I can't drink for two months; what is a good savory soft drink?

http://indianfood.about.com/od/drinkrecipes/r/namkeenlassi.htm

it's a lassi so it's you know a thick milkshakey drink, not a light watery drink, but it sounds pretty good

Never had that take on lassi. My GF was suggesting lassis, tomato juice, V8 and the like but they are all quite thick and whilst that is good maybe once an evening it is the time of year for drinking draughts of cool bubbly liquid. Fresh lime juice and soda water is pretty good in this regard.

Perrier! Or better yet, San Pelligrino. It's a time-honored way to have a drink without having a drink.

Soda water for me as I am not getting involved in the patently ridiculous scam of transporting by road something that comes out of the tap at home.

you'll be getting yourself a soda stream then?

Mineral water comes out of your tap? xpost

Some alco-free beers are not that bad at all.

Ice cold water w/ a dash of lime cordial? Not bubbly though.

mineral water is not just soda water, and it has a flavor, and the expensive stuff tastes better. But of course I would say that, since I already paid more for it and all. ;)

bbbbbut pellegrino is from italy and perrier is french! have you know consideration for your carbon death wake?

Grapefruit juice mixed with soda is good too Ed.

A tiny dash of ginger cordial is nice in carbonated water and not at all sweet. Elderflower cordial is good too.

I appreciate the different taste of mineral water, I love badoit an Vichy Catalan myself, but shipping it round the world seems like a vain extravagance to me (feel free to beat me up about the excessive amount of flying i do).

I should try experimenting with adding minerals to tap water. (London water already being pretty mineralised as it is, it coming through chalk and all).

Buckler's Beer (less than 0.05% alcohol, ie virtually none). Served very cold, it pretty much tastes like an ordinary beer.

Ginger cordial sounds good. I wish that the UK kombucha brands were a good as those in the states. I do love me some ginger kombucha . (also Thin Lizzy pink grapefruit seltzer)

Must nry NA beer again, my experience is that it tasts like arse.

What about chilled teas from the chinese supermarket? My local one does a nice bottled oolong.

And if you've got problem with bottled fizzy water why not try a soda syphon?

Mugicha also good, although a lot of the chilled ones in the cold cabinet are sweetened and there is nothing worse in this world than sweetened tea. I think I have the opposite of a sweet tooth when it comes to drinks.

I have a soda siphon, it is very good.

Green tea (with lemon)?

I'm on a Lipton + sweetener trip. *sigh*

Oh Ed, I really hope they don't tell you that you've got gout or something.

Iced tea: start with a base of three black or oolong tea bags to like 4 pints of water, but you need to initially brew using one pint, the three tea bags and a cut-up or mashed-up lemon then add this potent mix to the other three pints and let it steep for a while. If you leave it in a big jar on the windowsill to brew this is called Sun Tea. Repeat also same recipe using green tea and mortarpestled lemon grass.

Savoury drinks need ice bad.

not quite zero alcohol, but surely close enough, is what I've been loving lately: three drops of bitters in a glass of soda water. Helps appreciate the difference between different bitters, too.

this is also good although a lot of the bitters are quite sweet in their own right.

Must nry NA beer again, my experience is that it tasts like arse.

Alcohol-free Beck's is apparently veh tasty, if you quite like Beck's already, that is.

Nobody's yet mentioned the mighty Virgin Mary, which is what I always drink if i'm not boozing but fancy a liquid kick in the goolies nonetheless. Failing that, pints of lime and soda. Mmm.

yeah lime & soda is the go-to really

I always drink lime & soda if I'm abstaining (which has happened like maybe three times). It has a bit of boozy sharpness.

Beware though - i discovered during my last (er, only) detox in March that the price of a pint of lime and soda in a london pub can very between 60p and £3. Argue long and hard, and refuse to accept or pay if necessary - 90% of the time it's staff who don't know what they're doing.

this is good advice! i've been charged almost the same amount for soda + lime as for soda + lime + gin! like a dif of .50 cents! yes i understand that the server still has to do the same amt of work and yes i tip them but so why charge so much for freakin soda? annoying

Soda water at the grocery store is like $1.50 for 1 liter. Completely ridic and it must end today.

it's coz you're not buying gin, xp

that makes no sense
esp when prob 90+% of the people are buying booze

it just seems cheap and petty and therefore makes me hate the bar :/

I HAVE HAD ALL THE MOUNTAIN DEWS

it makes a lot of sense. people are admitted to a bar with the expectation that they will buy alcoholic beverages. you're not going to a get a discount because you don't want one. arguably, they should charge you even more because if you're not drinking, you're likely to buy fewer drinks.

how much do they charge for water alone?

soda, like water, should be free in bars

soda is free from most of the bartenders i know unless you're a prick.

