The most flavor I’m offering is a bowl of lemons and limes, simply because that’s how I drink my water. Other than one friend, I’m the only one who uses it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But why is soda and juice ok for cocktail hour but not for a dinner? I truly don't understand this. I'm an adult who doesn't like water and doesn't drink alcohol. When I eat dinner either at home or at a restaurant I either have soda or juice. I know sugary drinks aren't good but I don't eat dessert/sweets and I don't smoke/drink alcohol, so I figure it's ok. I just find that if I only drink water the food just doesn't taste appealing and I have very little appetite.

Because for formal dinners, wine or water is meant to enhance--or at least not distract from--the flavors of the food. That's what wine pairings are all about. Making a beautiful filet mignon only to have someone bring Diet Coke to the table is tacky--it just lowers the level of formalitly that your host was trying to achieve. Again, for a pizza dinner, soda is fine; but not for formal dining.

NP. I'm not going to judge you for drinking a Diet Coke with dinner. I love DC...and I love wine with my dinner. I probably won't specifically offer it with dinner, because it's just so rare that someone wants it. If I was serving it before dinner, though, you are absolutely welcome to ask for a second glass and I won't think twice if you want that glass at the dinner table.

All of this comes down to the fact that OP is asking for something fairly unusual. Even among adults who don't drink, very few want a sugary drink with their meal. I know many people who don't drink and have dined with them at restaurants, so I know what they do when they have an unlimited selection of drinks. Lemonade at a formal sit-down dinner is just unusual. I'm not going to get all judge-y about it...I just don't provide it because no one drinks it.

Exactly. I hope OP realizes she's the one with the unusual taste; a taste so rare that the vast majority of hosts would never dream of serving anything other than water, sparkling water or wine at a formal, sit-down dinner.

OP here. I don't get why I'm so unusual. Why is dessert served at the end of a meal--because people want something sweet and sugary. Well I usually eat fruit for dessert but prefer something sweet and sugary with the meal (i.e. juice). I also don't find water at all thirst quenching, it's very dry. If it's a 90 degree day and I've been outside water does not quench my thirst, but lemonade does. I rarely drink soda but instead buy a lot of organic juices from Trader Joes. I don't see anything wrong with this at all. I just find it intersting that so many people aren't like this. I will say though that growing up my parents always had sugary drinks in the fridge so maybe that's why.

I think the idea of keeping lemonade for an adult dinner party is odd.

In my house, we drink regular water, sparkling water, and wine. Iced tea in the summer. Nobody, not even sure the kids, drink anything else. (My kids don't like soda.) For a casual BBQ we might buy a flat of sodas and some beers but it would never have occurred to me to do anything more than water and wine for a dinner party.

Anonymous wrote:Are you overweight, OP?

OP here. Quite the opposite.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But why is soda and juice ok for cocktail hour but not for a dinner? I truly don't understand this. I'm an adult who doesn't like water and doesn't drink alcohol. When I eat dinner either at home or at a restaurant I either have soda or juice. I know sugary drinks aren't good but I don't eat dessert/sweets and I don't smoke/drink alcohol, so I figure it's ok. I just find that if I only drink water the food just doesn't taste appealing and I have very little appetite.

Because for formal dinners, wine or water is meant to enhance--or at least not distract from--the flavors of the food. That's what wine pairings are all about. Making a beautiful filet mignon only to have someone bring Diet Coke to the table is tacky--it just lowers the level of formalitly that your host was trying to achieve. Again, for a pizza dinner, soda is fine; but not for formal dining.

NP. I'm not going to judge you for drinking a Diet Coke with dinner. I love DC...and I love wine with my dinner. I probably won't specifically offer it with dinner, because it's just so rare that someone wants it. If I was serving it before dinner, though, you are absolutely welcome to ask for a second glass and I won't think twice if you want that glass at the dinner table.

All of this comes down to the fact that OP is asking for something fairly unusual. Even among adults who don't drink, very few want a sugary drink with their meal. I know many people who don't drink and have dined with them at restaurants, so I know what they do when they have an unlimited selection of drinks. Lemonade at a formal sit-down dinner is just unusual. I'm not going to get all judge-y about it...I just don't provide it because no one drinks it.

Exactly. I hope OP realizes she's the one with the unusual taste; a taste so rare that the vast majority of hosts would never dream of serving anything other than water, sparkling water or wine at a formal, sit-down dinner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Related question: why don't many of you have other options in the house other than wine/beef, coffee/tea and water? Why don't you drink other types of beverages? Yes they're sugary and not healthy but how is this different than keeping cookies/pastries/cupcakes/ice cream in the house?

I personally don't drink beverages other than water, the very occasional glass of wine, and the occasional glass of juice. I sometimes buy Diet Coke, regular Coke or root beer if we are having a casual dinner and family is coming--I know some of my family members like those around. I keep Diet Coke in the garage for my local aunt.

Here's the difference, for me, between ice cream or cookies and Diet Coke: ingredients. Namely, chemicals. With the types of desserts/treats I buy or make, you can pronounce literally every ingredient--butter, sugar, cream, etc. I don't consume chemicals. And I only rarely have sugary treats. I keep them around because my husband and kids do eat them regularly, but if I'm going to enjoy a treat, it's certainly not going to be high in chemicals and from a can.

