43
votes
What to drink if you don't like alcoholic beverages: help me socialize
Hello! I live in an area where a great part of socializing is done by going to bars and having a drink (or several). I don't drink alcohol, and always get weird stares after the third Nestea/Aquarius, plus I get bored from drinking the same thing over and over again. Sometimes the places we go to have the option of alcohol-free cocktails, but it's not the usual thing.
So, what are you suggestions of other drinks I could order, that do not contain alcohol? Things that I could drink in hot weather, day or night? I'm open to all sorts of flavours.
The ones I have listed:
- Coke
- Tea
- Coffee
- Aquarius
- Nestea
Thank you all for your help in advance!
A lot of places near me have "mocktails" these days, but even if yours don't, you can never go wrong with a Shirley Temple. It's not complicated and it's well-known, so no issues asking for something bespoke, and it's legitimately a very tasty drink.
I haven't had a drink for 20+ years. I like soda water with lime or lemon as a 'safe' order - every pub or bar will be able to do this.
Pineapple juice with ginger beer (or ginger ale at a push) and a twist of lime if you can get it is pretty awesome. Fruit juice with soda water is also nice and most places have a range of fruit juices these days, although that may not be the case where you are.
You can get concentrated water flavouring things now, search for "water enhancer" will get you this sort of thing which you could have in your bag/pocket and just drop into a still or fizzy water. Even just a hip flask of fruit juice concentrate might do the trick. Cherry juice concentrate with a splash of bitters in soda water makes a pretty decent "adult" fruit drink. Bitters are very much your friend for making non-alcoholic drinks more "grown up", technically many do contain alcohol but not enough to be noticable and you can get non-alcohol ones anyway.
Caveat to my previous paragraph is I haven't tried the product I linked to because almost everywhere I go has a few decent non-alcoholic mixed drinks these days. I might grab some though, they do look nice.
Ask for soda water with lemon and lime. It’s my go to.
Bonus is some people will assume it’s a gin and tonic so you won’t have to field as many “you don’t drink why don’t you drink you’ve never had a drink before do you have a religious issue with drinking you sure you’ve never had a drink before one time you did so you do drink,” questions.
I feel like everyone asks and it’s like:
What kind of monster puts lemon and lime in a gin and tonic? I might not drink but for goodness sakes one must maintain some standards. :)
I don't recall really getting many questions about why I don't drink. Perhaps I just ignored them so hard I don't remember. Certainly in the last ten years it has barely raised an eyebrow.
I think cause I’m around people who are curious why I don’t drink when I end up at places like that. Business co-workers and BJJ people. It’s just the same questions I get and the same unsatisfying answer for them.
So many good ideas, thank you! I have never tried ginger beer
Ginger beer and ginger ale have the added advantage of looking sort of like alcoholic beverages so you won’t have to have a conversation about why you’re not drinking, which I often find to be the most annoying part of not drinking.
Coke as well, since people will assume it has rum in it.
Nowadays though, my primary motivation for not drinking is to avoid the empty calories so I stick to club soda or tonic water. Flavored seltzers are trendy now so that makes it easy.
I'm considering asking the bartender to add a little umbrella to my drink even if it's an Aquarius lol. I don't drink because of a medication I take, but when I mention it everyone wants to know what is it, and that drives me insane
That's funny. Most people I hang out with know not to ask something like that.
Ginger beer with a splash of cranberry juice is really good too!
I'll second the ginger beer. I started drinking it with Moscow Mules (with alcohol) and like it enough that often I'll just have a ginger beer with some lime in it.
Not so much ginger beer, but I like ginger ale.
I use ginger beer for Irish ginger ales.
A vote for an Arnold Palmer too - half iced tea/half lemonade/all Delicious!
This is more for house parties, but there's a product called Liquid Death that you might like. They sell water, selzer, and iced tea in cans made to look like beer cans, so no one even notices you're not drinking. I know some bars in my area are starting to sell them, though it's still kinda a longshot.
I second liquid death. I think part of their marketing is actually directed towards former alcoholics being able to drink non alcoholic beverages in public without standing out.
I've been to a few concert venues where they sell liquid death instead of water bottles. The concession stands have actually had to post signs next to liquid death products informing customers that they do not contain alcohol.
I've heard great things about them but I've never seen the product in my supermarkets. Kinda sad
TIL what this is. I saw it a my local Sprouts supermarket and was turned off by the name, figured it was some sort of energy drink + alcohol.
