{"id":854,"date":"2014-02-09T14:17:38","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T04:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/?p=854"},"modified":"2014-08-16T16:57:36","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T06:57:36","slug":"claytons-worth-drinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/09\/claytons-worth-drinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Claytons worth drinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve stopped drinking alcohol for a bit. I’m enjoying the consequences, in particular better sleep, less uneasiness about my poor liver, and realising that the reason I say endless numbers of entirely inappropriate things to my friends is not because my tongue is loosened by alcohol, but because I am a chronic over-sharer. It’s so much easier to be embarrassment-free about what came out of my mouth the night before when I realise that it’s just my personality, not the wine. <\/p>\n

I do love good alcohol on its own merits, but I also like the “I am about to consume something more exciting than tap water” aspect of it too. For the first couple of weeks after stopping drinking I employed various substitutes for that feeling, including eating quite a lot of Frosty Fruits and downing gallons of sparkling mineral water with slices of lime.<\/p>\n

I’ve expanded the repertoire since then, and thought I’d list some options I’ve been enjoying here, in case anyone else is in search of non-alcoholic cold drinks to satisfy themselves during this heatwave.<\/p>\n

1. In a tall glass, combine the freshly-squeezed juice of a ruby grapefruit, a couple of dashes of citrus bitters, ice, and about 200 ml of soda water. A few mint leaves, scrunched in the hand before adding to the glass, are great but not required.<\/p>\n

2. Fever-tree<\/a> ginger beer is delicious. Much more gingery, less sugary, and in a more sensible bottle size than Bundaberg et al. <\/p>\n

3. Tonic water with ice and a dash of elderflower cordial. Not too much cordial, or it will become sickly! Just a little tiny dash.<\/p>\n

4. San Pellegrino’s little bottles of chinotto, so bitter and satisfying.<\/p>\n

5. Soda water with ice and a dash or two of pomegranate molasses to taste. Sorry if you like sweet drinks; my predilection for sour and bitter tastes is probably becoming rather obvious here.<\/p>\n

6. The Australian classic, lemon, lime and bitters<\/a>. This is easy to make, and the premixed versions are disgusting, so construct your own. Drizzle Angostura bitters around the inside of a glass and twist to coat it a little. Add ice, a dash of lime juice cordial, and top with clear lemonade (preferably something less sweet than the Sprite type). <\/p>\n

7. A Gunner: equal parts ginger ale and ginger beer, with a dash of Angostura bitters and a squeeze of lemon juice to taste.<\/p>\n

8. Lychee soda, as first encountered by us at the Vietnamese restaurant in South Brisbane we used to go to once a week with friends after climbing. In a tall glass, put a few ice cubes, four or five lychees from a tin, and a dash of the syrup from the tin. Top up the glass with cold soda water. Serve with a straw and a long-handled parfait spoon to eat the lychees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve stopped drinking alcohol for a bit. I’m enjoying the consequences, in particular better sleep, less uneasiness about my poor liver, and realising that the reason I say endless numbers of entirely inappropriate things to my friends is not because my tongue is loosened by alcohol, but because I am a chronic over-sharer. It’s so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861,"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.woolfit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}