Love this post! I just wrote about EANABS on the Stanford Alumni Living Well blog... I found out recently that today's Stanford students don't know what EANABS are - I was horrified! Because of Stanford, I always always make sure to serve non-alcoholic beverages at my parties.
March 23, 2011 at 9:11 PM
At a social function, plenty of people can't or don't drink, due to age, religion, health, addiction, pregnancy, or being the designated driver. Nevertheless, they should still have something tasty and even fun to drink. At Stanford, university policy mandated that EANABs (Equally Attractive Non-Alcoholic Beverages) be provided at any party that served alcohol. Usually this meant having a few cheap sodas or offering "virgin" cocktails, but here I'll list some of my favorite beverages that are truly equally attractive:
[Image]Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider
The old standby. Lots of other sparkling ciders of various flavors are quite good, but Martinelli's original apple cider has a trusty charm that makes it an "equally attractive" option when serving champagne, prosecco, or other sparkling wine.
[Image]Trader Joe's Sparkling Clementine Flavored Juice Beverage
Made from 100% fruit juice and only $2.29 a bottle, this stuff has a fun tangy but sweet taste. Whenever I open this up, it ends up being more popular than the wine! Better than Orangina (which has a European cachet in the U.S., even though the version you get in most American stores is bottled in Canada using high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar).
Pure Cherry Juice
[Image]This is hard to get, and sometimes expensive, but it's the best substitute for red wine. You can even pour it into a wine glass and drink it like wine. The Knudsen brand can be found in fancy (I call them "foo foo") grocery stores, and the Trader Joe's brand (which is probably a re-packaged Knudsen bottle) is a bit cheaper. (Update: folks living in the SF Bay Area can get good, relatively cheap cherry juice at the Alemany Farmers’ Market)
Sparkling Water
Lots of brands exist, with or without flavoring. I've recently been having fun with a SodaStream, which allows you to turn tap water into sparkling water (for more on the SodaStream, see this interesting Slate article). Obviously you need relatively good water to start with (thank you, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir!) but it turns out pretty well, and letting guests play with the carbonization machine is half the fun. You can even squeeze in a little lemon juice for an extra flavor kick...
"Equally Attractive Non-Alcoholic Beverages"
1 Comment -
Love this post! I just wrote about EANABS on the Stanford Alumni Living Well blog... I found out recently that today's Stanford students don't know what EANABS are - I was horrified! Because of Stanford, I always always make sure to serve non-alcoholic beverages at my parties.
March 23, 2011 at 9:11 PM