A decent non-alcoholic drink?

Sometimes if I’m going out, I opt not to drink. I don’t drive so it isn’t for that purpose, sometimes I just think my body has enough going on and could do without a hangover to contend with. That leaves me with a big problem though. Apparently, if you don’t choose alcohol, you’re left with boring and bland, or over sugared.

I like the complexity of alcoholic drinks, perhaps why I’m a gin lover. I like to pick out the different aromatics. I’ve always wanted someone to pin that flavour down in a soft drink and I think I’ve nearly found it in a drink called Zeo. This isn’t the type of thing I’d normally decide to review and share, but I’ve looked for something like this for so long, I thought I’d blog about it incase you were in the same boat.

My first taste of Zeo left me with a puzzled face. It’s almost gives the tingle and fizz that heavily carbonated drinks do, apart from it isn’t the bubbles – the drink is super lightly carbonated. I take a second sip to reconsider. This time I can relate it to the tingle that comes from szechuan pepper, almost warming. It’s really bizarre at first. A certain head turner.

Thanks to the inclusion of grapefruit, the ‘Burst’ flavour tastes a lot like a dash of Angostura bitters in tonic water, which is my go to non alcoholic drink aside from this. The other two flavours are something new to me though. Crush is reminiscent of orange sherbet, but clearly for an adult palate; it’s really tart! Zest is really herbal and zesty believe it or not. I couldn’t help but feel it would make an amazing mixer for my Martin Miller’s gin.

Having said that, I’d still pick one up to drink on it’s own if I spotted them somewhere and I know I’d enjoy it more than any other soft drink on offer.

You might not have seen it yet but it’s starting to pop up in bars, shops and restaurants so it’s worth keeping an eye out for. As far as I know it’s stocked in WH Smith, Harvey Nics, Ocado and Yo Sushi at the moment. Be warned though, if you don’t like botanical, herbal tastes, you probably won’t like these, but if you do you’re in for a real treat.