Non-Alcoholic drinkies I’ve tried recently

I NEED to get this post done so I’ve cleared the backlog and can have a fresh start for summer, Christmas and party season. And cruising on our little tinny in creek, drinking non-alcoholic mojitos in the sun.

So, pretty much everything I’ve been drinking lately is from, or could be purchased from Sans Drinks. Use my referral code for $5 off your first order. Like this Duchess “Gin” and tonic. An import from South Africa that came in the bonus Spring Sample box from Sans Drinks. It has the botanicals, the quinine and most of the features. A common complaint for me is the sugar substitutes used in most of these – I don’t really care for stevia and other “natural” sweeteners that aren’t just good old sugar, they leave a taste. Even as a diet coke girl, I never liked the artificially sweetened mixers like Smirnoff Blacks – at least they had the vodka as an incentive to drink them, but yeah, gross compared to real sugar drinks.

The reds have been nicer than the whites, but then I’m not so much of a white wine drinker anyway. Some have been a tad sweet for me, but then that’s more my taste inn wine, I want the driest red you can give me. But without alcohol these days.

Been working my way through this Spring selection from Naked Life Spirits cocktails. I think these can also be bought at the end of the soft drink aisle at my local woolies. More and more there when I visit to pick up my Diet Coke. I drank the mojito the other day in the boat from the boys (Bruce and Maxi). I liked it a lot! Nice mint taste! Yumyum. The Classic G&T is also nice, not so keen on the espresso martini – I’ll stick to actual coffee. The pink cans – The Negroni, Sangria and Cosmo all were great, again aside from the hint of artificial sweetener. I’m such a Nutrasweet girl.

This spicy little number I got in the swag bag at the Logitech event I went down to Sydney for. Very much a ginger bite in this Dark and Stormy Yes You Can cocktail. Oh I love ginger. I want more ginger in my life!

These guys were also in the sampler at the top. The Daquiri from Nocktail was SWEET as you’d expected and tasted of pink, and the Ish was interesting and complex and I’m glad I have another in the cupboard ready to chill for next weekend!

Then there’s our yellow sources of caffeine – the new Sprite+ and the V Refresh. I have to say I’m disappointed in the decision from Coke to remove Lift from their range and push this Sprite+, mostly because it’s not a straight swap being caffeinated and all that. It’s not for kids and not for me to have with fish and chips if I’ve had my caffeine for the day, not that it matters too much to me, but will for some. It tastes fine. Not as lemon tho. And the V was nice, but I shouldn’t have poured it, that colour is wrong :p

And I’m relieved to say that the dry white sparklings on offer have been satisfactory so far. Good with the Japanese takeaway or the other nibblies. I can’t really get through the whole bottle myself and without the alcohol there’s no motivation to skull the last drips any more!

Please hit me up with your recommendations and things to steer clear of ahead of summer though! I’m about 20 months without an alcoholic drink as of this week, so yay!