Non-alcoholic wine review

After a bit of googling, I was excited to try Tesco's non-alcoholic South African Chenin fizz due to the great reviews like this:

http://metro.co.uk/2016/02/09/tesco-is-selling-alcohol-free-fizz-they-say-is-the-closest-ever-to-the-real-thing-5634766/

Technically it is a 0.5% level so I waited until after my 30 days off to try it, purist that I am.  I went with the white one but they also had a pink one.

My thoughts on this as an alcohol-free substitute:

• I like fizzy things and will easily drink a litre of fizzy water on a Sunday dinner while others are drinking wine.  My personal favourite is Tesco's Ashbeck as I love a lot of fizz in my water.  When I opened this bottle it has a high amount of fizz.

• At £2.75 a bottle it's easy on the wallet.

• It's nice to have something different than water and a festive cork to pop.  It comes with a nifty resealable plastic cork. 

• I've never been a fan of South Africa white wine, it's a little too sweet for me.  This bottle was extremely sweet, I couldn't get beyond a glass of it.  If you are a fan of sweet wines, dessert wines, I think this would be worth a try.

If you are in general cutting back on alcohol, calories and cost, this one may be a nice substitute. I have friends who are absolute non-drinkers so even a less than 1% wine would not be acceptable to them.  However, for those looking to reduce alcohol consumption, this may be one to try, especially for sweet wine drinkers.

For now I'll stick with my non-alcoholic fizzy grape drinks.  Asda has discontinued my favourite but Co-op does an ok one, as long as I water it down a little more with fizzy water or ice.

Edit: I served it to my other half without commentary, but mentioned that it was a non-alcoholic wine.  He has quite a sweet tooth and could eat chocolate all day.  He had two glasses of it with dinner and thought it was quite nice as a non-alcoholic substitute to the usual offering of cola that most of our non-alcoholic friends endure.  As we always have a few friends who are minimizing alcohol due to driving later in the evening or to limit sugar/calories, he would buy this one again to have on offer at gatherings.

Non-alcoholic drinks

We did a bbq this summer and a number of non-drinkers were attending so I made a load of non-alcoholic drinks.  Most of these recipes came somewhere via the internet but at this point I no longer know the original sources, but I can tell you I am not the creator.  As people asked for the recipes after the bbq I had added my observations to the original recipes.  

Sangria Me Not!

Serves 8

2 cups boiling water
2 black tea bags (or 2 teaspoons loose-leaf tea in an infuser)
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups pomegranate juice
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 orange, sliced into thin rounds
1 lemon, sliced into thin rounds
1 lime, sliced into thin rounds
1 apple, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
3 cups carbonated water

Pour boiling water over tea bags and cinnamon sticks and steep for 5 minutes. Discard tea bags and stir in sugar to dissolve.

In a large jar or pitcher, combine tea, cinnamon sticks, pomegranate juice, orange juice, orange, lemon, lime, and apple. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and preferably overnight.

Just before serving, stir in carbonated water. Serve in glasses over ice.

On this one, I made it early in the morning to give it a few hours for the flavours to mingle.  

Cape Cod Strawberry Basil Soda

Makes about 6 (8-ounce) drinks

1 pound strawberries, trimmed
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1 cup sugar
Carbonated water

Juice strawberries using a juicer or blender.
If using a juicer: Juice strawberries according to manufacturer's instructions. Discard pulp.
If using a blender: Place strawberries in a blender and pulse until smooth. Strain through a sieve, pushing juice through with a spatula. Discard solids.

Pour strawberry juice into a liquid measuring cup. Add water to reach 1 cup if needed. Pour into a small saucepan with lemon juice, basil, and sugar.

Heat mixture over medium heat until boiling. Simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain syrup through a sieve into a clean container and discard solids.

To serve, spoon 2 tablespoons of syrup into an 8-ounce glass, top with carbonated water, and stir. Taste and add more syrup, if desired.

Can refrigerate syrup up to 1 week.

This smells absolutely divine as its cooking!

Front Porch Sparkling Rosemary Limeade  Ended up not doing this one as I forgot the rosemary. 

makes eight 5-ounce servings — or more, depending on dilution

1 cup lime juice (from about 6 limes)
3/4 cup sugar
Peel of 2 limes
Two 4-inch sprigs fresh rosemary, plus more to serve
4 to 6 cups chilled sparkling water

Stir the lime juice with the sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Lower the heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the lime peel and the rosemary sprigs. Simmer for another minute, then turn off the heat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Strain out the lime peel and rosemary and mix with the chilled sparkling water in a sealed jar or bottle. Taste and add more water if you want a lighter flavor.

Serve over ice with a small sprig of rosemary muddled into the drink.

