Teetotal drinks: A ginger glow

I've mentioned here before that I'm taking part in the Dryathlon for Cancer Research during January - no alcohol this month and people's sponsor money has already started going to this excellent cause. If you wanted to make a small donation to encourage me at this roughly half way mark, please click here and give what you can - I'm not quite half way to my target (although I'll be adding my money-that-would-have-gone-on-wine-for-dinner at the end of the month).

This has left me looking for non-boring drinks with no alcohol and I have to say I'm disappointed - so much out there is so sweet, and the thing about we wine drinkers is that we don't necessarily need a sugar hit.

One really good alternative is ginger wine, not fizzy ginger beer but the wine - fermented and no alcohol, I've been sampling two varieties from Gran Stead and I'd recommend them heartily. Almost like a good whisky they have a kick (that will be the ginger, duh...) and yes a bit of sugar, but not offensively so.

I can't stand Coke, never liked it - this is a proper grown-up drink that goes with a lot of meals and you can serve it in an actual wine glass. Oh, and if you're not off the bottle for January I can only imagine a glass spruced up with a bit of whisky will warm the cockles of your cockles nicely for Burns Night next week!