My suggestions:
Sonoma Sparkler sparkling juices These are excellent. Sparkling juices like apple, pear, raspberry and peach.
Grown Up Soda - I love, love, love these. Especially the Dry Meyer Lemon and Dry Cranberry Lime.
This is such a weird thread. Maybe I should post in that “things I don’t get” thread.
Somehow sparkling beverages are more “festive” than non-sparkling ones? People drinking plain juices, water, etc. are not having as much fun as the ones that drink themselves blotto? (My observation is the exact opposite.) Egad.
Well, I don’t get why you have a problem with people enjoying something out of the ordinary during an out of the ordinary event. I don’t usually have oysters, prime rib or wedding cake, either, but I might enjoy them on a special occasion. It’s not a matter of trying to fool anyone that we’re drinking alcohol when we’re not, it’s about enjoying something special (ie, something I don’t have in my fridge) on a special occasion.
I don’t get why your attitude around alcohol is so rabidly negative that even juice with carbonation has your panties in a twist. No one’s suggesting that people who don’t want to drink alcohol should “drink themselves blotto”, we’re suggesting that maybe ginger ale and pomegranate juice are yummy and different than the same ol’ Coca Cola.
And I *really *don’t get why someone who is so adamantly against soda pop and fruit punch (which is really what most of these suggestions are) would be devoting time to reading a thread about it, and submitting multiple replies which aren’t helpful.
That n/a wine actually does have some alcohol in it, albeit quite a small percentage (0.5% IIRC).
Anyway, Here is a link to a bunch of nonalcoholic drink recipes.
For something that can be done hot or cold: tea mixed with fruit juice. When iced, it is very refreshing after being in a too-warm room. When hot, it is similar to mulled hot cider.
Possible variations:
Cranberry juice + tea (good hot or cold: I prefer hot)
Pomegranate juice + tea (good hot or cold: again, I prefer hot)
Pineapple juice + orange juice + tea (better iced)
Orange juice + mango juice + tea (better iced: go easy on the mango else it’s too thick)
Etc.
Nice thing about this is that it’s easy to make and easy to make a lot of it so you can have a punch bowl that people can ‘graze’ off of instead them having to ask whoever’s manning the drinks to get them another glass.
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When I’m flying I drink Sprite with a lime wedge. I second the ginger beer as a snappy drink.
There are some non-alcoholic grape juices made from wine grapes. I’ve had a few of them and they are pretty good.
They are not anything at all like wine though. Super sweet, they are absolutely juices. Some are slightly sparkling, some are still. The Navarro Gewurtz juice is probably my favorite of all of them.
Check out Navarro Vineyards and Evergreen Vineyards
It still drives me batty that most of the time here when I go to a party, the only nonalcoholic choices are coffe and tea. So I echo the recommendation above to also have non-caffinated choices.
The caterer should have some good ideas, especially some cool, unusual drinks.
At my wedding reception, we offered a choice of champagne or Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider for the toast. Also, Mom insisted that we rent the hall’s punch fountain: a silver, cherub-adorned monstrosity spewing red fruit punch. Hopefully your venue offers a less hideous (but no less useful) option.
Mulled cider would be festive. You can also serve cocoa, or Mexican-style hot chocolate for an exotic touch.
Is it possible to make non-alcoholic wassail?
Depends how you define wassail. Historically, it was spiced beer, but most folks today use the term to refer to mulled cider, which is certainly possible to do non-alcoholic in the US (where we have cloudy cider that’s non-alcoholic; in the UK, they’d use apple juice). Ginger, cloves, cinnamon, mace and black pepper simmered in a few gallons of cloudy cider until your kitchen smells like heaven.
Unorthodox, but I made an incredible wassail last year with something like two parts cloudy cider to one part orange juice and then added the spices. The orange juice gave it more body, almost like a beer, although of course it didn’t taste like beer.
What about a whole bunch of those small boutique type soft drinks? I’m thinking Jones Soda and other smaller brands. I’m an alcohol drinker, but even so, when I see these types of sodas in the store I’m always intrigued by them. It could be fun at a wedding to have ice buckets full of these for people to try out.
Another thought: Italian sodas. If you’re going to have a bartender, these could be fun. Just get a whole pile of those syrups and fizzy water and let the guests choose what flavors they want.
My mother almost always makes her wassail non-alcoholic. Just cider (not hard cider) with spices. If she weren’t going to be busy as mother of the bride, I’d have her make that. Well, that and I don’t really like it anyway!
Lots more good ideas that I’m adding to my list. Thanks!
I’d just have the standard juices that can be mixed with club soda, maybe some flavored waters and sodas.
When I tended bar at weddings, non-drinkers seemed to be a bit more health conscious and weren’t interested syrupy sweet concoctions just because they looked like alcohol. I don’t drink and try to avoid sugar so I wouldn’t drink any of them.
The Sonoma Sparklers that pyscat suggested would be good for the toast but I wouldn’t go through a big expense buying things because they look like alcohol because I doubt if many people would be drinking them.
I like the idea of sparkling cider or grape juice for the toast. If you’re having an open bar, there should be plenty of mixers on hand, so folks can easily get a coke or a cranberry juice if they want. Just make sure there is enough available. Like Bridget Burke says, lots of folks may want to switch from wine to club soda before the night is through.
O’Douls, Cold Duck, Ice Cold Water, fizzy water…
Cold Duck is absolutely alcohol, and D’Doul’s has alcohol (although minimal) as well.