smokeandhoney

https://devil.contact

  • he/him

Some things I like in no particular order: board games, video games, mechanical keyboards, automating stuff with amateur level python, my cat Tabitha, science fiction and fantasy novels, live music but only if I already know the songs



I got some bloodwork done recently that showed some high liver numbers. I'm still getting that checked out, but I decided that it would be a good idea to dial back alcohol consumption to special occasions only, at least for now.

Fortunately, non-alcoholic beer is actually pretty good these days. Athletic's Golden Ale and Lager variations are basically as good as a mid-tier alcoholic beer, and it lets me have something at board game nights that doesn't make me feel out of place.

I also grabbed a copy of Julia Bainbridge's book Good Drinks. She traveled to a bunch of bars and restaurants across the country collecting recipes for non-alcoholic drinks that fit into the same space as cocktails. They tend to be a little fussy or to require ingredients you might need to special order, but that's part of the fun!

Of the recipes I've tried so far, I have two favorites (both images above are from the book): The Pea Flower Lemonade has a fun theatricality to it. Ahead of time, you toast some coriander seeds and grind them up, and then make a tea from Butterfly Pea Flowers. The tea comes out a really intense blue color. You mix the warm tea, coriander, and some sugar, then strain the mixture and chill it. When you serve it over ice, you add some fresh lemon juice, which turns the drink this pinkish-purplish color. It's fun to watch!

The other one I particularly liked is called "Cherry and Smoke" and it's very simple: 3 oz tart cherry juice, 3 oz lapsang souchong tea, and a twist of lemon, served warm. The flavors complement each other well. The first time I tried was not great because the cherry juice was cold straight from my fridge, so the final product came out lukewarm. But tonight I put the juice in the microwave for a bit while the tea brewed, and it tastes great.

I like having something new and fun to drink while I'm avoiding alcohol, and this book has a lot of directions to explore.


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in reply to @smokeandhoney's post:

agree on NA beers. it's so nice now that I can be eating a meal, think "oh a beer would be great with this," and just go crack a fucking cold one without worrying about my alcohol consumption

also, I really recommend getting a soda maker like a drink mate if you don't have one already. having access to sparkling whatever the heck you want at any time gives you a lot more NA and low abv drink options.

i use a drinkmate, which has a fully removable nozzle that you can run water through to clean it out, which means you can carbonate literally anything you like. i think there are other carbonators that work similarly - sodastream is the outlier here. you can carbonate juices, water with a bit of juice or bitters, or even custom sodas you make with water and syrup.

it's also really good for alcoholic drinks that include soda water, since you can mix all of the ingredients in the bottle and carbonate the whole thing. same goes for drinks like aperol spritz's or french 75's that use sparking wine as an ingredient. once the bottle has gone flat, you can just pour out a serving and spritz it back up with the carbonator (i know that's a bit of a crime, but this is cheap bubbly that's going into a mixed drink, not good champagne or whatever).

biggest tip is to keep cold water on hand, since it takes carbonation better. I do that by just keeping some of the half liter drinkmate bottles in my fridge pre filled with still water, and carbonating them when i need to. if you use one of those filtered water jugs you keep in your fridge though, it'll work just as well.

if you the up liking it, they have a pretty good co2 exchange program. also, I really recommend picking up a few of the smaller bottles, since they're better for meeting one off drinks than the default 1L ones