Alcohol free cocktails
Great tasting drinks that don't result in a nasty hangover.
It’s easy to feel miserable on a night out, if all your friends are drinking pints and you’re sipping a mineral water. So, get creative and whisk up these tasty non-alcoholic cocktails for yourself AND your mates.
Choosing drinks that don’t contain alcohol means you can still have something tasty to drink but you avoid a nasty hangover or the risk of drinking unhealthy amounts of alcohol. Make sure to bring along a non-alcoholic bottle of drink instead of the usual beer or wine if you’re going to a party or dinner where alcohol is on offer and you’re trying not to drink too much. Then you’ll know that there won’t just be tap water on offer!
Even if you are drinking alcohol on a night out, drink lots of water or a non-alcoholic drink in between alcoholic choices. Before you go to bed, drink as much water as you can. It will stop you getting too dehydrated (that’s what causes the hangover headache).
Watch out for high sugar levels in cocktails! Avoid drinking too many sugary drinks such as coke, lemonade, sugary juices or coffee/tea with lots of added sugar. If you’re making your own cocktails, add as little sugar as possible. Sugary drinks rot your teeth as well as upping your daily calorie intake.
Some great alcohol free drinks:
Virgin Mary
Safe sex on the beach
Why choose non-alcoholic drinks?
- Drinking a lot can lead to feelings of sadness. Many people who are alcohol dependant suffer from depression and heavy drinkers have a much higher risk of suicide or attempted suicide than others.
- Binge drinking, when you have five or more drinks at one time, is a serious problem in Ireland. Binge drinking (when you drink too much, too fast) is the term used when we have six or more standard drinks. A standard drink (also called one standard drink) is about 10 grams of pure alcohol in Ireland and one standard drink is a half pint of beer OR a small glass of wine OR one pub measure of spirits. Click here to see pictures and more detail on standard drinks and binge drinking.
- If you drink a lot you can suffer from alcohol poisoning. This is when there’s too much alcohol in your body for you to deal with. You might pass out, lose control or need to be taken to hospital. Alcohol poisoning can cause death in some cases.
- Hangovers aren’t just there to make life miserable. They’re your body’s way of trying to get rid of all the crap you drank the night before. So headaches, sick stomachs and depression are just some of the possible hangover symptoms. We’ll not go into what happens when you visit the toilet.
- Alcohol is full of calories and sugar. It makes us fat and gives us those ohhhhh so sexy beer bellies.
- In the long term (this goes for most of us who regularly drink more than the recommended amounts) alcohol can damage your brain, heart, stomach, reproductive organs and nerves.
- Regularly drinking too much can lead to dependency or addiction. Alcoholism is terrible for your health and can also ruin relationships, families, your finances and your enjoyment of life. Don’t let alcohol control you.
If you are worried about alcohol and your health, check out the help section for supportive information and links to support organisations.
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