Dry January

[Bollybarb]

Hi,
Is anyone else going 'dry' in January?

I am but i need some inspiration of interesting drinks to try instead of alcohol

Thank you

[LittleBrownFrog]

These popped up on my radar earlier today - infused waters: http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2011/08/3 ... cipes.html

[MissEllie]

Well done Bolly I've heard about the cancer research dryathalon, it's sounds like a really great idea

(she says with a bottle of beer by her side )

My favourite non alcoholic tipple is ginger beer and lime

[Bollybarb]

Lovely idea ladies, I think I'll try both the infusions and ginger beer and lime.

[saint-spoon]

I normally drink water, plain and simple out of the tap. Have yu ever tried tamarind water? You can get it from Oriental food shops or make your own with tamarind pulp.

[mrs boodles]

Pineapple and lemonade and also lemonade and lime are nice drinks, they are my usual tipple

[HensAloud]

When I read the title I thought you had an advanced weather forecast

[HappyBob]

I normally drink water, plain and simple out of the tap. Have yu ever tried tamarind water? You can get it from Oriental food shops or make your own with tamarind pulp.

Another one for plain and simple water when needing to flush my system, and pots of tea of course.

[Benny&Co]

I think I'm going to join you Barb too

[manda]

I don't usually drink to be honest so Christmas and New Year are a bit of a change for me...
We have a sodastream and so I drink a lot of carbonated water with ice and maybe a bit of lemon in it or some of the sodastream syrups in it .... I love the summer lemon and the cranberry flavours..

I had a look on their UK website and they've got non-alcoholic cocktail flavours, Mojito and Margarita flavours as well!! (we don't get those here )

[Bollybarb]

My kids want a soda stream, so me not drinking might be the time to get one especially as i will be saving money

[lancashire lass]

My kids want a soda stream, so me not drinking might be the time to get one especially as i will be saving money

I don't know how much they have changed but the soda stream I got many (many) years ago didn't work out that much cheaper than supermarket brands after buying the gas cartridge and syrups (and some did not taste that authentic TBH), and I thought the bottle size was too small (or maybe I just drink loads more)

Like manda, I don't usually drink except maybe the odd beer during hot weather or a reward after mowing the lawn (or a must on camping ... not quite sure how that tradition started) so going "dry" in January will be no hardship for me

[manda]

I'm not sure how it fairs in the UK from a price point of view...but I have had a look on our supermarkets website to see what the sums are here:

Bottle of syrup = $7-8 (58-62 cents per litre)
Gas = $11 dollars for a 30l refill and that lasts for 30 litres (36 cents a litre)
Total = 94-98 cents a litre

A cheap bottle of own brand soft drink = $1 for 1.25 litres = 80cents a litre (and they are pretty nasty) a bottle of vanilla coke for example is $2.29 at the moment for 1.5 litres = $1.52 per litre....and the soda stream Vanilla coke (of the same brand) is nice and works out 52+ cheaper

Mind you new they were what I consider to be very expensive so we bought ours "preloved" mainly because we wanted to be sure we really were going to use it.....which we do A LOT!

I don't spend as much because I drink sparkling water so no syrups required - even a cheap water will be around $1.90 so that costing me only 36 cents a litre suits me

The other plus is it keeps waste down...fewer bottles - you reuse the carbonating bottles and for every 12 litres you have 1 syrup bottle which sits better with me too....and of course you can use other syrups too if they're not to your taste which work just as well.

[Freeranger]

We drink sparkling water (under 20p for 2l from big supermarkets) with lemon juice added. It's very refreshing and a bit zingy, and loads cheaper than the booze. I also cut the bottles down for mini-cloches in the garden.

[p.penn]

I am right off the vino at present, and like OJ (or apple) and lemonade, or even tonic water.