. I gave up on alcohol-free beer years ago because it's so rank, but your idea of adding a dash of lemonade is great. It'll be a cold day in hell when I order milk in a pub, though.
Water is always good
Apple schorli is less sickly than other similar drinks, IMO.
Back in the late 70's (or was it early 80's), the landlord of my regular pub installed 'draught' milk taps as a cutting edge experiment .......... didn't last long.
Start with Süssmost (apple/pear) and continue with Sinalco and Rivella (national drink of CH)
At home
Try some herb and fruit-infused waters
http://www.buzzfeed.com/melissaharri...d-waters#990yy
I drink a lot of iced tea
I'm what we call a cheap date - one glass of wine and I'm done, so I'm usually the designated driver, no drinking.
If you're out, ginger beer, bitter lemon. Some places have non-alcoholic cocktails - often sticky, but sometimes not. There's also san bitter (is that the right spelling?), sort of like campari but without alcohol. With these though, I usually drink one and move on to mineral water with lime (with gas).
I seldom drink ice tea, but Rivella often
Nonalcoholic cider (Süüremost ohne Alkohol) is my go-to drink for the summer months. I'm with you, find apple juice or even schorle too sweet for a session.
Try Sanbitter with ice and lemon or with tonic in it. It's not sweet at all and looks a bit like Campari so you think you're drinking something exotic.
With the exception of the herb/fruit tea idea and the non alcoholic cider all the other suggestions are way too sweet and sticky for my taste.
Remus tastes really nice and has a couple of varieties in flavour.
excellent advice, and they taste great too. you can also carry some sliced citrus fruits with you and put them in your sparkling water with ice when you're out.
Try Landi alcohol free beer. It's brewed in Germany, and not too bad. (Light grey cans). Cold water tastes nice after a while.
Erdinger Alkoholfrei Weissbier. A very nice drink in its own right.
Rivella Bleu is actually very refreshing and not sickly sweet at all.
There are of course non alcoholic beers and wines- why not try some and see if any suit you at all. Bonne chance.
Like you I find too many soft drinks far too sweet, and sometimes I end up drinking beer when I know I really shouldn't, just because I'm thirsty and there's 'nothing else'. Artificial sweeteners are even worse than sugar, and for some reason the manufacturers make them even sweeter when they use it. And anything bitter is right out - tonic water is typical, and even diluted 50/50 with gin it's disgusting to me (so I leave it out when drinking G&Ts ).
Recently though I found some no-added-sugar (or sweetener) lemon cordial (and lime), which makes a great drink with just a little added cane sugar syrup. The tartness of the lemon or lime can just be balanced out by the small amount of additional sugar, such that it can be refreshing and satisfying without actually tasting sweet.
Best thing is that both sweetness and dilution can be moderated to taste as and when you feel like it, and other variations include lots/no ice (which does affect the taste, even though the water is chilled straight from the fridge dispenser anyway), sparkling water (Sodastream), or the addition of a little apple juice instead of sugar syrup. Quite a few different combinations available.
You can do cranberry or Apple juice with sparkling water.
Call me stupid but why do you need to drink all evening?
Do you always do that or are you just considering when you go out?
Lemon, Lime, and Bitters is always good.
...... OK, so Bitters does contain alcohol, but it's so small the alcoholic content would be less than 1% of the drink.
Alcohol free beer should be banned. It's rubbish.
Schwepps also produce a range of softdrinks which are not so sickly sweet in sugar.
Also, try experimenting with different tea's....... boring at the pub yes, but anything without alcohol is.
(Morrocan tea is actually fantastic, and fun to prepare)