Going Out For Drinks - Help

[Minstinguette]

A question for those who are also corn intolerant : what do you drink when you go out? It looks like everything has corn or gluten. (I am also intolerant to grapes - so no wine for me). Having a glass of water while everyone is having beers and cocktails is a little depressing. Please share your suggestions if you have any!

(So far I only came up with potato vodka on the rocks and it doesn't seem very appealing :/)

[bartfull]

Tequila should be OK. But be aware that your tolerance to alcohol may have changed. A lot of us can't drink at all because we either get sick or get very very drunk on tiny amounts of alcohol. Be careful!

[psawyer]

Rum should be okay for you. It is gluten-free, and I have never heard of corn being used. Coke and Pepsi are gluten-free, so a rum and cola, perhaps?

[killernj13]

Most hard ciders are gluten free (not sure about the corn). These are Magners, Angry Orchid etc. They are apple based so I doubt there are grapes.

[Minstinguette]

Thanks for your suggestions! I thought about rum and tequila too. The problem is that there is nothing to mix them with - all pops and juices seem to have corn. I used to drink hard cider (woodchuck) but I am trying to avoid it now due to corn additives.

I am happy to see that I am not the only one who gets drunk after two sips. I rarely drink nowadays, but it is nice to have one or two options when going out.

[T.H.]

You might be able to have some luck with an organic soda with sugarcane instead of corn syrup and no caramel color added; I see them sometimes in the health foods stores. Although how sensitive are you? Can you have citric acid? I know some corn sensitive folks can, and some can't, and obviously that's in a lot of sodas too.

If you can't find ANY soda, maybe you can make your own. Just get some fizzy water and make your own syrup out of unbleached cane sugar and fresh squeezed fruit juice. Boil it down until it's more concentrated and then add it to the fizzed water. I've just done it with the juice and no sugar, if the fruit is sweet enough, but I have to boil it down more. Take that out with you and use that to add to a hard alcohol, maybe?

Yeah, the fermented stuff is nearly impossible to find without corn, isn't it? Although I just saw a recipe for a honey beer - literally a fermented, alcoholic honey drink from Africa, no wheat or barley added - in a cookbook. Um, The Art of Wild Fermentation, I believe it was called.

So you could, you know, make your own alcohol. You could try your hand at hard apple cider, too, actually - that one I've done, and it's really not as hard as you'd think. If you want to make it using only the natural yeasts in the air and the sugar from the apple, pick fall or winter apples - they contain more sugar and do better making homemade apple cider as a result.

If you live in a place with a good winter, or have a big enough freezer, you could try making Apple Jack like beverages to take with you (higher alcohol content than plain hard apple cider). There's some instructions for how to do that, here: Open Original Shared Link

I believe the alcohol levels for apple jack are still legal to make without a license. It might depend on the state, though, so you might want to check that where you live. :-)

Good luck!

[FruitEnthusiast]

I don't think pineapple juice usually has additives in it, but I'm not positive about that. Most places have it too. That doesn't solve the alcohol question, but it's better than drinking water. People do tend to notice a lot more if I drink water, and some will ask questions about it. I think people feel more comfortable if they think everyone is joining in in some way.

[Pauliewog]

sake?

[Juliebove]

Rum should be okay for you. It is gluten-free, and I have never heard of corn being used. Coke and Pepsi are gluten-free, so a rum and cola, perhaps?

Regular colas in the US usually have high fructose corn syrup in them. You can get some cola that is cane sugar sweetened but they would not be likely to have that in a bar. Not sure if a diet cola would work either. Not sure what the source of the caramel coloring is.

[Juliebove]

I don't drink. I sometimes get a club soda with lime. Nobody ever made any comments about it.

[GottaSki]

Black Russian - Kahlua and Vodka (try potato if regular bothers you) Caution this packs quite a punch as it is all alcohol - but does make a great little sipping drink.

White Russian if you can tolerate dairy.

Kahlua and Coffee on a cold winter day - yum.

I haven't had in a long time, but look forward to a nice cocktail once my silly gut heals

[AnnJay]

Does tonic water have corn in it?

A classic martini is gluten free. As long as the gin or vodka are not flavored you won't consume gluten or corn. It's the added favors that get ya. Vermouth, olives, twists, cocktail onions I think are all ok.

Sake that is called jumei, or something like that, is supposed to be gluten free. The better quality sakes are like that.

All soda pop is out. Bar fruit juices are bound to have corn based sweeteners.

Good luck.

[T.H.]

Does tonic water have corn in it?

Usually, yeah. It has a sweetener, which is most commonly corn syrup. It also usually contains citric acid, which some corn allergic folks react to if corn syrup was used as a feed during the formation of the citric acid.

[bartfull]

Most bars have one "gun" with several different buttons for the sodas and tonic waters. ANYTHING that comes out of that gun will be cross contaminated.