Huh. Those 8-packs are usually $5 when I find them here. Thanks - I’ll do some digging.

Sparkling water (doesn’t matter what brand) with a couple of slices of lemon/lime/grapefruit & cucumber in it is my current jam.

Blending watermelon like there's no tomorrow.

I'm really into Spindrift — sparkling water with a splash of real fruit juice, and negligible calories. Their Lime is really good.

Hop Tea is also really delicious (my favorite is the Green Tea One with Mosaic hops), and has zero alcohol. The Target here sells it in the endcaps with kombucha and protein drinks. Has an even hoppier profile than Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher, which as others have said is also great and almost silly to sell in the beer aisle since it's really just sparkling water.

A_Man_Who_Tries wrote: Wed Jul 07, 2021 1:08 am I'm boring and stick to water and tea, but my rare fancies otherwise are Dandelion & Burdock, or Ginger Beer.

These are all great choices.

Geiginni wrote: A good friend of mine who swore off wine and liquor has switched to drinking seltzer/club soda with bitters and a splash of citrus - in various combinations. She has a little collection of various craft bitters she chooses from.

Bitters and tonic, also good. I think someone else hinted at this, but if you're on Antabuse or something like that, bitters contain enough alcohol to make you sick.

Geiginni wrote: I love making iced-tea from scratch. I buy various black and strong teas in bulk loose and end up blending them and brewing 2 quarts double-strength at a time, then pouring over ice to make a gallon. We drink a gallon of iced tea about every 4-5 days throughout the year.

Nothing pleases me more on a hot summer day than a big, cold glass of unsweetened iced tea.

A lot of folks here are talking about drinking gallons of their non-alcohol of choice, and I'll be the buzzkill and say: the carbonated stuff will fuck your tooth enamel to hell, and tea will give you kidney stones if you're susceptible to them. Moderation in this thing, too, unfortunately.

There's a great Persian grocer in my neighborhood and they have a bunch of amazing fruit syrups, mint, grenadine, strawberry, tamarind, date sugar, rose.. bunch of them. I've gotten a half dozen of them and they're all great to spruce up fizzy water or flavored fizzy water. I could drink my weight of the mint one with a little lime in fizzy water.

I have been making a kind of very strong tea out of hibiscus (jamaica) flowers I get from the Mexican market, with an equal amount of mint, either fresh from the yard or dried from last year. Steep in boiling water (I make a half-gallon pitcher at a time), then fish the vegetable matter out and add way too much sugar, Not sure how much but it takes a lot. Then I chill it and serve it over ice. Very exceptionally delicious. The mint and jamaica compliment each other marvelously.

I think that jamaica mint would sell if we bottled it up.

In South India, they serve lime juice mixed with soda water and quite a lot of sugar. I believe you can also get this with salt, but I just guzzled the sweet version. This is perfect in bright, dry heat.

I made a citrus summer mocktail for my wife that turned out really nice.

To make 2:

- Half a grapefruit
- Half a lime
- Half a lemon
- Half an orange
- Splash of Stappi (or some bitters)
- Tonic Water
- Lemon Peel
- Fresh Mint

Juice the citrus and add it with the Stappi (or bitters) and mint. Muddle the mint and then shake over ice. Pour into a club glass over ice (should be about half filled) and top with tonic water (also, n/a Prosecco is great). Garnish with a lemon peel and/or mint.

If you are into cantaloupe, a good cold Cantaloupe Agua Fresca is super great on a hot day. also, the best thing for salsa tongue overdose.

I highly recommend getting a soda stream, and skipping the flavour things they offer.
I probably drink a six pack less a day because of it.

I flavour with things like Angostura's bitters, zest from any citrus fruit, zested ginger, or things from the garden like muddled spearmint, smashed black raspberries/haskap... You get the idea.