Holiday Season 2020 – a little something different!?!?
With Covid-19 still raging through many of our communities it seems pretty certain that we will be inside with just our children and immediate family during this 2020 holiday season. We won’t travel across the country to visit relatives for exciting Thanksgivings full of extended family, or sit on Santa’s lap at the mall. We will likely celebrate in small family units separate from many that we love, but we will still try to have some fun where we can. We will still put up scary decorations and carve pumpkins for Halloween, put out Fall themed centerpieces at Thanksgiving, and string decorative holiday lights through our yards. We will still have holiday meals and spend time enjoying a couple days off work. While us adults may be depressed about everything and want to get a good buzz on to forget all our worries for a few hours, we will also need something fun for the kids to drink. Here are 5 fun suggestions for great non-alcoholic craft beverages and mixers for everyone to enjoy during this unique 2020 holiday season. These craft beverages are made in small batches with care by family-run businesses.
Apple Beer!
Apple Beer is a non-alcoholic apple soda. It’s kind of like Root Beer or Ginger Beer, but it’s Apple Beer. Apple Beer was actually developed about 100 years ago in Bavaria as an alternative to beer. While most adults were stumbling around with steins full of beer, the kids and non-alcohol drinkers needed something to drink too. Apple Beer was formulated to have a head of foam, like a beer, and it was actually originally prepared and delivered in wooden barrels on horse-drawn wagons just as beer was. Apple Beer comes in 12 oz. bottles and 12 oz. cans. This holiday season as you get sloshed on fine German beer, give your kids steins full of Apple Beer.
River City Ginger Beer!
It might be a bit spicy for the kids, but River City Ginger Beer is a great ginger beer that makes great cocktails or a delicious drink all on its own. There are many ginger beers out there but River City Ginger Beer has its own unique flavor. It’s sweet and gingery in the beginning with a nice spicy finish. It’s local to Sacramento, CA. Try it in a River City Moscow Mule, a River City Kentucky Mule, or River City Whisky Mule. Also check out the recipes for cooking savory Fall dishes with it at the River City Brand website.
Hemly Sparkling Pear Juice!
Hemly Sparkling Pear Juice is 100% Bartlett and Bosc pear juice. Nothing else, except some sparkles. The Hemly Family has been growing pears along the Northern California Delta for 5 generations. They offer several hard cider versions of their pear juice, but this one is non-alcoholic. It is made by fresh pressing pear juice. It is unfiltered so it has a thicker, heartier consistency than other sparkling pear juices. Depending on your mood and your imagination, its flavor is such that at times you can almost imagine it’s an alcoholic beverage. It’s delicious straight from the bottle and also it works well as a mixer. Try some seltzer water with a splash of Hemly Sparkling Pear Juice and a splash of chardonnay, or mix it with a little whiskey.
Maine Root Pumpkin Pie Soda!
Maine Root makes a special seasonal Pumpkin Pie Soda perfect for the 2020 Fall and Winter holidays. Somehow they’ve managed to put pumpkin pie in a bottle with bubbles! You know the kids will love this one, and I bet you can figure out a few great ways to use it as a mixer too. All Maine Root’s products use Fair Trade Certified organic ingredients!
Riéme Sparkling Spice Apple!
Imported from France, Riéme Sparkling Spiced Apple comes in a beautiful, decorative, engraved 1 liter bottle with a mechanical cork. The bottle is so beautiful you are not sure if you should drink it, give it as a gift, or just put it on your shelf and marvel at it… or all three. If you want to get an idea of what this beverage tastes like, remember back to when you have gone to a holiday party where someone warmed up some apple cider on the stove and then added cinnamon and cloves to make a toasty warm hot cider holiday beverage. Though not as heavy and with lots of sparkles like a soda, Riéme Sparkling Spiced Apple tastes kind of like that. It tastes delicious served cold or warm, goes great as a mixer (we served it with whiskey at our Christmas party last year), and will be a huge hit with the kids.
Have some fun while staying in
We won’t have much choice this 2020 holiday but to stay in, socially distanced, but let’s not let that stop us from having some fun. 2020 is a great time for experimentation and trying new things. The pandemic has led to all kinds of innovation and creativity as we have learned new ways to work, interact, and stay safe, so try one of these five fine non-alcoholic craft holiday beverages. Taste something new, or use your creativity to create something new: a new beverage, a new mixed drink, a new family tradition.
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