Since I'm eating most of my dinners alone at home right now, I've been tinkering in the kitchen a lot, especially with foods that I don't cook for Rick because of his allergies. And I do mean "tinkering". Today I added eggplant, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and green olives to a bottled tomato sauce and poured it over spaghetti. Worked okay, although it would have been better if I'd taken the time to make my own tomato sauce base.

This led me to think: Some of us like to experiment with food, but how many of us experiment with beverages? In our culture, most of that effort takes place in bars, and is focused on alcoholic drinks. I do drink alcohol sometimes, but rarely consume high-maintenance beverages; I prefer wine, beer, or more rarely, a very simple mixed drink. (The concoctions with cream and egg whites and chocolate shavings and eye of newt in them usually don't do much for me.)

The post-1990 boom in coffeeshops did expand our horizons somewhat, but most coffee drinks still follow a basic pattern: Coffee, flavoring, maybe whipped cream. Not bad, but -- yawn. I suspect this is very different in other parts of the world. For instance, a year or so ago I attended a party where the hosts and many other guests were observant Muslims, so of course no alcohol was served. However, the hostess did serve an absolutely amazing cold drink that she said was popular in her native Pakistan. It was a fresh-squeezed sweet limeade with lots of grated ginger, a touch of salt, and a generous lacing of cumin and red pepper. I don't remember ever having drunk something so delicious before or since -- and I can usually take or leave cold drinks of any kind.

So here's the question: Has anyone out there concocted or otherwise experienced creative non-alcoholic non-coffee drinks? Inquiring minds -- mine, at least -- want to know.