Escape the Heat Wave Frozen Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate tastes just as good, if not better, when it's not hot at all. In a saucepan, mix together a half cup of unsweetened coca mix and ¾ cup of sugar. Create a paste by very slowly adding a quarter cup of milk to the cocoa/sugar blend and stirring. Add two cups of milk over low heat until all of the ingredients are blended well, and then pour the mixture into an ice cube tray and freeze overnight. While you're at it, place some glasses in the freezer so they'll be nice and frosty tomorrow. Once the ice cubes are ready, place them into a blender along with two tablespoons of low-fat milk, and blend the ingredients. Pour the mix into the frozen glasses and serve immediately.

Cocoa is sold as a powder in the US.  Here we used Asda Extra Special 40% Cocoa Solids baking bar.  The squares are pre-marked at 5 gram weights, so we used 65 grams.  If doing again, I would increase that. We used the green cap milk, it probably would have tasted nicer with full fat as the base milk.

New Orleans Mockarita – Ended up skipping this one, but still want to make it! ‘Limeade’ in the States would be similar to Lime squash.

A mock margarita, or a "mockarita", has most of the same ingredients as a margarita - just skip the alcohol! For a perfect non-alcoholic frozen drink recipe, place six ounces of limeade concentrate into a blender along with a half cup of orange juice, and 2/3 cup of unsweetened grapefruit juice. Begin blending them together slowly, gradually adding about four cups of crushed ice to the mixture. The drink should have a slushy consistency by the time you're finished. Serve in a margarita glass. For the classic treatment, rub the rim of your glass with a lemon or lime wedge, and dip the rim into coarse salt or sugar granules. This drink is a real showstopper.

Taste of Carolina Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen (or fresh) strawberries (about 24 strawberries)
1/2 cup crushed ice (or smallest cubes possible)
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
3 packets of sugar substitute or 2 Tablespoons of sugar (or to taste)
3/4 cup water

(Optional)
1/4 lemon, sliced, for garnish
1 Tablespoon of ginger, fresh or dried (finely chopped)
A few mint leaves

Directions:

1. Allow frozen strawberries to thaw slightly.
2. Before placing ice cubes in blender, crush large chunks by sealing securely inside a plastic zip bag and rolling over the bag firmly with a rolling pin.
3. Combine lemon juice, strawberries, sugar substitute or sugar, crushed ice and water in blender jar. If blades get stuck, add more water.
4. Blend on high with lid tightly secured until smooth and thick.
5. Pour into glasses and serve immediately. Garnish with a slice of lemon & sugar the glass rim, if desired.

As it was so hot, we didn’t crush the ice here, figured it would melt too quickly if so.

Alaska White Sangria

Ingredients

For the Berry Grape Ice Cubes:

• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 2-4 cups white grape juice, preferably unsweetened

For Mixed Berry Sangria-By-The-Glass Mocktail, per glass:

• 4 Berry Grape Ice Cubes
• ¾ cup white grape juice
• 2-4 fresh whole basil leaves
• 2 large or 4 small fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
• cold sparkling water

Freeze a few blueberries in grape juice in ice cube trays.

Add ‘berry ice cubes’ to glass.  Then the other ingredients.

We couldn’t find plain grape juice and were not sure how well the fizzy grape would freeze.  So we used just water in the blueberry cubes.  Instead of grape juice we found ASDA Extra Special Non-Alcoholic grape juice which was quite tasty in itself!   As that was already fizzy, we only did a slight dash of the sparkling water.  For mixed groups, to make an alcohol included version, substitute pinot or chardonnay for the white grape juice.

The last minute off- piste add to the menu:

·         Asda cranberry/blueberry juice

·         2 teaspoons of lemon squash

·         A few blueberries, raspberries, strawberries

·         Dash of fizzy water

·         Loads of ice

 

As these are all American recipes, they need to be converted to UK measures.  There is a degree of uncertainty among sites as to exact conversions, so take these loosely and don’t be afraid to adjust.

Volume

When measuring liquid, cooking measurements are quite straightforward:

Metric	Imperial	US cups
250ml	8 fl oz	1 cup
180ml	6 fl oz	3/4 cup
150ml	5 fl oz	2/3 cup
120ml	4 fl oz	1/2 cup
75ml	2 1/2 fl oz	1/3 cup
60ml	2 fl oz	1/4 cup
30ml	1 fl oz	1/8 cup
15ml	1/2 fl oz	1 tablespoon

Sugar (caster and granulated)

US cups	Metric	Imperial
1/8 cup	25g	1 oz
1/4 cup	50g	1 3/4 oz
1/3 cup	70g	2 1/4 oz
1/2 cup	100g	3 1/2 oz
2/3 cup	135g	4 3/4 oz
3/4 cup	150g	5 1/4 oz
1 cup	200g	7 oz