What’s the hardest thing about being pregnant? For me, it’s giving up wine and coffee. I do it because I must, but that certainly doesn’t mean I give it up without complaining. It’s awfully hard to go an entire nine months without two of the things that make your life happy. And I’m pretty sure this kid won’t understand until she’s pregnant; and if it’s a boy, well, he’ll never understand the sacrifice. But that’s part of being a mom, right?
That’s what I tell myself when I’m in the clutches of a powerful craving for a good glass of syrrah, or pinot, or raspberry wine. Heck, I’d go for a glass of California cabernet right now!
You can guess my level of excitement when I discovered a non-alcoholic wine recently. Yep. Wine with the alcohol removed! Brilliant!
My sister, who is also pregnant, bought me a bottle of Fre for my birthday. It was heavenly. The great thing about Fre is that it isn’t sugary like all those other wine substitutes. It really tastes like wine (at least to someone who has been living without for months upon months). I also recently tried Ariel’s Cabernet Savignon, but it was not nearly as good. It tasted more like watered down juice.
Fre comes in White Zinfandel, Brut, Premium White, Premium Red, Merlot, and Chardonnay. Fre is owned by Sutter Home Winery, which has been producing wine in the Napa Valley since the late 1800s. The grapes for the alcohol-removed wine come from the 7000 acres of the Trinchero Family Vineyards. The winery produces all of its Fre alcohol removed wines at the St. Helena facility where the spinning cone is housed.
According to its web site, Fre is produced using the revolutionary spinning cone column, which facilitates the removal and safeguarding of fragile wine aromas and flavors at low temperatures, then removes the alcohol at slightly higher temperatures. The wine essences are then reintroduced to the dealcoholized base wine and blended with unfermented grape juice. The finished product is a fresh, delicious beverage with the characteristic aromas and flavors of premium wine, yet with less than 0.5% alcohol and less than half the calories of regular wine.
ABOUT FRE
• Through the de-alcoholization process of producing Fre, less than one half of one percent of alcohol remains in the wine — an alcohol content approximately equivalent to the alcohol content of orange juice left out of the refrigerator overnight.
• Fre wines have half the caloric content of alcoholic wines.Fre wines average 70 calories per 8 ounce serving.
• Fre does not contain any gluten or gluten products. All of the natural flavors of the wine are fruit derived. They are not kosher.
CHICKORY INSTEAD OR COFFEE
Onto the coffee issue. I really miss my morning coffee. It wasn’t so bad during those first three months when I couldn’t eat anything. I drank my Red Raspberry tea like a good pregnant woman, and didn’t go near a coffee shop. But when I started to need a place to camp out and study for my master’s class, it got harder to stay away from coffee... And as soon as I sniffed that lovely coffee smell I realized just how much I missed my morning cup of joe. And my afternoon cup of joe. And that evening pick-me-up cup of joe. Oh, for some coffee!!
Over the years, there have been times when I’ve decided to go off coffee for one reason or another. Show myself I’m not addicted to caffeine. Save my teeth from staining. Drink something healthier. Whatever. When I studied abroad in England I was introduced to chickory. Yummy stuff without the caffeine. Apparently it was pretty popular over here, too, during the Depression, but once that lifted we went back to the more expensive coffee. Periodically I’ve checked Google for chickory, but always without any luck. You can find the coffee-chickory mix from New Orleans, or the barley-roasted carob-almonds-natural coffee flavor-chickory mixes like Teeccino from natural food coops. But I’ve been looking for just plain ground chickory.
Good news folks! I finally found some!! It’s on Amazon. And it has made me very, very happy.
What are some things you hate living without during pregnancy? What treats do you compensate with? I’d love to hear about your experiences!
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