To be honest I usually get charged for soda, sometimes a surprising amount like $3. I go places where I don't nec know the bartenders, though.

I mean whether or not I'm a prick is totally up for discussion, but I don't happen to think I am, and I don't think the bartenders are, either. It's just some weird bar policy, I guess.

are people talking about two different things here?

"soft drinks" vs. "soda water" pls clarify

if you get charged for soda water then that's stupid

if you're drinking a ginger ale or something you should expect to be charged

united statesians: is there such thing as a good honest ginger beer in America?

Reed's.

http://www.bevnet.com/reviews/reeds/Images/687720.Reeds-Extra-Bottle.jpg

Grapefruit juice mixed with soda is good too Ed.

I frequently have, while out, a grapefruit and tonic, although I usually get diet tonic so it isn't too sweet.

Hope all is well, brother, and that it is something easily fixed.

i'm talking abt soda water outta the draft thing, which i am fine with paying for but like $4-5 for it when a pint of beer costs the same?

people are admitted to a bar with the expectation that they will buy alcoholic beverages.
well this is just not true esp wrt going to shows which is my primary reason for being in bars

Hah, rrrrobyn, I'd hazard a guess that that makes you the exception, though, surely?

wahtever tho, the bars i usually go to are pretty cool with the water & soft drink minimal charge thing anyway. so yeah eff the other bars i guess.
xpost

a girl gets tired of being the exception, sigh
but yeah, i mean if everyone else is the rule then surely the exception is no big deal!

i mean what ever happened to the "designated driver" thing in bars? totally lost in the 80s/early90s

Yeah, I don't drink much anymore and I get charged for diet cokes about 50% of the time.

I like the sound of barley tea, infact I even saw some in the health food store earlier and didn't think.

Iced barly tea was my obsession last summer! I got huge bags designed for brewing the iced variety at an asian grocers and could go through a pitcher a night - easily.

hmm sounds yum!

yeah again i'm not saying i have a problem with paying for and tipping for a non-booze drink in a bar experience situation, i'm just saying that the mark-up seems unequal to that of booze plus a bit cheapskatey when it is heavily marked up in some places and not in others

also i can't imagine the bars i choose to go to wld rather i stay out of them if not drinking because they are primarily Drinking Establishments Where People Go to Drink and That Is Why They Go There
xposts

at midnight on a friday night when i want to go listen to music or hang out with people or dance, i think i'm gonna end up at a bar not a chain coffee shop. and not be turned away or thought of as a second-class citizen for the fact that i'm not going to drink booze but am in fact going to buy non-booze and happily tip for it anyway.
xposts

oh and while i'm at it, coffee shops are for drinking coffee! fuck all those people who buy water, juice, tea, etc at a fraction of the cost!

fuck all those people who buy water, juice, tea, etc at a fraction of the cost!

All too right, that's what bodegas are for.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WMFY7WXBL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

That's the one I got - it was so good and easy to use b/c of the giant bags.

Actually it's probably cheaper at the bodega anyway. At the coffeeshop you're probably being charged EXTRA for the "convenience" of getting it there.

i like the sound of barley tea

i've had genmaicha, which is green tea brewed along with roasted/puffed brown rice -- really good hot or iced

The barley tea is called Mugicha and is a summer drink in Japan where you can get it in cans everywhere apparently.

i am drinking iced genmaicha right now!

yeah i meant at lesser cost than coffee drinks. and but they wouldn't have these non-coffee beverages there if they didn't expect some people to buy it, which i have even seen with my own eyes!

it's not like going into an ice cream shop and asking for sushi. tho maybe it is like going in to an ice cream shop and asking for just a cone w/o ice cream. but maybe you just really want a cone, i don't know, i wldn't have a problem with someone doing that.

xposts
iced green tea is the best

I dunno muh about ACTUAL iced barley tea, the only shit I had was brewing actual hot barley tea at some 'til it gets stupidly strong, then sticking it in the fridge for a night and going to TOWN the next day. i should try this properly "iced barley tea" stuff.

at some = at home,the rest of my typos you can sort out yorself, god i hate this keyboard

There is a huge campaign on in London right now to get restaurants to sign on to FREE TAP WATER and a bar or pub here would never charge you for this with some ice and lemon! Nor can I imagine any bartender anywhere charging for this form of ice water, esp if ordered as part of a round of drinks.

Lauren absolutely right about barstaff sometimes offering bottled water as the only H20 which is always hilarious when they're standing next to a running tap as they say so. If I'm feeling like a bitch I ask them if they're washing their glasses with water that is somehow unsafe to drink. Whatever the case, a customer's always a potential returning customer and shouldn't be treated like an arsepain for any reason.

My sister works in a bar which has huge turnover, serves food and waitrons bring you water when you first arrive. There are a lot of concessions made to the designated driver there, because the town cops have a vicious DUI reputation and they don't want customers falling foul of it.

