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10-12-2009, 01:33 PM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Member  Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Methuen, MA
Posts: 85
| Ordering Non-Alcohol Drinks
A few nights ago, I ordered a virgin bloody mary (with extra horseradish- yum!) before my dinner. The server either didn't hear me or misunderstood and asked if I wanted it with premium or standard bar vodka. I restated that I wanted it virgin and added (lightly) that I'd have a serious problem if my drink had any alcohol. It was my 77th day (I just calculated it) without a drop, and I intend to stay totally 100% alcohol-free forever. Some time later, I started thinking what if that drink was made with alcohol? I most likely would've had 2 to 3 heavy sips before realizing the alcohol. I'm sure I would not have taken another sip, but I sure as heck would've felt an alcohol buzz, and I probably would've been pretty upset (and maybe even scared). I suppose the whole point, besides sharing this experience, is that I've realized that I need to be more careful and alert when ordering a normally-alcoholic drink without the alcohol. Short of carrying an alcohol test kit :-), I think the best thing to do is to make certain that the server clearly hears and understands my non-alcohol drink order. I really, really don't ever again want the slightest taste of alcohol and the slightest alcohol buzz... |
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10-12-2009, 01:41 PM
| #3 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Abroad
Posts: 33
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I go with a lime and soda usually. I don't like drinking caffeine after about 4pm and trying to stay away from sugarry drinks so that counts out lemonade and orange juice etc. I suppose at least lime and soda with ice looks vaguely alcoholic so it doesn't stand out too much. For me, mocktails are just asking for it. |
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10-12-2009, 01:49 PM
| #4 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Methuen, MA
Posts: 85
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>> For me, mocktails are just asking for it. Yeah, I agree for the most part, however, a nice spicy virgin bloody mary before a nice dinner or an after-dinner orange-cranberry on ice adds a nice touch (treat) to the experience... Usually though, my going-out drink is club soda with a couple of lemon wedges... |
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10-12-2009, 01:50 PM
| #6 (permalink) |
| Heathen  Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: La La Land
Posts: 1,330
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I don't order anything that reminds me of alcoholic drinks.. more for psychological comfort than worry about alcohol. I just choose not to flirt that closely with it.. I have yet to have a restaurant screw up and add alcohol to an "ice water" or "Dr. Pepper".
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10-12-2009, 03:06 PM
| #7 (permalink) |
| Forum Leader  Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Dallas, Ga. USA
Posts: 24,069
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My suggestion is....."Smell before you sip" and Yes! you can smell vodka. I've been a bartender and a server and I can absolutely tell you it's easy to mix up an order. Once I pre-mixed a gallon of Bloody Marys ....served them all during lunch then discovered I had forgotten the vodka. Not one customer complained.... 
__________________  Each Day Sober Is A Victory!! Joy In AA Recovery!  |
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10-13-2009, 02:51 AM
| #8 (permalink) | |
| Will somene get the phone!  Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Homeville
Posts: 199
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__________________ Drink Water, Save Yourself. | |
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10-13-2009, 02:05 PM
| #10 (permalink) |
| boleon  Join Date: May 2008 Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 1,212
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For me root-BEER and ginger-ALE are as close to alcohol as I want to get.
__________________ True sobriety rides on the coat-tails of Serenity (H + B = S) - All Big Book quotes are from first Edition - |
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10-13-2009, 02:25 PM
| #11 (permalink) |
| Member  Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Baghdad
Posts: 2,124
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I just order a non-alcoholic beverage, iced tea or whatever. I don't try to hide the fact that I don't drink today. Had a weekend regatta about a month back, the awards were in the clubhouse, actually just a bar with a small dining area. The very sweet barmaid made me a fresh pot of coffee!
__________________ No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. Buddha |
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10-13-2009, 03:32 PM
| #12 (permalink) |
| Member  Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: england
Posts: 1,597
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do you guys have floater coffees? normally coffee in a tall glass with an inch of double cream floating on top... some drink it with booze in ....so im very careful the barmaid hears me correct... man i could drink these all day.......im sure each one takes a year off your life..  ....you can literally hear the arteries hardening..lol.i dont give barmaids my life history........just "please dont put booze in my drink"....period. |
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10-13-2009, 03:38 PM
| #13 (permalink) |
| Well, I'm on my way  |
Ask the server to repeat your order back to you. Then sniff when it gets there to make sure.
__________________ One foot in front of the other; one step at a time  "Anne stopped drinking and never looked back." That's my story. I read it every morning, and I'm sticking to it. |
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10-13-2009, 04:25 PM
| #14 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Methuen, MA
Posts: 85
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>> do you guys have floater coffees? >> normally coffee in a tall glass with an inch of double cream floating on top... >> some drink it with booze in .... Sounds like an Irish Coffee (with Jameson whiskey). |
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10-13-2009, 04:51 PM
| #16 (permalink) |
| First Stobriety date 4/03/06  |
Sounds like your subconscious is craving the real thing... Maybe next time ask for a tomato juice w/ tabasco, v8 etc. "2 or three sips w out noticing". Hungh!!!??? At least not for me; I've accidently sipped alcoholic drinks since I quit and know it immediatly If I dont smell it first. Had services at the church of the bloody Mary too many times and traded it in for a hp.
