Kyle Books How to Drink Without Drinking: Celebratory alcohol-free drinks for any time of the day

My wife and I are social drinkers that will have a glass of wine or a beer with dinner. Our cocktail consumption is limited to special weekends or gatherings with friends. We recently decided to go "cold turkey" for a while and stop drinking entirely. What we missed most was those weekend evenings when we'd start off with a fun cocktail.I will say I am very picky about things being "authentic". When I eat vegetarian, I don't eat "meat substitutes - I go full veg and focus on authentic vegetarian cuisine from places like India and Thailand. I'm the same way with drinks - I CANNOT STAND "fake beer" or "fake wine" and anything that tries to make a "virgin" version of any sort of cocktail ("virgin manhattan, anyone...? yeccch!).This book has a completely different approach - all the recipes are very unique and delicious on their own - they aren't trying to mimic a "real" drink. The combinations are interesting and flavorful and I would not hesitate to serve many of them to guests at a party because they are so unique.There is one caveat, however - to fully stock your non-alcoholic bar, you are going to need to do some serious shopping and searching to find the ingredients - some of the more exotic ones will only be available via mail order (unless you live in a major city). Things like passion fruit syrup, concentrated citrus oils, lime cordial, etc. (some you can make from scratch, of course).You'll also make a financial investment, but once you have the ingredients, this book will guide you through both the history of the drink and the ingredients as well as how to construct it - there are even some food pairing suggestions.Overall, this is definitely the best book (coming from a gourmet cook and former restaurateur) on non-alcoholic drinks I have ever seen.

Lots of tempting, lush-looking cocktails for those times when you can't or don't want to have alcohol. Great for the children too, and for office parties when everyone is driving home afterwards. I'd like to add a comment about some of the other reviewers suggesting a preponderance of recipes requiring alcohol-free spirits of some kind. I counted them. Out of 75 recipes, 15 require such an ingredient.

I don't drink alcohol, but I used to. So sometimes I do miss being able to have something pretty when my friends and family are drinking.I have tried a few of the recipes n this book. I particularly like the cordial based ones as my grandmother used to make me cordial drinks and I had forgotten that that was even a thing.I like how the author makes sure to include the presentation (because pretty drinks!). I have enjoyed every recipe I have tried. I even purchased a bottle of the non-liquor liquor to make some of the beverages in the book so I could give it a real try.That brings me to my only complaint. The non-alcoholic liquors are expensive and difficult to find. I had to purchase the one I bought online because I couldn't find anywhere local to purchase them. The one I got is tasty and was definitely worth adding to the drink, but I think if it's just me, I probably won't purchase any more and I'll just use the syrups and easier to find ingredients to make my fun cocktails to enjoy with my drinking friends.I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who don't drink, who don't care and just have tea or soda and don't ever miss having those pretty fun cocktails, but this book is for those of us who still want the occasional pretty drink!

Tried several different recommendations but mostly uninspiring.

This book seems to be written to the individual but I can't see most people wanting to spend a lot of money accumulating the substantial number of specialized ingredients necessary to make most of these drinks. I got this book because we have a wedding coming up and wanted to make a couple of non-alcoholic drinks available at the bar and this is full of great ideas.This book has so many great ideas that it has me wishing a lot of restaurant and bar owners would grab a copy of this book and pick a couple of their favorites and start offering it. Like the book states, half of the adult population does not drink alcohol so if you're not drinking alcohol, you're usually left with choices like soda or water (and I can only take so much Pellagrino.) When I travel to other countries, especially ones that don't serve alcohol, they have a great variety of drinks available in the restaurants, but in the U.S. and Europe, if you don't drink, you can have water or soda and they get boring fast.I've always thought that restaurant and bar owners leave a lot of money on the table by not offering more creative non-alcoholic drinks and this book has so many great recipes that it validates that opinion. It offers a delicious and easy cherry cordial, a fruity pina colada and margaritas (for those days you aren't counting calories), to Lattes and Lassis, and even teas (and no, not the bagged kind I could have brought from home) but something special that adds value for the customer. I highly recommend this book for anyone hosting a large event that wants to add some special non-alcoholic drinks and to every single restaurant, cafe, and bar I've ever eaten at that had a lack of interesting beverages.