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Comment by bobxmax | Hacker News Reader

Sure, but if alcohol didn't get you drunk consumption would plummet 95%.

I wouldn't be so sure... I'm certain my own would increase. (Assuming 'get you drunk' means something like 'contain ethanol' i.e. no 'buzz' or whatever but also no adverse effect on liver, the next day, ...).

If you want a cold drink that isn't sweet, your choices are pretty much alcohol, alcohol-free alternative, water.

Tea and coffee don't have to be sweet either, and there are lots of cold versions of those.

Also plenty of traditional cold drinks that are savoury or can be savoury: doogh, ayran, lassi, jaljeera, buttermilk, kvass

I’ll add legumes juices : both raw, fresh blend or the water from a soup that you separate and put in a fridge. Those are delicious.

Kvaas contain alcohol, doesn’t it?

> Kvaas contain alcohol, doesn’t it?

I think only as much as kombucha, not enough to cause a buzz

Of about kefir percentage. Kwas has 0.5-1.5% ABV, kefir has 0.02-2.0% ABV.

I guess simply 'milk' I also missed, which is a bit sweet of course but I wasn't intending to lump it in with fruit juices and added-sugar drinks.

I did almost mention jaljeera, but thought that might be a bit niche. It is also often sweetened though. I've never known not-sweet lassi though? Salted lassi is still sweet underneath, like salted caramel, ime. We could count it with the sweet-ish milk drinks, anyway.

Lassi is a traditional drink where I’m from and contains only salt traditionally. Sweetened lassi is a relatively recent restaurant-led innovation. When I was a kid “lassi” meant salted; you had to specify “sweet lassi” for the sweetened version.

To be fair, the concept of iced tea as an objective desire is considered the provenance of blasphemous original sin by a not insignificant percentage of natives where the parent hails from.

>If you want a cold drink that isn't sweet, your choices are pretty much alcohol, alcohol-free alternative, water.

Uh, no.

There's also seltzer, flavored seltzer, flavored water, iced tea, iced coffee, herbal infusions (like hibiscus, rooibos, honeybush, etc), broth, milk and plant based milk alternatives, and fermented drinks like kombucha + kefir. That's just off the top of my head.

Hibiscus even has the benefit of helping regulate blood pressure.

I almost never drink sweet drinks or plain water and rarely drink alcohol. My fluid consumption is almost entirely: hot tea, iced tea, kombucha, and hibiscus infusion. Sometimes seltzer. Sometimes coffee.

That seems unlikely. Non alcoholic drinks are already an enormous market, and people would have less reason to limit consumption with the health downside removed.

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