Friday, March 03, 2006

First beer session of Lent

The first Friday night of Lent has passed and I have managed to stick to my no-alcohol pledge. It's actually more difficult than it should be. Not drinking alcohol in an Irish pub is a pretty awkward thing.

For starters there is the age old complaint that soft drinks are ridiculously expensive in Irish pubs. It costs more for a pint of cola than for a pint of beer! Where is the incentive to drink less alcohol there? The profit margin in the average Dublin pub on a dash of cola must be astronomical. Of course this has been the case for years and nothing ever changes.

Secondly non-alcoholic beers taste like crap, so it was back to the soft drinks for the night. Erdinger Non-Alcoholic is the best of a bad lot, but that's still not to my taste. Too strong a taste of hops or barley or something normally masked by the production of alcohol. Really most beer does taste bad, but it's masked by the alcohol.

At least the good thing is you can only consume a pint or two of cola before your body has had enough of caffeine and sugar. I'll probably be bouncing off the walls for the rest of the night.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Declan, you could vary it every now and again and order a mug of coffee instead of a pint of coke?

Or for a healthier option, a pot of herbal tea? I wonder do pubs sell herbal tea.. It's certainly becoming very common to see packets of herbal tea in peoples work cubicles these days. Not a bad taste either. Can be nicer than normal tea.

Declan said...

Ciaran, herbal tea? Are you feeling well? :-)

Declan.

Anonymous said...

You should try some you know.....they're not all bad!!!