Yes you do. You just don't know what a chemical is.

Anonymous wrote:DCUM, can I bring my own non-alcoholic drinks? Is this gauche? ~NP

I have a former boss who's a recovering alcoholic. He is open about it, and he always brings his own non-alcoholic drinks just in case...even though we all know and know what he likes so stock up on options for him anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But why is soda and juice ok for cocktail hour but not for a dinner? I truly don't understand this. I'm an adult who doesn't like water and doesn't drink alcohol. When I eat dinner either at home or at a restaurant I either have soda or juice. I know sugary drinks aren't good but I don't eat dessert/sweets and I don't smoke/drink alcohol, so I figure it's ok. I just find that if I only drink water the food just doesn't taste appealing and I have very little appetite.

Because for formal dinners, wine or water is meant to enhance--or at least not distract from--the flavors of the food. That's what wine pairings are all about. Making a beautiful filet mignon only to have someone bring Diet Coke to the table is tacky--it just lowers the level of formalitly that your host was trying to achieve. Again, for a pizza dinner, soda is fine; but not for formal dining.

NP. I'm not going to judge you for drinking a Diet Coke with dinner. I love DC...and I love wine with my dinner. I probably won't specifically offer it with dinner, because it's just so rare that someone wants it. If I was serving it before dinner, though, you are absolutely welcome to ask for a second glass and I won't think twice if you want that glass at the dinner table.

All of this comes down to the fact that OP is asking for something fairly unusual. Even among adults who don't drink, very few want a sugary drink with their meal. I know many people who don't drink and have dined with them at restaurants, so I know what they do when they have an unlimited selection of drinks. Lemonade at a formal sit-down dinner is just unusual. I'm not going to get all judge-y about it...I just don't provide it because no one drinks it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party, I’d certainly offer people water, beer, wine, or coffee/tea, but it’s unlikely that I’ll have something like lemonade on hand unless there are children.

Why not have other drinks? Many people don't drink beer/wine, coffee/tea and would like something more tasty than water.

Every time I buysomething "flavored", I end up with a nearly full bottle of it or a case of unopened single serve containers. It is so, so rare that anyone drinks the juice etc that I've provided. I guess I could make iced tea, but that's just an extra thing for me to do for possibly one (and maybe none). I don't have to "make" water or wine...and I've tried purchasing other drinks, but people just don't drink them.

NP here - We do keep a variety of soda in the downstairs refrigerator, for BBQs and anyone who asks for it, but I never think to offer it. None of us drink it. We moved in more than 2 years ago, and still have more than half a case left of Coke, Diet Coke, and Ginger Ale.

I can not fathom why someone wouldn't just either ask the host or hostess for water, go get your own water from the sink, or say "Larla, can I help you by filling the water glasses?"

I mean, why are none of those options?

When I host I consider myself pretty competent and good at multi-tasking. But filling up water glasses is such a pain, and not something you want to do early because it just sits there and stuff can get in it. I also don't like the pitcher approach because we often host kids or grandparents and I don't the either are in a good position to pour their own water from big pitchers.

One friend has a buffet that he uses to attractively line up liter bottles of bottled water, sparkling water, and wine. It's pretty, they're all the same sized, they're near the table, and MUCH easier to pour or grab another. I'm going to try this.

I drink, in order of descending frequency:

Water
Whiskey
Beer
Wine
Iced Tea

I have a soda twice a year or so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party, I’d certainly offer people water, beer, wine, or coffee/tea, but it’s unlikely that I’ll have something like lemonade on hand unless there are children.

Why not have other drinks? Many people don't drink beer/wine, coffee/tea and would like something more tasty than water.

Every time I buysomething "flavored", I end up with a nearly full bottle of it or a case of unopened single serve containers. It is so, so rare that anyone drinks the juice etc that I've provided. I guess I could make iced tea, but that's just an extra thing for me to do for possibly one (and maybe none). I don't have to "make" water or wine...and I've tried purchasing other drinks, but people just don't drink them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who need soda or juice with your meal: did you just recently arrive in DC? Say, since November 2016?

When I have a Big Mac, I insist on a diet coke!

Now please excuse me, I have to get back to Twitter.

P.S. Amazon sucks.

Are you overweight, OP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Related question: why don't many of you have other options in the house other than wine/beef, coffee/tea and water? Why don't you drink other types of beverages? Yes they're sugary and not healthy but how is this different than keeping cookies/pastries/cupcakes/ice cream in the house?

I personally don't drink beverages other than water, the very occasional glass of wine, and the occasional glass of juice.

Isn't this kind of boring though? Just drinking water? Isn't it like eating the same exact thing every single day? I need variety in my beverages. I drink lemonade, cranberry juice, OJ, apple juice, etc. depending on the day. I drink water too but not every meal and mainly in between meals to hydrate. But when I'm eating, I'd like to wash it down with something that has a taste to it.

Wow, do you have any idea how much environmental waste you are creating with this unhealthy habit? Do you have any idea how much money you could be saving by drinking water?