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Non alcoholic drinks?

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rodders1960

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Type 2
hi all, with the weather starting to pick up there's nothing nicer than a glass of g&t sat relaxing in the sunshine.
Do the alcohol free gins taste pretty much the same as ones with alcohol? Also I used to like fevertree mixers as nice and fruity. Any ideas about what to go for please?
 
The gin is pretty well low on carbs so unless you want to avoid alcohol the gin is fine but Fevertree tonics are not so good as they are higher carb than some, check out the Fevertree website for the carbs of their mixers, one I just looked at was 8.2g carb per 100ml, whereas a shot of gin is zero carbs. so a few of those will bump up your carbs quite quickly.
 
I have enjoyed a couple of the alcohol free gins as one of my G&T friends was pregnant.
I would not say they taste the same as gin but just like you can get gins with different "botanicals", you can get different tasting alcohol free ones.
For a thirst-quenching drink, they are expensive so, buying a bottle of something to find out you don't like it, you could waste quite a bit of money. Recently, I have been drinking them in pubs and restaurants. They are still expensive but £6 for a glass is a lot less to lose than £25 for a bottle if you don't like it.

As for what to go for, I find I prefer Sipsmiths who specialise in alcohol-free rather than the equivalents form the usual gin suspects like Gordons. Sipsmiths have a few different options depending upon your taste (and the time of year - they have autumnal flavours as well as summery citrus ones).
 
For a non alcoholic drink, a glass of water with a slice of cucumber and apple and a sprig of mint is very refreshing and low carb. No carbs in gin though so if you fancy a normal G& slimline T then go for it. It will come with calories though so depends how you are managing your diabetes or if you need to avoid alcohol for other reasons.
As mentioned, Fevertree is sweetened with Fructose (fruit sugar) which is one of the worst sugars to have when it not eaten with the fruit ie combined with fibre. I know Fevertree was cleverly marketed as being more healthy but don't fall for it.
 
Thankyou for the replies. I'm struggling with is it worth it if not the real thing, or just stick to a weak sugar free cordial or sugarfree lemonade
 
I drink G&T quite regularly without any BG issues (Usually with a Fever Tree tonic.)
Best trying one and testing to see what the result is.
I find alcohol sends my blood sugar low.
 
I never understood about alcohol free alcohol. What's the point? If I can't have alcohol I only like water really. If I'm 'out' I stick to Diet Coke, so boring but refreshing with ice on a boiling hot day. Just the one, couldn't stomach any more than that. Yuck. 🙂
 
Ditto said:
I never understood about alcohol free alcohol. What's the point? If I can't have alcohol I only like water really. If I'm 'out' I stick to Diet Coke, so boring but refreshing with ice on a boiling hot day. Just the one, couldn't stomach any more than that. Yuck. 🙂
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I avoid coke and sugary tasting drinks unless hypo.
Sugary drinks require insulin. Sugar-free taste chemically to me.
If I go to the pub and am not drinking alcohol, this leaves me with water which is very dull.
So, I like having a choice. I often have a non-alcoholic beer (they taste much better than they used to) - this may require a little insulin but less than juice and does not affect my BG as quickly.

I also drink very little caffeine. So drinking a coke after 5pm will keep me awake throughout the night.

So, drinkable alcohol-free alcohol has been a god send to me.

Just another example of how we are all different 😎
 
I drink plain water most of the time but it's true that summer calls for something different sometimes, especially if you are going out.

I never used to drink coke before diagnosis, but I started to go for the diet one when I got tired of only getting cordial in the bars. It also works well as a mixer if I want alcohol, I found out soda water+blackcurrant or lime is not so bad with vodka either! My go-to now is vanilla vodka with diet coke. Might be a particular taste but I enjoy it, not sure about the carb content of the flavoured vodkas tho.

I'd say you have a much wider variety in the shops, I'm with @Leadinglights in the flavoured water, I like to try any new one that I find. There's also different flavours of diet coke/pepsi max. They do taste artificial but is an occasional treat that doesn't affect blood sugar, I personally prefer raspberry pepsi (can't stand the cherry one) and vanilla coke. Just tried a "no sugar added" peach iced tea from Lidl, very refreshing and is similar to my childhood favourite soft drink: Nestea. It has 0'4g of carbs per 100 ml but I can cope with that.

I can't help with the G&T question as I don't drink it, alcoholic or not, but I hope you find some of the other ideas useful 🙂
 
@Elenka_HM Vanilla vodka and Diet Coke is my new favourite drink too!
 
rodders1960 said:
hi all, with the weather starting to pick up there's nothing nicer than a glass of g&t sat relaxing in the sunshine.
Do the alcohol free gins taste pretty much the same as ones with alcohol? Also I used to like fevertree mixers as nice and fruity. Any ideas about what to go for please?
Click to expand...
I still have a gin and tonic, but opt for the light tonics. Having said that I am able to put in a bit of insulin to match the carbs in the tonic. Doing that seems to keep me fairly level and I don’t see any impact from the gin.
 
Ditto said:
I never understood about alcohol free alcohol. What's the point? If I can't have alcohol I only like water really. If I'm 'out' I stick to Diet Coke, so boring but refreshing with ice on a boiling hot day. Just the one, couldn't stomach any more than that. Yuck. 🙂
Click to expand...

Same here, alcohol in or nothing, plus greedy gits charge same for non alcoholic drinks as they do for alcoholic drinks.

When driving & in pub for meal jenjoy diet coke/lemonade.
 
Thanks all. I'm not really bothered about there being alcohol really. Just something refreshing and different. I quite like elderflower. Must look at low carb ones.
 
rodders1960 said:
Thanks all. I'm not really bothered about there being alcohol really. Just something refreshing and different. I quite like elderflower. Must look at low carb ones.
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I like the apple and elderflower sparkling water.
I tried elderflower fritters once and they were foul.
 
Tescos used to do a lemon & elderflower flavour sparkling water and my husband and I absolutely loved it. I offered some of my bottle to Patti at an early on DSF forum meet - I drank it there instead of anything alcoholic cos I was driving - so soon thereafter Tesco in Penzance started getting shortages as well as in Bedworth, they stopped doing it end of story. They do other flavours and we still like quite a lot of them - but NOT the apple and elderflower!

However, not available in licenced premises, so I usually stick to my old fashioned G and Slimline T or a glass of 'full bodied' red. I don't actually need to reduce alcohol as although we've never packed up drinking it, we haven't had any since Coronation weekend, but will each have one tonight, at a local charity (we're Trustees of) meeting out with friends.
 
trophywench said:
Tescos used to do a lemon & elderflower flavour sparkling water and my husband and I absolutely loved it.
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LIdl do a Mexican Lime and Elderflower sparking water and that is really nice although I tend to dilute it with tap water to make it go further and therefore reduce the amount of additives going into my body and even with just an inch and a half in a tall glass and topped up with water it tastes really nice and refreshing.
 
SB2015 said:
I still have a gin and tonic, but opt for the light tonics. Having said that I am able to put in a bit of insulin to match the carbs in the tonic. Doing that seems to keep me fairly level and I don’t see any impact from the gin.
Click to expand...
The way I drink it there is always an impact :rofl:
 
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