Funny, there is a tolerance spectrum for ginger ales. Canada Dry (prefer over Schweppes) is just a flavoured sodapop. But my wife likes make-your-tongue-burn

Funny, there is a tolerance spectrum for ginger ales. Canada Dry (prefer over Schweppes) is just a flavoured sodapop. But my wife likes make-your-tongue-burn ginger beers. And once you develop a taste for the (less hardcore) ones it's hard to go back to the wuss stuff. Note, ginger beer is not alcoholic. Separately, and forgot to mention earlier. If your social self-confidence is low, you may attach an outsize importance to your drinking a soft drink while everyone else is drinking beer or wine. It really doesn't matter that much, and people don't judge you for it as much as you think. Why are you not drinking beer? Because I don't like the taste/alcohol. Continue conversation, end of topic. Spoken from experience as a tend-to-be-outsider mostly-not-beer-drinker.