I really think there is a market for an adult soft drink, a non-alcoholic drink which isn’t sweet and fizzy, isn’t insipid and thin, but has lots of levels of flavour, a good nose and a refreshing quality.
If I’m the designated driver and we go out what can I drink? I don’t really Ike plain water and there is a limit to the amount of fizzy water I can drink. I’m not very keen on fruit juice, and again how many can your drink? If you’re out for the evening, you don’t really want to be sitting with an empty glass all night. I like lime cordial (but only Rose’s) and it’s not something I necessarily want to drink with a meal… great when I’m thirsty, great when I want something refreshing but it’s not got enough oomph for more than that.
I want a drink which compliments what I’m eating in the way wine does, or some beers with spicy food. I want a drink which is like beer and has a complex and interesting taste, which doesn’t disappear as soon as the drink’s gone down your throat and which I can sit in the pub for a couple of hours and have two or three and really enjoy. I don’t want an alcohol-free beer, I have yet to taste one which is not disgusting and has a nasty chemically after-taste. I don’t want insipid alcohol free wine which always has a funny flowery taste…and I mean flowery in a not nice way.
If you think of the care and devotion which goes into producing wine, or beer (made with malted barley, hops, yeast and water – that’s all) using the best of ingredients, then maybe it’s not surprising that a new product cannot match something which has been made for centuries and has been refined by masters (and mistresses) of the craft.
A person who could come up with an adult non-alcoholic soft drink could make a fortune!
Lois Elsden 
I’m with you. Most of the time, there’s fruit juice, or Coke, and alcohol free beer. Blargh.
I’d love to have something flavorful and most definitively not sugary.
They’d make a fortune off me .
Let me know if you ever come across something!
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I will!! I was drinking Pimms the other night, and yes I know there is alcohol in it, but a version of that would be quite nice, tart, full of different flavours and different levels of flavour.
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I’ll have to try Pimms one day soon, I read about it but never tried it – it’s not widely available here – so the jury is out on that 🙂
And I’ll let you know if something comes along here – it’s the international quest for adult drinks!
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Pimms is just the best summer drink – we also have it when we’re on our family holiday, a sort of tradition! You need nice fruit like strawberries, cucumber, mint… anything you fancy really, ice, and lemonade (a friend puts gin in it but that sounds a bit super-charged for me!)
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I’ll have to buy some immediately! That sounds so refreshing and delicious (minus the gin, of course)!
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In the 70s, or maybe 80s, there was a product on the market in Australia which was exactly what you describe. It looked like a scotch or a brandy and was a quite nice herby concoction like a vermouth or a Pimms mixer, but without the alcohol, and the idea was that you could mix it with soda or tonic or ginger ale or lemonade even, and stick to that if you were the designated driver for the night. It was marketed as “the drink you have when you’re not having a drink”, and it was called ‘Claytons’. It was a good idea, but eventually faded away, leaving only the idea of ‘a claytons’ behind in the language. For instance, at work, sometimes you have impromptu ‘Clayton’s meetings’, you know, the meeting you’re having when you’re not having a meeting. Or politicians can announce what we all know is a ‘claytons policy’, the policy you have if you don’t have a policy, and so on. It’s been a useful cultural concept, but it was not a successful product.
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I wonder if that would happen with any new product too? The amount of finance needed for such a venture is enormous, and I think it might just end up another clayton!
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