Looking for a drink you can take instead of alcohol is probably one of the best decisions you can make. Alcohol is an addictive substance that makes you feel “good”. This good feeling is what you’ll never want to miss, causing the addiction. That is why almost 12% of men in Canada are alcoholics, while 4% are female.

With so much alcohol intake in your body, you’re not doing yourself a lot of good. Alcohol affects your emotional composure and physical appearance. Without it, you have an emotional boost and look better. But stopping alcohol once isn’t an easy thing to do; you’ll mostly need an alternative.

With an alternative, you make the journey to alcohol a little easier. Replacing alcohol with any substance isn’t going to be an easy ride – you’ll require – but it’s not impossible. Research and statistics have it that between 2016 and 2020, Canadians consistently reduced their alcohol intake to 96.8 litres per capita.

This article will provide you with healthy substances you can drink instead of alcohol. You can make some substances in your home, while you may need to buy some. Here, we’ll not only list but explain the benefits of these alternatives and how to make them.

Tea (hot or cold)

Everyone loves to drink tea in diverse forms. You may prefer your tea hot, while your closest pal loves cold tea. Also, there are many options; hence you have choices for your alcohol detox. You can have tea made from fruit, flavour, spice, among others.

Globally, one of the best drinks for your health is green tea. The constituents of this tea help your general health. Another tea advantage as a replacement to alcohol is its availability. There is a big competition between tea manufacturers globally. Therefore, each brand tries to make it available in as many stores as possible. That means you’ll get your preferred tea easily.

Mocktails

Even if you don’t know what a mocktail is, at least you’ll know a cocktail. Mocktails have almost the same ingredients as a cocktail apart from the alcohol. In a mocktail, the alcohol gets replaced with flavoured soda water, amongst others, to give it a pleasant taste. Mocktails also come in different flavours like the cocktail.

You may wonder how a mocktail can replace the glamour and taste of the alcohol-infused cocktail. In the past, maybe not, but these days, the recent mocktails have some sophisticated ingredients. Therefore, you’ll be getting the great taste and beautiful appearance of the cocktail. Getting mocktails isn’t hard, but you can easily get some ingredients and make yours in your home.

Fruit and herb-infused water

Part of how to take a break from alcohol includes using water. Amongst all the liquids you can pour into your body both legally and illegally, water stands out as the best. You can’t even make alcohol without water!

Water has a lot of health benefits, and it also helps you with hydration. No matter the type of drink you take, you won’t be as hydrated as when you take water. It’s a natural flusher of contaminants within your body and helps your body function optimally.

Using water as a preferred drink instead of alcohol will be a daunting task. Usually, water has no taste or colour. Therefore, while it’s keeping you hydrated, it may not satisfy your taste buds.

An easy way to make your water taste better is by adding sugar, but it has consequences. Instead, you can use the flavours of both fruits and herbs. When you want something really sweet, you can use the strawberry flavour, and if you prefer lighter flavours, try out cucumber and lemon. With herb and fruit-infused water, you have many options.

Kombucha

We all know bacteria to be a dangerous substance to our health. But that same bacteria is an ingredient in kombucha – a substitute for alcohol. Other ingredients of kombucha include yeast and tea. The tea is either green or black, and after all the ingredients get mixed, fermentation occurs.

When your kombucha is ready, it gives you sparkling but sour tastes. Its taste has a mix of nature, maturity, and sweetness. The liquid has a bit of alcohol coming from the fermentation.

But the alcohol in a kombucha drink is a negligible quantity – usually less than 1%. In some kombucha brands, you may notice an alcohol disclaimer on their packs confirming its presence or absence.

Kombucha has a lot of antioxidant properties, as well as probiotic characteristics, making it healthy. Before now, you could have complained about the unavailability of kombucha in stores worldwide. Today, these drinks have grown popular and are everywhere. You can now get kombuchas that have mixed with fruits amongst other flavours.

Sparkling water

Water remains one of the healthiest liquids globally, if not the healthiest. But the taste of water can turn bland and it, in a matter of time, becomes very boring. And since you want to drink liquids instead of alcohol, it can’t be boring. It may not be as exciting as alcohol, but it should bring its excitement.

A good idea instead of drinking the usual water is to get sparkling water. Sparkling water is your normal water mixed with flavours and sugar. These flavours ensure your water is a bit interesting, and you’ll love the taste.

Another thing sparkling water does is increase your water intake. One of the steps during an alcohol addiction treatment is detox which involves a lot of water intake. With sparkling water, you wouldn’t precisely satisfy your taste buds of thirst. That way, you’ll find yourself drinking double or triple your everyday water intake.

Coffee (hot or iced)

Globally, coffee is a popular drink, but in Canada, it’s much more than that. In Canada, an average coffee drinker takes close to three cups of coffee per day. That means a cup of coffee after every six hours. This figure indicates that coffee is an excellent alternative to alcohol.

Coffee has an ingredient known as caffeine, which has a special function of making you active. Sometimes, when you take alcohol, you may also feel very energetic. Therefore it’s safe to conclude that coffee has some alcoholic results.

