In the not-so-distant past, ordering a non-alcoholic drink at a bar or restaurant usually amounted to nothing more than seltzer combined with some sort of saccharine — often inexplicably blue — syrup. The two liquids wouldn't be mixed in any sort of meaningful manner, so you'd be left with a flat, dull seltzer and a pool of sludge in the bottom of your glass . . . yum?
Ordering them was often an ordeal as well, one that required requesting a cocktail and then saying ". . . um, but could it come without the liquor?" You're not a child at an all-inclusive resort trying to get a tropical piña colada to sip on in the pool. You're an adult trying to order a drink. It shouldn't be this challenging.