__________________ In general, I have the ability to effectively live life on the edge. Specifically, when I drink I have no idea where the edge is. I get lost when I try to take shortcuts. Some games are won by simply not playing. Designated liver since 7/29/09....  |
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10-13-2009, 05:02 PM
| #17 (permalink) |
| First Stobriety date 4/03/06 |
Na beer?? Why bother... Heard it tastes bad and triggers some people to binge. What is it... Like .5% alch ? I've heard of people slamming a 12 pack after taking a sip. Talk about a waste of calories!
__________________ In general, I have the ability to effectively live life on the edge. Specifically, when I drink I have no idea where the edge is. I get lost when I try to take shortcuts. Some games are won by simply not playing. Designated liver since 7/29/09.... |
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10-13-2009, 05:09 PM
| #18 (permalink) | |
| Member  Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Colorado Prairie
Posts: 1,259
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10-13-2009, 05:16 PM
| #19 (permalink) |
| First Stobriety date 4/03/06 |
I also will say that having bartendended no one ever ordered a virgin bloody Mary. Virgin Mary sure is a cute name though, she was probably even my higher power.
__________________ In general, I have the ability to effectively live life on the edge. Specifically, when I drink I have no idea where the edge is. I get lost when I try to take shortcuts. Some games are won by simply not playing. Designated liver since 7/29/09.... |
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10-13-2009, 05:23 PM
| #20 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: england
Posts: 1,597
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booze without booze in it.......id rather get my legs waxed... sounds like a form of torture....... why would i want to go to a bar..buy something that looks like booze...taste likes booze.....but without the whizz bang.... it was the whizz bang that i seeked....not the taste......not the companionship.....not the smell.... |
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10-13-2009, 06:05 PM
| #21 (permalink) |
| Heathen Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: La La Land
Posts: 1,330
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oh lord.. the NA beer discussion. I need to create an autotext response. I quit drinking beer when I quit drinking. NA beer does have alcohol, albeit a small amount. That is important for people to know that are trying to live alcohol free. I have no reason in sobriety to go to bars or continue to drink alcohol.. or fake alcoholic drinks. 
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10-13-2009, 06:43 PM
| #22 (permalink) |
| Member  Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: KC MO
Posts: 258
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The thought of going to bars no longer appeals to me either, maybe I'm getting too old. Iduno. I guess I just got out of the habit, because I always got too drunk, plus where I live you just about have to drive anywhere. I guess I'm lucky because I never really liked mixed drinks. It was either beer or Kamakazi(can't mistake that one). I am starting to think about testing my sea legs though. Casinos, halloween Perhaps a real quality evening. "Bowling maybe" I used to get hammered doing that too, but it sure sounds like fun. "sober" Fred |
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10-13-2009, 06:51 PM
| #23 (permalink) | |
| Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Baghdad
Posts: 2,124
| Quote:
__________________ No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. Buddha | |
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10-13-2009, 08:09 PM
| #24 (permalink) |
| mergirl  |
My subconscious has the most fabulous survival mechanism. Just after I quit smoking cigs, the smell repulsed me. Since quitting drinking, I can't touch diet coke (as rum and cokes were my nightly), and both NA beer and NA wine gross me out just to smell.
__________________    *~Lisa~* ban the deed, not the breed~ one year of continuous sobriety and counting <3 (its a sideways heart!) |
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10-14-2009, 05:43 AM
| #25 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Methuen, MA
Posts: 85
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Interesting replies, thank you all. I am about 2 weeks shy of 90 days, and serious as the atom bomb and totally committed to never ever drink again (I'm 54 years old). The first roughly 6 weeks I was curious about n/a beers so I tried 6 or 7 6-packs of different kinds. I really don't know why since when drinking it was hard alcohol first, then a beer or 2 for the chase, not for the taste (though I did enjoy certain premium, foreign, and micro-brewed beers). In a way though, having a n/a beer did make me feel proud of myself because I "really" wasn't drinking. For instance, I went to a rock concert (Chickenfoot- awesome!) by myself around my 3rd week and bought an n/a beer, and then my wife called to see how I was doing. I proudly proclaimed that I was having a great time and having an n/a beer (as opposed to being trashed like at many many concerts before). So, perhaps that was just a phase as I haven't bought or drank a n/a beer in over 3 weeks now... As for the virgin bloody mary, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't anything more than simply wanting, actually craving, that spicy tomato juice with the extra horseradish and stick of celery as an appetizer to my seafood dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Honestly, if it was to serve as a reminder of the past dozens of pre-meal bloody mary's with Absolut I've enjoyed, I would not have even considered it... Also, I go to a restaurant/bar several times a week to pick up my son who works there. When he is not ready to leave, I'll go inside, have a seat at the bar, and order my usual club soda with 2 lemon wedges. It doesn't bother me a bit being around alcohol. In fact, I find it inspiring - sort of like a booster shot for my sobriety. I particularly enjoy Friday nights observing the younger crowd socializing- girls all dressed and made up, and the guys trying to impress them. I do, however, feel sad for the guys and girls who are there for no other reason than to have "fun" consuming vast amounts of alcohol. Reminds me of me 30 some-odd years ago. I almost want to "wake them up" so they don't take the same path as I did as most of them inevitably will. I then take another sip of my club soda and watch whatever ball game is on the tv, happy and proud of how I finally turned myself around, and really knowing and understanding how much better life is without alcohol... |
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