# Drink alternatives for teetotalers?



## Rilian (Sep 21, 2008)

I don't drink alcohol, but I'm often in social settings where others are drinking. What non-alcoholic drinks do you favor other than water, juice, and canned sodas? Any fancy schmancy non-alcoholic beverages?


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## jkins25 (Aug 30, 2007)

tonic water and lime? 
I have a friend who stopped drinking, and when he did he would always order that during dinners/social events.


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## jbmcb (Sep 7, 2005)

I'm a fan of tonic water, too. I drink it straight, everyone looks at me like I'm from mars but I think it's fantastic.

Try any mix of fruit juice and club soda or tonic water. Very tart lemonade or limeade and tonic water is very good, as well. 

My favorite pop now is Izzy grapefruit - it's made with nothing but fruit juices and carbonated water and tastes fantastic, if you can get over the pink coloring.


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## Scrumhalf (Dec 20, 2007)

I have never had a drink of alcohol in my life. Usually, I just get a lemonade and sip it. The bartender should have other fruit juices like pineapple and cranberry juice as well. You can also usually get a Sprite or some such carbonated drink at the bar.


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## Rilian (Sep 21, 2008)

Scrumhalf said:


> I have never had a drink of alcohol in my life.


Wow, I thought I was the only one!


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

Though I am far, far from being a teetotaler, I do drink cranberry juice with club soda on occasion. Lemonade or limeade with club soda is good too (very refreshing).


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## hurling frootmig (Sep 18, 2008)

I rather like San Pellegrino. I'm normally a water kind of guy but lately I've been putting a few ounces of fruit juice in my 12 oz. glass. Cranberry juice works great as does bold flavors like mango. I've done the same with tonic water.


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## Rilian (Sep 21, 2008)

Tonic water is a little too bitter for me. I guess I have a sweet tooth. I do love San Pellegrino's Limonata and Aranciata, their lemon and orange flavored drinks. I had a virgin Mojito at a Peruvian restaurant which was quite tasty.


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

Gentlemen

Valium, tonic water and a lime. It has to be Schweppes though

Nice day


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## Rilian (Sep 21, 2008)

DukeGrad said:


> Gentlemen
> 
> Valium, tonic water and a lime. It has to be Schweppes though
> 
> Nice day


Not sure about the valium. I refrain from drugs as well as alcohol.


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## &Son (Feb 18, 2008)

I too go with Tonic/Club Soda and Lime when I refrain from drinking. If you like something bitter, a NA beer in a glass looks just like a light beer.


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## hurling frootmig (Sep 18, 2008)

Rilian said:


> Tonic water is a little too bitter for me. I guess I have a sweet tooth. I do love San Pellegrino's Limonata and Aranciata, their lemon and orange flavored drinks. I had a virgin Mojito at a Peruvian restaurant which was quite tasty.


Once you add the juice to the tonic water it goes down decently.


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## Canadian (Jan 17, 2008)

I make it a policy to never drink when working. So tonic and lime was my standard drink.

That said, if at a bar, I prefer O'Douls Amber.

Thomas


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## JerseyJohn (Oct 26, 2007)

*Non-Alcoholic Bellini*

One day when we were having Bellinis, I made a non-alcoholic version for my niece when she was pregnant: 2 oz. peach nectar (white peach, if you can find it or make your own), 3 oz. club soda, tbsp. of lemon juice. Stir with ice and strain into a champagne glass. Garnish with a peach slice. If a little alcohol is OK, a splash of peach schnapps could be added.


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## Mr. H (Aug 27, 2007)

My n/a standby for the last 20 years has been club soda with a splash or two of Rose's lime juice. It's extremely refreshing and in my opinion packs a much better citrus sweet/tart punch than 7up or Sprite.


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## going grey (May 22, 2006)

Coke works for me. I am amazed that it is possible never to have had an alcoholic drink in your life..is this for relgious reasons.?.I'm genuinely interested as there's so much social pressure to have at least tried alcohol once


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## Scrumhalf (Dec 20, 2007)

going grey said:


> Coke works for me. I am amazed that it is possible never to have had an alcoholic drink in your life..is this for relgious reasons.?.I'm genuinely interested as there's so much social pressure to have at least tried alcohol once


I can't speak for the OP, but in my case, I grew up in India till I was in my late teens and back then, social drinking was totally unheard at least in the socio-economic stratum my family occupied. Drinking was pretty much universally associated with being a drunkard, i.e. a vice and a moral failing rather than a casual indulgence, and therefore there was virtually no social pressure to drink in the circle of friends and acquiantances I inhabited.

By the way, in the India I grew up in, this was not just rhetoric among the middle class to keep the young 'uns in line. Among the poor (and remember, despite all the talk in the media about India's economic boom, the vast majority of Indians are wretchedly poor), alcohol was an escape from the grinding poverty and exploitation. Moreover, prohibition was in place off and on depending on which government was in power, and predictably there was no shortage of illicit liquor brewed in backyard stills, along with the associated case of mass methanol poisonings every couple of months. If the only view of alcohol a middle class kid had was the drunk laborer lying in the gutter on the side of the street, or the headline in the paper that a hundred people died from drinking illicit liquor, it would have a powerful effect on his viewpoint of alcohol as an enabler of personal ruin.

By the time my family and I moved to the US, I was old enough to make up my own mind but I didn't really have the curiosity to figure out what alcohol was like, and the negative view of alcohol as a destroyer of people and families from my formative years would always hold me back even if I was tempted.

Same story for smoking. I have never tried it even once but I guess that's probably more common since there is considerably more pejorative connotations to smoking than drinking worldwide, I suppose.


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## turban1 (May 29, 2008)

*mocktail*

20% fruit juice, 80% seltzer.


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