You can get 100% Bramley apple juice, in no way sweet, in every way gorgeous. Virgin Mary seconded,also.

I've also quit drinking (for a while at least; personal reasons) & am trying to lose weight. I've been sucking down lots of: Arnold Palmers (half & half ice t & lemonade - also v. appropriate to the season), diet soda sweetened with Splenda (esp. tangerine Diet Rite), & iced coffee cut by about half with skim milk, slightly sweetened.

If you're going out to pubs, clubs and such, any juice & soda water combo is a good substitute for a coctail, as is plain tonic water with lime.

Fake beer is OK (Kaliber or St. Pauli Girl n/a are probably the best), but if, on any level, you struggle with the urge to "feel the effects" of drinking booze, fake beer will probably just end up making you really frustrated.

For what it's worth, I too got a red flag from my doc when my liver enzyme levels were a little high. I simply cut down on (but not cut out completely) my boozing tested fine the next month.

at the Starbucks I go to, water costs about 25 cents less than espresso

genmaicha is good stuff

Also, if you're in the UK, you can't go wrong with lemon Finch's. Or, if you're in the US, you can get large bottles of similar lemon-flavored soda at Whole Foods. The trick is to find the brands that have real fruit matter, as opposed to artificial flavoring. Soooo good.

otm. french fanta is amazing... like orangina.. but not as sweet. the citron flavor is especially yum!

at the Starbucks I go to, water costs about 25 cents less than espresso

I've never been charged for tap water at an NYC Starbucks. I don't do it that often though.

Goya Ginger Beer is usually pretty cheap and it's much spicier than Reed's.

I'm a big fan of fentimans ginger beer which isn't at all sweet.

i recommend kvas. most of those east european grocery places sell it. 'ochakovo' is a good brand.

I was thinking about kvas, haven't had any for awhile. It has a an acquired taste which I have never felt the need to acquire, but now might be the time.

I know this has probably already been reccommended as a Mocktail, but...
Agnostura bitters, soda, muddled mint and lime...is really, really good. (A Nojito?)
Saying you can't have certain things automatically limits your choices.
I think the important thing, when you are NOT drinking, is to DRINK the ingredients you can have.

Some near beers are o.k. - although I think a person who truly loves beer would find it more difficult to drink an alcohol free beer than a mocktail, because a near beer is basically a yeast soda.

Bavaria no alcohol beer is not gruesome as I feared. Doesn't taste of much, much like crap lager.

I have genmaicha and hojicha at home, but I don't have a pitcher for iced tea. Must go to Target.

http://brainwagon.org/images/brainwash.jpg

When I am choosing to not drink teh booze I get very wary of the extreme caffeine beverage market.

it would be cool if bars offered amazing n/a drinks - the Nojito I got was at a restaurant owned by the best friend of SKot and Maria! They rock the bar menu with yummy n/a drinks.

They also have a SHELF of single malt scotch, so the NEXT time i visit Hope and Olive I will be....
sleeping over.

lol, I'm surprised that BEVNET still exists.

by the way ED, why might you move to pittsburgh?

School, specifically CMU if I get in, I was there a couple of weeks ago and they seem to like me.

http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/detail/742334b.jpg

This with soda and angosturas is very good.

How is the wagon? Is it harder or easier than you expected?

over the weekend in france i drank about eight metric tons of quézac mineral water, it was really really good

xpost

The Wagon is OK so far, although i have been lucky to be not socialising much at the moment as I am working on my GRE and application essay.

i am thinking of cutting down for personal reasons as well, but have the same hang-up as Ed--it's not so much teh booze, as it is the desire to have SOMEthing to drink that isn't water or soda.

....what about super strong, unsweetened iced tea with mineral water poured in for fizzyness?

i go with mineral water with whatever kind of citrus fruit i happen to have in the fridge.

but i love mineral water, i used to go through gerolsteiner by the case.

i have considered purchasing a case of mineral water before :-/

http://www.drysoda.com/

Having a rhubarb soda now. It's just barely sweet, so I can't say it's quite a "savory" drink. Interesting, though.

That looks awesome, I want a rhubarb soda right now.

This is growing on me. It's got just enough sweetener, I think.

Hah! Their tasting room is around the block from my place. I checked them out a few weeks ago, not bad stuff.

So Ed can you get wasted now?

yes, I had had a Hepatitis shot just before the blood test and a follow up shot just before the follow up test which sent the liver readings off normal. So now I can drink to my hearts content.

omg lavender want

I might brave the wholefoods clusterfuck at columbus circle this evening and see if they have any.

oh man, that is really, really brave. but damn, that sounds good!!!

That's where I got mine, except it's the Whole Foods parkingfuck in Cupertino.

three drops of bitters in a glass of soda water

this is excellent btw