The growth of coffee over the years has made it a fantastic drink over time. Before, coffee used to come only in powdered form and took a long time for you to prepare it. After preparing the coffee, you’ll have a lot of cleaning to do.

Today, there are now coffee machines that can work with your powdered coffee – delivering it in a few minutes. Also, coffee pods and capsules are all over the place, with their corresponding machines. With these developments, your coffee can get ready as quickly as one minute.

We all have our preferences; while some people love hot coffee, others may prefer it cold. Whichever one you choose, coffee remains one of the best healthy alcohol alternatives. You should also take coffee optimally, as it also has addictive properties. You don’t want to stop alcohol addiction to battle coffee addiction.

Related Article: How Long After You Stop Drinking Does Your Body Heal?

Coconut water

No one has a clear explanation of how water gets into coconut; it’s a fantastic phenomenon. There may be some guesses across the internet, but none can pinpoint an answer. However, the water inside a coconut is one of the healthiest liquids to drink.

Apart from having a good taste and mature appearance, coconut water helps your general health. According to experts, coconut water contains antioxidant properties. These properties ensure your body remains protected from free radicals within your body.

Also, drinking coconut water is possibly the easiest way to supply your body with electrolytes, including calcium and potassium. Therefore, coconut water provides you with multiple nutrients. You may be wondering if you’ll need to get various coconuts to extract the water and drink instead of alcohol. That’s not what’s happening!

You do not need to see any coconut before you get its water – although that’s the most natural and nutrient-filling way to take the water. Because of the many benefits of coconut water, there are many product manufacturers. Hence, if you walk into any store, you should have your coconut water ready.

Club soda with flavoured syrup

Soda contains a lot of sugar, no doubts about that! Hence, it’s not a healthy drink for anyone, especially people battling diabetes and other sugar-related illnesses. However, soda has great taste, and as such, many people love to drink soda.

It’s normal for people who take a lot of alcohol to love soda. That way, soda is another drink they can consume instead of alcohol. Since soda has a sugar disadvantage, a better option will be to take club soda.

Club soda is a soda that doesn’t have as much sugar. It has all the requirements, appearance, and ingredients of soda, aside from sugar. Because of this sugar, the club soda may not taste as great to soda lovers.

When it doesn’t taste good, it does not serve as a suitable substitute for alcohol. You can modify your club soda to suit your taste buds. All you need to do is add flavoured syrup to the club soda.

Making the flavours is a task you can undergo at home if you have the time. All you will need are fruits like watermelon, lime, coconut, lemon, amongst others. Also, there are manufacturers of club soda that already have their club soda infused with flavoured syrups.

Spiced apple cider

Apple is a favourite fruit for many people across the globe. It has a mature taste that is not too sweet but equally not bland. Like every other fruit, apples have many benefits to your body. Part of these benefits include adding nutrients to the body and helping your immune system.

Apple doesn’t have a lot of liquid when you’re eating it. Hence, it may be hard to extract juice to drink instead of alcohol. Therefore, you can conclude that it can’t be a liquid replacement during alcohol detox.

When you make an apple into a cider, it serves as a suitable replacement for alcohol. You can make the apple cider yourself if you have the proper guidelines. You may not get the right taste at the first trial. But with experience, your apple cider will have the best flavour.

You may not like the apple cider taste initially, but give it time. You may not be getting it right, especially when you make it yourself. If you still don’t like it, you can add spices or buy it from a trusted store.

Beer without booze

The alcohol in beer contributes a lot to its addictive properties, but not its taste. Alcohol gets its flavour from other ingredients in the substance. For a beer addict going into an alcohol addiction treatment, you need something to replace the taste of beer.

Luckily, since alcohol has little effect on the taste, it is possible to get a non-alcoholic substance that tastes like beer. Already, most notable beer brands are adopting the idea of non-alcoholic beers globally. The beer will have the same taste like your regular beer, but this time, it will have no alcohol content.

Juice

Shrubs

For people who do not know kombucha well, they’ll most likely mix it up with shrubs. Shrubs and kombucha have many similarities, but shrubs have a bit of sugar and no bacteria. It has the same taste as kombucha, making it easy to drink instead of alcohol.

In shrubs, you have a mixture of vinegar, fruits, and sugar. Therefore you have options to choose from, depending on the fruits inside your shrub’s ingredients. You can make shrubs from the comfort of your home, or you can purchase them if you don’t have enough time. Before making the shrubs, ensure you have all the necessary ingredients; all are vital to its end taste.

Related Article: Does It Take 40 Days for Alcohol to Leave Your Body System?

Final Take

When you’re looking for options to drink instead of alcohol, you have many options. The substances discussed in this guide are only the tasty options you can make on your own. However, before you choose alternatives for your alcohol, you should consider those that keep you healthy.

Alcohol addiction treatment should have an expert watching the process. You may have an underlying ailment that stops you from taking some substances as alcohol replacements. That’s why you need a professional to help you throughout your addiction recovery journey.

Are you thinking of stopping alcohol? You should have a good addiction recovery center. At Inspire Change Wellness Centre, we understand what it means to beat addiction to alcohol. We know it’s a long struggle;  it requires time, and we’re ready to take the long walk with you. Visit our addiction recovery center today!