Diet Ginger Beer

Has anyone found a good source for diet ginger beer in Chicago, or a ginger ale with enough fortitude to be used to make a Dark n' Stormy?

I gave up on it after a long search. Like good diet grape soda, it is my Unicorn.

You don't actually need much for a Dark n' Stormy, I usually give up my carbs at dinner if I want to treat myself with a Dark n' Stormy for dessert. (From a diabetes standpoint, you might be looking for diet for a completely different reason.)

Or, as Toby from Violet Hour suggests over here, you can make your own Ginger Syrup (with an artificial sweetener, of course)

Diet Vernors is about as close as I have seen.

Diet ginger beer can be found at Cost Plus World Market.

Thanks for the tip! Which world market have you seen it at?

The location at North & Sheffield.

I ended up getting Bundaberg diet ginger beer. It ended up being pretty terrible, to be honest. It didn't taste very gingery at all.

Today at Sam's in the South Loop I saw Barritt's Diet Ginger Beer, but I didn't buy any.

Blenheim's diet ginger ale is the best I have ever had. A true ginger ale. The hot variety is a bit much for me but the "normal" variety is wonderful.

If not found in your area...you can buy it online at various websites...one being:

http://popsoda.com/blendietgina.html

Other links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blenheim_Ginger_Ale
http://blenheimshrine.com/

Dave
Atlanta, GA

Gosling's sells Diet Ginger Beer on their website now.

http://www.trmsites.com/goslingsstore/p ... rod=RG-073

I've been making 'diet ginger beer' for my girlfriend as of late.

1.5 oz of ginger juice (we like it spicy)
1 oz of lime juice
1 oz of water
2 packets of Truvia (or splenda in a pinch)
shaken

Poured into a rocks glass with ice and topped with perrier. It's quite nice and good for her stomach when she isn't feeling well (I'll usually up the portions and add a healthy dose of ango if her stomach is feeling particurally unhappy).

bjackson, tell me about ginger juice -- is this something you make by extracting it from fresh ginger, or boiling it the way you do for ginger tea?

Ginger juice is literally what happens when you put ginger in a juicer. Unforunately you can't buy ginger juice just anywhere, but the Maple Street Market will do it for you (I've gotten it cheap and expensive there, depending on the person who is juicing it). I got a Breville juicer for Christmas so I've been doing it myself, as of late. Stanley's has ginger quite cheap, and I throw it in my breville and out comes more than enough juice.

I think I've heard of a place in Hyde Park which will also juice ginger, but it's a rare commodity. You can also juice it yourself by putting ginger in a food processor and then squeezing it through cheesecloth which is how I used to do it.

Ginger People sells a bottled ginger juice. I've seen it at Whole Foods. It's not cheap (~$1/oz).

Tried Barrits Diet Ginger Beer last night. I guess I am ignorant of the true ginger beer taste, but his stuff was awful. Bad medicine taste without even a hint of ginger. At $6.00 a four pack not a great buy if it tasted OK. Better to try and make your own. I add crushed Lemongrass , a hot pepper, crushed ginger, sugar and water. Bring it to a boil then let it steep like a tea, strain chill and fill almost half and half with club soda. I assume you could use one of the sugar substitutes not effected by heat, or add in sweetener at the end for a good base.