Not that sad if you don't want to pay $3 for a can of water that tastes bad lol
I think you're overreacting a tad.
Do you want an essay on why I don't like them?
No you should have just said nothing.
I'm recommending against a product (a negative suggestion); as I said they're overpriced and somehow the water manages to taste bad, if they think that's not informative then I disagree.
And they want to police my tone, as if sarcasm in a review is a crime and the company is gonna get their feelings hurt.
You're also kind of missing the point. It's not a $3 can of water, it's a $3 can of not looking out of place at a party. Nobody is buying it just to drink it. Save the criticism for things like raw or alkaline water.
At home or at sauna evenings I drink non-alcoholic beer. They are getting pretty good these days. I like the Warsteiner, Paulaner and Közel.
If at a bar, ask the barmeister to make you a non-alcoholic drink.
Other than that... I drink 1-2 litres of coffee per day. That seems to work in all situations.
I fully agree. I remember having an alcohol-free beer when I was around 20 - it was the worst thing I've ever had. Then about 10 years ago I had warsteiner's one and I couldn't believe it was the alcohol free one. I'm no big fan of their regular beer but the alcohol free one tasted EXACTLY like their normal one. I've had a few other ones not mentioned and they are all great alcohol-free drinks but also maybe not a great choice if you're trying to stay completely away from alcohol. They also probably have the same calorie content of regular beer.
My drinking got so bad that I decided its best to quit completely. For about 5 years I didn't touch the non-alcoholic ones, being afraid I might get back to the old ways. Luckily (at least for me), I didn't have any problems with it. No alcohol cravings at all.
I enjoy the taste of beer, especially during sauna. I had big troubles choosing a good sauna drink, I defaulted to vissy (carbonated water) but that got boring very quickly. The non-alcoholic beers solved that problem very nicely for me.
I don't recommend those if you quit alcohol drinking last week, but if its been a while and everything else is in order... go for it.
Isn't beer supposed to be really really unhealthy, I read something like it has more carbs than a loaf of bread
If you check the nutrition facts of beer, you will quickly see that’s not the case. Generally speaking alcohol content is the reason some beers have significantly more calories than others. This is surprises a lot of people when they find out Guinness has one of the lowest calories per beer.
Yes, alcohol is very high in calories. That's why anyone who is dieting is encouraged to minimize drinking. This UK NHS page has a pretty good writeup on it.
I think the thing is that some drinks over a week isn't going to throw off a diet substantially, especially not if you are tracking them. It's the quantity. Hanging out with friends for several hours it's easy to put down a mcdonalds meal + worth of calories.
The problem with drinks, though, is that they don't contribute much to satiety; you still have to eat. And because you're out you aren't very likely to eat healthy food. So instead of being something like 300 more calories than you should have consumed, you're probably going to be in the range of 600-1000. You can make alcohol a part of a weight loss diet, but it makes things harder. Really, the advice not to drink is mostly for people who drink with the purpose of getting drunk, not for people who only drink socially.
I think we're in agreement.
Liquid calories are always an easy way to take too much in, but from my quick Google search, a 12-oz serving of most popular beers has less carbs than a single slice of wheat bread.
Non-alcoholic beer has far fewer calories than regular beer. For example a 12oz bottle of Coors in the US gas something like 150 calories, but Edge, their identical-tasting NA, has like 35. It's around 90-100cal/oz of alcohol. Even maltier NA beer will be maybe at 50cal/12oz.
A slice of bread, at least that I have, is around 200cal, and that's even one with far less sugar than many American bread loafs I've compared it to.
Others have already answered to you but I would like to point out that carbs are not bad for you, as long as you balance everything. If I drink 3 bottles of beer during my sauna session, I don't think that is unhealthy. I probably get more unhealthy stuff from work than I could ever get out of beer.
Yeah it's funny that soda is more unhealthy than beer
Even if this were the case, the vast majority of the calories in beer are from the alcohol.
Seconded. I really like beer but it's easy for me to put down too much calorie-wise. I switched to NA beer at home and the modern ones really do hit the spot. I've tried a bunch of them and the stand out for me is Heineken 0.0. I don't like their full strength beer but they make a dang good low calorie NA beer.
Pretty good taste in beer :)
I agree :p
Visiting my in-laws in Germany is fun because I get to taste sooooo many more different brands than what I get here in Finland, although the local selection seems to be growing at a very fast pace.
