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Comment by lapetitejort | Hacker News Reader

I rarely ever drink, but love the taste of fermented beverages. So I picked up a six pack of near-beer and enjoyed it. I planned to make it a regular occasion. Then I read the nutrition label. There's a reason why alcohol doesn't have nutrition labels. You'd see the hundreds of empty calories consumed in every drink. I decided coffee and tea were better choices.

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A shot of vodka has 100 cals. So little volume and so many cals. HopTea is pretty good if you want to drink something beer-adjacent.

https://hoplark.com/collections/shop-all/products/green-tea-...

I've found kombucha also scratches the same itch for me. There's a wide variety from plain to floral to fruity to herby. It's also a nice bonus that it has the opposite effect on my gut than alcohol.

I switched from beer in the evenings to kombucha. I feel so much better the next morning.

100 cals in a calorimeter but your body isn't able to metabolize all of it. Especially if you are binge drinking, you overload how fast you can metabolize ethanol and some of it gets released in partially-metabolized states.

I wonder if there's anything that can pay the rent.

Bars sell a lot of $7 beer and $10 cocktails. Can you make money with tea or another replacement? If bars diminish... will there be another establishment that people go to? or, more likely I fear, everyone will just stay home.

I was in an East Asian style grocery once and picked up some Tsingtao 0.0 and it’s the closest tasting nonalcoholic beer I have found to the regular version

Budweiser Zero is pretty awesome. I wasn’t even a regular bud fan, but in my process of ditching alcohol I tried a bunch of different zero alcohol beers and was shocked at how much I enjoyed Bud Zero.

Bud Zero really works well for me when I’m in a “I want to slam cheap beer in a dive bar” with friends, especially when if you use it to space out or end the night after a normal beer or two.

Guinness NA is one that I legitimately savor and enjoy as much as the original.

The problem with both is when it’s time to settle up. My dumb addict brain wonders why I spent all that money for an oat soda with no buzz. Anyway, what a time to have alternatives.

I enjoy that there is now so many options to share a beer with someone without the alcohol, but I am one and done. It’s calorically like drinking full sugar soda and most bars I’ve been to that sell cans tend to charge as much or more than a regular beer. Rather just drink water or seltzer at that point.

Soda water and bitters is a good hit too. Bit more interesting than plain water, every bar will be able to make it, seems to help with an upset stomach too.

Bitters contain alcohol for those that are strict abstainers, but it’s a good trick for everyone else.

Yes, angostura bitters are 45% ABV, though your typical soda water bitters is made with just a few shakes and could be given to a child without batting an eye.

Good shout though, not sure how widely known that is.

> most bars I’ve been to that sell cans tend to charge as much or more than a regular beer.

This drives me insane. There are no sin taxes on nonalcoholic beer yet they charge the same or more at the retail point. There’s just more profit, which is ridiculous. If they want people to switch they shouldn’t gouge them for doing so.

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