What to drink when you don't drink.

It opened my eyes and mind to trying new things.

I used to only drink three things. Tea, water and wine. There might be the occasional G&T but in general, that was it. It went like this:

Tea:

• After waking up

• When starting work (with my breakfast)

• Mid-morning

• After lunch

Water:

• Throughout the afternoon

Wine:

• After work

I was quite proud of myself that I didn't drink fruit juice or fizzy drinks. I'd noticed some of my work colleagues would guzzle multiple Diet Cokes throughout the day. I probably drank about 3 Coca-Colas a year, when on holiday and driving and only from a glass bottle.

I considered myself pretty healthy, I even convinced myself that drinking one glass of red wine would be super healthy. Isn't that they do in Sardinia and Ikaria, two of the world's Blue Zones, where people live the longest in the world. The Blue Zones had become my go-to guide for healthy living. I'd even paid more than usual to buy Cannonau, the wine drank by Sardinians in the belief that I ate and drank as they do in the Meditteranean I would live to a ripe old age.

When alcohol was no longer on the menu, when I had emptied all the bottles down the sink, even the drinks such as rum and brandy that had been in the cupboard for months, possibly years (which of course proved I wasn't an acoholic). I had to ask myself.....

What on earth was I going to drink now?

When you're not drinking alcohol, you realise that actually you don't have to keep drinking all evening. In the pub, when everyone else is saying "Go on then, I'll have one more" - there is no interest in having another lime and soda. It's the same at home.

I started, as many do trying to replace my drink with a non-alcoholic version. There are lots on the market now. As I was a wine drinker, I tried a few different ones and found most of them to be like drinking juice, in particular the red ones. I settled for Nozeco. It wasn't too bad and poured into a flute, it had that special feeling.

I then tried some alcohol-free gins and decided that it was really the taste of the tonic that made a G&T. So i just drank tonic, but that is a soft drink, so I didn't want to have too much of that.

 Over time I read and was fed adverts due to creepy algorithms about other kinds of drinks, such as fermented teas like Kombucha and although I had always said 'tea' was only tea if it hot and had milk in it. I was coming round to trying new things. Whilst on holiday, before I had quit drinking, I was introduced to Greek Mountain Tea, a herb called Sidiritis. I just loved it. So getting my hands on that from the UK was a must!

In addition to 'builder's tea', I started trying other herbal teas. Like before I seem to have developed a new routine around my drinks. It goes something like this:

Tea: After waking up

Matcha Latte: When I start work (with my breakfast)

Rooibus: Mid-morning, sometimes with milk

Greek Mountain Tea or Pepperminint Tea:  After lunch

Kombucha or Elderflower Cordial with sparkling water:  With Dinner

Camomile & Honey Tea: Mid-evening.

Water: Throughout the day

I've linked to my favourite products if you fancy giving them a go.

If someone had said to me a year ago that I would be drinking all these different types of drinks I'd have told them they were mad. But then the same would be true if someone had told me I had quit alcohol altogether. Strange things happen I suppose!!