My wife can't drink and I like mixing treats for the kids, so I've learned a few things from experimentation. I sadly don't have names or easy ways to order. Though asking for any fruity cocktail as "Virgin" rarely goes wrong (Virgin Blood Mary, Virgin Margarita). Mixing and matching these things makes winners:
I find the seltzers too bitter on their own, but they're great for diluting the sugary stuff and adding some fizz. Sometimes I'll just use plain water to dilute a bit more for the young ones.
Getting the balance right of grenadine, seltzer, lemonade results in a good "sour patch kid" flavor.
Lemonade, Ginger Ale, and grenadine makes for a fancier Shirley Temple.
Orange juice and orange seltzer makes for a great replacement for mimosas. Add some grenadine for sunrise/sunset varieties.
Back in 2010 at my wedding, a cocktail waitress in Vegas (at Mermaids, RIP) taught us her shift drink: Pineapple juice, orange juice, grenadine, and 7up.
Lemonade + strawberry seltzer makes for a nice sparkling strawberry lemonade.
Subbing out lime for the lemon works most times. Especially if you also have some drinkers and you want to mix tequila for them.
One other trick: I use powdered lemonade to avoid having to keep fresh. To avoid diluting the drink too much, especially if fizzy, I use shot or two's worth of hot water from my tap to make a strong concentrate. That will usually do for 3 adult portions of the above. I split that, add 2 ice cubes to cool quick, then add other ingredients, then add 3-4 ice cubes at end to finish off.
Thank you for such a detailed answer! I'm definitely trying these combos
I seldom drink alcohol (only cider, if that). But I’ve never had a problem drinking with friends. Usually same as you, coke, coffee, tea, whatever works. Oh and ginger shots! I love those.
Unfortunately if you’re at a bar proper, you will not have a lot of soft drink choices beyond mocktails because it’s how they make their money. Instead, I would recommend vary the venue? I know you might not be in a position to do it but I always prefer chilling at a cafe than a bar.
I always thought bars made far bigger margins from soft drinks than they did with alcohol. After all, alcohol gets taxed to the fucking hilt by any government that isn't libertarian or puritanical to some degree.
I was chatting with my brother about that quite recently.
Apparently in Canada there are 24 hour diners that only serve soft drinks and food. To me that sounds like an absolutely genius idea. If I had the capital behind me, and wasn't committed to a profession already, I'd try to launch it here in the UK.
A Shirley Temple is tasty if you want something a little fancy that looks like a cocktail. Arnold Palmers are also tasty and not too much of a departure from Nestea.
You can also just ask for juice and soda in any combo that would be good with juice and alcohol. Grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, whatever the bar has.
More craft breweries are starting to make hop water, which is just sparkling water with hop extract and sometimes a little citrus. It’s zero-calorie but way more interesting than just drinking water, and it avoids the mountains of sugar NA drinks tend to include.
My brewer friend introduced me to some Hop Seltzers. Whatever he had was just hops and soda water, no fruit flavoring. Honestly, I liked it more than any IPA I’ve had in the past year, all of the flavor I want out of an IPA, none of the BS.
I don't know if alcohol-free beers are very common where you are (they're currently exploding around the UK!), or if you would feel comfortable drinking them. But there are some very good alcohol-free options that still look like booze. Guinness is probably the best I've had, but any of the Brewdog alcohol free range are great, as are beers by Infinite Session. There are lots of great options here, so if it's something you're happy experimenting with (and I would understand if you weren't), it's a nice little rabbit hole to go down. Many of my friends don't drink alcohol, and enjoy some of these options.
I'm also a fan of tonic water with a little cordial. My preference is lime, but most flavours will work. Lime just brings out the bitterness of the tonic.
Oh man. I couldn't disagree more about the brewdog alcohol-free range. They are by far the most disappointing I have tried. I very excitedly bought a mixed pack offering zero percent versions of most of their popular range - but I'm not kidding when I say not one of them was decent, to my taste.
I am a big fan of alcohol free beer, but I find the vast majority of them have a very underwhelming (and sometimes plain unpleasant) taste.
My favourite so far has been San Miguel. Their zero percent offering is really tasty and whilst it still has a slightly disappointing aftertaste, it's pretty great overall.
Very open to suggestions from others on here for options available in the UK.
Others I've tried and liked are Heineken (despite not loving their alcoholic offering) and Freedam.
