Wondering what alternative drinks people order when at a bar or restaurant if you aren't drinking alcohol.

Most of the low cal options are highly carbonated e.g diet coke

Non alcoholic drinks such as lemon lime and bitters or lime and soda are generally quite high in sugar and calories.

Plain soda water is boring and plain water even worse.

5 hours ago, elcee said:

Wondering what alternative drinks people order when at a bar or restaurant if you aren't drinking alcohol.

Most of the low cal options are highly carbonated e.g diet coke

Non alcoholic drinks such as lemon lime and bitters or lime and soda are generally quite high in sugar and calories.

Plain soda Water is boring and plain water even worse.

You can order water with extra lemon, squeeze the lemon in the water and add a half pack of splenda or any low cal sweetener and walaaah! you have lemonade.

Or lime, usually bars have one or both ready for garnish?

Mocktails...

Unsweetened iced tea will look like a Manhattan in the right glass, water with a touch of lemon juice and cherry or olive garnish will look like a Martini in the right glass, water layered with a touch of orange juice and cranberry juice with sugar substitute on the rim will look like a tequila sunrise in the right glass... see where I'm heading?

Get to really know the bartenders, tip your servers! (Even if not customary)

Edited October 22, 20187 yr by GreenTealael

I would happily order a mocktail but as far as I am aware most of them , at least here in Aus, are full of juice which of course is full of sugar.

I will probably have to stick with the lime and soda although i don’t think they use the diet lime.

I’ll have to try and order some Crystal Light on the go from the USA and carry that. Sadly we don’t have an equivalent.

I usually order a water and bring in my own kool-aid! My husband laughs at me, but hey it works!

Water with a lime or lemon slice. It’s hard explaining why I’m not drinking. I don’t even care about not drinking, I just get tired of explaining why I can’t drink. ?

1 hour ago, elcee said:

I would happily order a mocktail but as far as I am aware most of them , at least here in Aus, are full of juice which of course is full of sugar.

I will probably have to stick with the lime and soda although i don’t think they use the diet lime.

Try talking to the bartenders to make special orders for you especially if you will frequent a place ... have fun!

6 minutes ago, GreenTealael said:

Try talking to the bartenders to make special orders for you especially if you will frequent a place ... have fun!

I am long past the days of frequenting a place!

1 hour ago, Brttnyj89 said:

I usually order a Water and bring in my own kool-aid! My husband laughs at me, but hey it works!

I would happily do that if we had some decent options available here.

How about iced tea with fruit in it, and it would be a mock Tom.Collins. Here's a story about the real thing. I tended to being colicky, probably got on my parents nerves, they were to have a cousin or aunt to watch me for a while. Went down to the neighbor good pub to have a few. Mama drank a double Tom Collins, came back home, nursed me , evidently the strained amount of alcohol was just enough to cure my colic and I never had it again!

At least she drank it and didn't just put it in your bottle! Although back in the day it used to be perfectly acceptable to dip a dummy/pacifier in a drop of whiskey when bub was teething.

Goodness knows how we all survived!

7 hours ago, elcee said:

I’ll have to try and order some Crystal Light on the go from the USA and carry that. Sadly we don’t have an equivalent.

I'm headed to Canada in 10 days. If I can find room in my suitcase I'll bring you back some and send it over. I have a list of stuff to bring back that we can't get here.... Crystal Lite, chewable pregnancy vitamins (my sister has been on them for 7 years post RNY), cheap clothes that don't look like K-Mart $3 t-shirts.

Or elcee you would dip your finger in the bottle of booze and rub the baby's gums when they were teething. Like to say it was brandy they used , sounds status-like but in my family corn liquor. Had people on daddy's side that were smell business men, oh stone the crows-love that term, came from an English novel I read- the fact was there some moonshiners in the family tree. Just flatter them by calling them" small businessmen"! They flat-out made white lightening. And yes I have tasted it, had enough family pride I wouldn't throw up, especially in front of my uncle's. But the headache I got, woweee wow wow. That was quite memorable.
Daddy married Mama whose family was of a different persuasion, her mama, my grandma, was a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union and was even buried with her pin and ribbon on.
And there was discussion at reunions which parent had "married down" but they were married for 50 years and 2 months before Daddy died in 1993, and Mama followed him 10 years later. And they must have believed in quality more than quantity because they had only me.

Thats amazing. I love hearing people's stories, they are so special