Non-alcoholic malt beverages: they're big here. They take up a good swath of the drinks aisle at Carrefour.
The thing is, I secretly love this stuff. When we lived in Egypt, I drank it a lot. I can't remember the brand name, but the flavor was pear and it was sooooo goooooood. Really, it was just another kind of pop to me.
Then my brain made the connection between malt and beer and I started to feel guilty about it, but only in a secondary sense. It was more that I felt guilty for not feeling guilty about drinking non-alcoholic malt beverages. It reminded me of the way I felt drinking mugicha in Japan, or whatever that fake Postum stuff was in Siberia. I wasn't doing anything wrong, but I was getting all defensive in advance against the stupid (but possibly well meaning) people who would try to tell me I was.
Anyway, I haven't partaken of a non-alcoholic malt beverage in a long time now, but every time I go down this aisle I walk a little slower to take a look at the pretty packaging and the new flavors.
Aren't they lovely?
Am I the only one who's tried this stuff? How much of my strange intellectual aversion to it is grounded in my culturally American upbringing? I bet Mormons in Germany get away with more than this - at ward activities, no less.
Here's one last completely indefensible point: apparently I think non-alcoholic malt beverages are OK, but decaf coffee is something I would just never try. But feel free to go ahead and drink it yourselves, I won't judge you, I promise. As long as you don't judge me and my sweet, sweet pear Barbican (or whatever it was).
Then my brain made the connection between malt and beer and I started to feel guilty about it, but only in a secondary sense. It was more that I felt guilty for not feeling guilty about drinking non-alcoholic malt beverages. It reminded me of the way I felt drinking mugicha in Japan, or whatever that fake Postum stuff was in Siberia. I wasn't doing anything wrong, but I was getting all defensive in advance against the stupid (but possibly well meaning) people who would try to tell me I was.
Anyway, I haven't partaken of a non-alcoholic malt beverage in a long time now, but every time I go down this aisle I walk a little slower to take a look at the pretty packaging and the new flavors.
Am I the only one who's tried this stuff? How much of my strange intellectual aversion to it is grounded in my culturally American upbringing? I bet Mormons in Germany get away with more than this - at ward activities, no less.
Here's one last completely indefensible point: apparently I think non-alcoholic malt beverages are OK, but decaf coffee is something I would just never try. But feel free to go ahead and drink it yourselves, I won't judge you, I promise. As long as you don't judge me and my sweet, sweet pear Barbican (or whatever it was).