Fuck Brewdog, but for other reasons. They've been known to leech off of and steal ideas from interns and job applicants after canning them. They're also really egotistical.
We are getting better with non-alcoholic drinks though. Some taste like shit but others are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. The best I tried was 0.5% Heineken and an alcohol free Erdinger (which only tasted like a slightly more bitter/sour wheat beer.)
Oddly enough, both alcoholic beers and alcohol free ones taste the same to me, which is to say, terrible. But thank you for your input!
But you don't have to look like you're drinking booze. I haven't had a single alcoholic drink in the UK for the past 30 years (I usually go for orwnf juice with lemonade) and nobody has looked at me funny. Only dodgy "friends" would do that.
Completely agree, but OP did specifically mention getting funny looks :P
Been good suggestions so far. Additionally, some microbreweries will have a brewed root beer or ginger beer option which is pretty good.
Worst case, i just do straight water.
I also go slower, just sipping, than my drinking colleagues.
It really depends on what your reasons for not drinking are. If you just don't like getting drunk (or if you have reasons to avoid alcohol, like being the designated driver or have a history of alcoholism), then there are many alternatives you can drink. Unless your friends are dicks, they shouldn't have a problem with you drinking whatever the heck you actually want to drink. Drink water. Drink coffee. Drink tea. Drink a smoothie if you're feeling fancy. But since you're out, I'd ask the bartender for their nonalcoholic specialties. Pretty much any half-decent joint will have at least one they can recommend for you, weather or not it's on their menu.
If you're drinking at someone's house, there is a Japanese drink called Kodomo no Nomimono (literally, "kids drink") which is a soda that is designed to look like beer when poured into a glass. I actually really like it. It's most commonly apple flavored.
If you just don't like the taste of alcohol, then I'd suggest trying to be adventurous and trying some cocktails. They really help mellow out and even compliment the taste of the spirits they contain, and most of them have significantly more water and other liquids than spirits. I'd recommend trying ones that are based on rum or champaigne first, since those are the ones that I think are generally more agreeable.
I also don't like the taste of alcohol, but I have found that I do actually enjoy the taste of spirits after I was able to give them a chance. The problem with them is that they tend to be fairly complex in flavor, so it's easy to taste something unpleasant at first and then hate it. But if you can work past the initial distaste, you might find that the rest of the flavors more than make up for it. There are a lot of flavors you'll hear people talking about in liquor that you won't really get until you start to try them out. From my experimentation I found out that I hate most beers, whiskies, and gins, but I do like most tequilas, rums, wines, and flavored liquouers (I really like grand marnier and jagermeister). But at the same time, a cocktail can change everything. I can really enjoy a well made Old Fashioned even though it's going to be made with whisky.
If you go exploring drinking, do keep in mind that the ice in it is an integral part; most cocktails are meant to be diluted over time with the ice, so never attempt to just down it. You'll want to sip them slowly and enjoy the slowly changing flavors. If you don't like the drink at first, wait a while and see how you like it once it's more dilute. And of course, make sure you also order a water because the flavors can be intense even when they're flavors you like.
Damn, such a detailed and considered answer! I don't drink because I take a medicine that interacts poorly with alcohol. My friends never laugh or joke about it but when we meet new people it gets tiring. Also my extended family complains relentlessly about me being "weak" for drinking non alcoholic stuff.
It's stupid, but it gets tiring.
I had no idea about the ice thing, thank you very much!!
Coffee should be a good choice. Lots of varieties you can try too.
Specialty coffee, pourover coffee, espresso based coffee, Japanese iced coffee for hot weather, etc.
Might not be a good choice for night drinks though, unless caffeine doesn't affect you much.
yeah coffee after 3 or 4 is a bad idea
I gave up alcohol due to... reasons.. so if I go out somewhere I don't drink anything but water. But I love the taste of beer so I've been drinking non-alcoholic beers like Athletic or Weihenstephaner. Anyone who i bump into that makes shit comments such as "hurr why drink it at all its not REAL BEER durr" can quite frankly fuck right off.
I drink a lot of beer and do not understand this statement. lol
Different strokes for different folks. I was partial towards wheat beers and saisons, but want to projectile vomit when am exposed to IPAs.
Depending where you are, you might enquire on 0% beers.
The UK and Europe has really embraced them post Covid.
I'm sober and have been since 2020, but I love a pint. There's usually an IPA or Lager in most places I go.
