Posted on 04/03/2009 6:49:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Last year the Dry Soda brand of very lightly sweetened fizzy drinks came out with a new flavor, "juniper berry," which it advertised as "the perfect 'non-alcoholic gin and tonic.'" Juniper, of course, is the distinctive, piney flavoring that distinguishes gin. And so might a juniper soda appeal to gin lovers? The definitive response came from drinks blogger Camper English: "The problem with non-alcoholic drinks is their complete lack of alcohol," he wrote at his site, Alcademics.com. "To me, this product sounds like it will pair magnificently with leftover vodka to make a gin-free G&T." In other words, what's the point?
But is the point of spirits and cocktails ultimately just the alcohol? You'd never know it from columns like this one. I don't think I'm the only drink scribbler in the world who generally discusses the merits of this or that liquor, or one wine or another, without mentioning the intoxicating nature of the beverage. Yet the alcohol must somehow be of the essence because, after all, there isn't anyone striving to be the Robert Parker of grape juice. Even if it were possible to come up with a Scotch stripped of its alcohol that still tasted like Scotch, would it be worth drinking? Or would it be -- like a rambunctious dog debarked -- a sad and mutilated thing?
Mixers have tried for decades to find concoctions for nondrinkers that would approximate the cocktail experience. As the wheels started coming off Prohibition, the teetotal lobby tried to lure inebriates away from bootleg hooch by promoting "liquorless cocktails." The Women's Christian Temperance Union created a "Department of Non-Alcoholic Fruit Products" to disseminate recipes for such drinks as the
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
No vodka ....
IMHO, soda pop is just a delivery system for liquor, much as cigs are a delivery system for nicotine. I never drink straight soda. I don’t like soda as a beverage.
I agree. What’s the point?
Think this author is still holding stock in Zima? LOL!
Thank you for a non-political article. I get so sick of you know who.
I’m not a drinker, or at least I wasn’t until last November 4th. Every now and then, I get a bottle of Martini&Rossi Aste Spumante. It takes me 5 nights to finish a bottle. One glass a night. I just seal the top of the bottle real good and it holds it’s fizz pretty well until it’s gone. I like how it tastes, how it relaxes me, and it doesn’t give me a headache the next morning. Other alcoholic beverages give me a hangover with just one serving.
I quit drinking Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke over a year ago to avoid the aspartame. I took up drinking naturally flavored fizzy water, the Klarbrunn or La Croix brands. Many flavors and no artificial sweeteners, zero calories.
I also make a lot of black tea, and either ice it or have it hot. I can make a heck of a lot of tea really cheaply.
No point, just rambling...just waiting for 2012 to get here....
this shite is for Muslims and uber-libtards not to mention
recovering alcoholics
this shite is for Muslims,Seventh Day Advents,Mormons and uber-libtards not to mention
recovering alcoholics
There you have it — not in a nutshell, but perhaps in a shot glass.
Yep, that's it. It seems a very long piece to give a very short answer.
similar to near beer. For folks who don’t want to get drunk, just enjoying pissing.
In those calmer times, there weren't many "sluts".....but those in that city were virtually all Seventh Day Adventist teenagers - itching to 'get off the reservation'.
Agreed. I’ve been drinking the same bottle of wine all week. I also enjoy the non-political articles. Sooo tired of “him” and “her”.
When I was quite young in Ireland I had a female piano teacher who of all things was a7Day’er.
I had no idea what that meant but she did have bad breath perhaps that is why i don’t play as well as I could have
gawd, she stunk it was nigh impossible for me to get thru the lesson
I like beer
It makes me a jolly good fellow
I like beer
it helps me unwind, and sometimes it makes me feel mellow...
Ever since I quit drinking I don’t even see the point in pretending. A beer sounds good every now and then but I suspect that the jump from non alcoholic to alcoholic beer would be a short one for me.
That reminds me of a story. When I turned the legal drinking age, my paternal grandfather offered me a drink. I said "gimme a rum and coke". My grandfather said to me sternly...
"Boy, in this house we drink liquor neat, on the rocks or with a splash of water, but we don't ruin good liquor with cheap soda."
I haven't had a liquor and soda pop drink since that day. And, I found that in the ensuing years at college and whatever, I always drank less than my friends. FWIW.
Hell, I don’t drink cocktails much less “Mocktails”. Scotch rocks, Crown Royal neat, mostly beer or wine. But never, ever, Mocktails.
Most everyone, well not most. EVERYONE, I know drinks for effect. Otherwise, what’s the point? Really, how many would actually drink a concoction that tastes like scotch but without the alcohol? I’ll tell you. NO ONE.
And no, I didn’t actually click the link. Is it actually serious or more tongue-in-cheek?
Alchohol beverages without the alchohol is like a kiss on the forehead.
IMO, all booze tastes terrible. One drinks it only for the effect of the alcohol. Without that, might as well drink Welsh’s grape juice.
Bud Light is just an ADS (Alcohol Delivery System), not a beer.
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