I feel like non-alcoholic beers are way more common in Europe than in the US (idk where OP is from but they're where I'm familiar). My dad's been sober since before I was born and I never saw him drink non-alcoholic beers in the US, but he enjoyed a few when he visited me here in Germany and seemed to have a positive impression of them. They're big enough here that I had to prevent some Irish friends from accidentally ordering one when we went out drinking together lol
Yep. They're big in the UK now and I absolutely love how prevelant they've become.
Gone are the days of Becks Blue and here is Big Drop, Lucky Saint and Beavertown with 0% brews. It's great.
Have you had the Guinness yet? I find with most AF beers I can tell from the taste that it doesn't have alcohol in it, but stick an AF Guinness in front of me and I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It's very, very good.
I have! It's slightly thinner and the taste is just a tad different, there's no bite. But it's a fantastic pint.
Not the guy you replied to, but weirdly I haven't... And I've been to the Guinness Storehouse over in Dublin.
I have two locals where I live.
One bartender will take the piss out of you if you go alcohol free, because it's just-as-expensive but worse. The other will serve it to you, no comment. Actually no, the other bartender will give you your second one and jokingly say something like "damn, you're gonna get drunk off of those", which is nowhere near as demeaning as mocking somebody for even drinking non-alcoholic beer in the first place.
Some of us like the taste of beer, but not the feeling of being shitfaced.
That bartender is a cock. I've had it a couple of times and I usually just leave if I get that attitude. Preferably after they've pulled the pint or opened the bottle.
Some of the 0% stuff is excellent.
Bitter Lemon (tonic + lemon) is my go to on a plane these days!
There are some good non-alcoholic beers today, say, Heineken NA. Sometimes I go to happy hour and drink that.
I've been drinking Athletic Beer upside dawn it's really good. If you don't like beer mixing club soda with cordials to make home made sodas is really good. I think the only ones you'll likely see in the US are Belvoir Farms. In the UK they have Mr. Fitzpatrick's cordials which are amazing.
Almost every bar has seltzer water. Ask for some ice. Ask for it to mixed with cranberry juice too.
My go-to that is pretty tasty is muddled citrus, half soda water, 3/8 sprite (or equivalent) 1/8 cranberry.
It's less sugar than just a soda by itself, usually all from "the gun" so it's easy for the bartender to make. Also it's delicious.
I mean... Your choice of drinks is much better than theirs health-wise, so maybe you should give them weird stares. But seriously, what I feel like saying is, why do you or should you match their ways of drinking? Like, people who drink alcohol keep drinking because they want to get/stay drunk and probably get smashed, eventually. Could it be possible that you feel inclined to have a glass/bottle of whatever, because they do that?
I feel like you're hitting on something. Who cares that much about appearance? If your friends care about whether you're drinking or not to this degree then I would hesitate to call them good friends. My advice is that all nonalcoholic alcohol-like drinks are shit and just drink some tea, coffee, or y'know, whatever you damn well please.
Yes, if I don't have a glass of something, I feel left out
If you’re not bothered by it, there’s typically ‘seltzer’ available at bars or I guess what they call ‘club soda’ in some places.
You can usually get it prepared with some kind of additive if you request it. Like I’ve gotten it with some lime and it was pretty solid.
But I’m fortunate enough to like plainish carbonated water on occasion so it’s easier for me. Particularly mineral waters like Topo Chico.
Mocktails are pretty damn good these days and unless someone is watching the drink being made nobody but you will ever know it's not an alcoholic drink (if that's an issue). Any bar or restaurant worth their salt should have a bunch of them available.
If you can have a tiny amount of alcohol, like less than most alcohol free beers, soda and bitters is my favorite order when I’m not drinking.
In the UK my favorite go to is orange juice mixed with lemonade, in Germany it's Apfelschorle (apple juice mixed with fizzy water).
My wife swears by cranberry and lemonade (the clear stuff that looks like sprite), in a large wine glass looks like a sparkling rosé to casual onlookers (fewer awkward questions).
I'll take a look at that, thank you!
just mix carbonated water with anything. every bar ever has cranberry and tonic.
Can't go wrong with a lemon lime and bitters, it's good enough to basically be the default for a non drinkers drink in Australia.
Note that it does involve a couple of drops worth of alcohol (from the bitters) but we're talking a level where it'd only really matter if you were allergic or had really strong beliefs about not touching any alcohol at all.