Weird drinks of the elderly

EricTheWeary

Saturday night in with my 90 year old mother. Quite a lot of this is making Complan and Horlicks. Both make me want to gag. Although Complan can be quite tricky to make and I feel I've really developed the technique.

At what point in life do you decide you quite fancy a warm drink that smells like slightly gone off milk and contains almost as much powder as liquid? At what point does instant hot chocolate or decaf tea become too exciting? 
When can I look forward to thinking ' mmm, original flavour please?' 

further

Much older  than  me.

EricTheWeary

further said:

Much older  than  me.

My mother had me at 37 so at some point between 53 and 90 is all I know. I'm hoping later than sooner. 

Phil_aka_Pip

I think it depends on what they were brought up on and what their grandparents drank.

I like ale, whisky, wine, gin, coffee, orange juice, various fruit squashes. I can't imagine myself in 25 years time (assuming I'm still alive) liking something considerably different. I'll never start drinking tea, Horlicks or other milk-flavoured drinks. My mum said her grandma used to drink milk & stout. My mum doesn't and I wouldn't.

thumpingrug

I've just had a hot chocolate because i seem to have been drinking tea all day and wanted something different an non-alcoholic.  Its probably the start of a slippery slope.

Phil_aka_Pip

The weirdest is hot water. My mum drinks it. WHY???

thermionic

My mum drinks that as well, sometimes with a twist of lemon. My dad liked a drink of horlicks on a Sunday night when me and my sister were kids, funnily enough I don’t think he does now.

hobbio

Think I'll grab a Horlicks right now.

EricTheWeary

Phil_aka_Pip said:

The weirdest is hot water. My mum drinks it. WHY???

When my son was little he complained of a stomach ache one night and I suggested hot water and brandy . MrsTheWeary ( qualified specialist children's nurse ) was horrified. My mother used to give it to me when I had a stomach upset at night, presumably the alcohol made me sleepy and/ or it was so horrible I'd just shut up rather than have it again. 

I occasionally drink a cup of hot water. Just when I feel I've had too much tea and coffee but don't want a cold drink ( I almost entirely avoid cold drinks in cold weather as they can aggravate my TMJ). Not my regular night time tipple though. 

Moominpapa

@EricTheWeary When I was a kid and had a cold, the nighttime drink my mother gave me was always hot water, whiskey, and lemon juice. Did the whiskey help the cold? no idea - but I'm sure it helped me sleep :-)

Dominic

Bovril was the thing older people drank when I was a kid or it was given to kids after swimming at school
Vile

BigBearKris

Complan is just a way to deliver calories, fats and carbohydrates in an easy form for elderly. With age eating can become a chore - because of lacking apetite, chewing/swallowing difficulties weight loss and lack of energy can become an issue.
I would imagine she was prescribed that stuff to help with calorie intake.

Horlicks however...

Philly_Q

I used to like Horlicks, Ovaltine and Bournvita when I was a kid.  And Cocoa and Drinking Chocolate.  Haven't had any of them for many years though, and I've definitely never tried Complan.

I'm not averse to a cup of hot water occasionally.  I hardly ever drink cold water, for some reason it makes me feel a bit queasy.

Bournvita was the interesting one, it had a texture a bit like freeze dried coffee.  I used to put it in cold milk and have a crunchy milkshake.  Camp coffee made a good milkshake too.

EricTheWeary said:

When can I look forward to thinking ' mmm, original flavour please?' 

Is that an Alberto Frog reference? 

AlexC

Chicory... what’s that all about? By no stretch of the imagination does it taste remotely like coffee.

randella

Favourite tipple of the elderly (or, at least, viewed as such) that’s worth a bash: scotch and dry. As in dry ginger ale. Amazing.

As for Horlicks I’d rather face terminal dehydration. 

Complan I can understand, I guess it’s like Slimfast for the elderly. 

equalsql

'Horlicks' what a great name for a hot drink.. if it was the toted name for a new product, somehow I don't think it would pass marketing  

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

I used to like Horlicks, Ovaltine and Bournvita when I was a kid.  And Cocoa and Drinking Chocolate.  Haven't had any of them for many years though, and I've definitely never tried Complan.

I'm not averse to a cup of hot water occasionally.  I hardly ever drink cold water, for some reason it makes me feel a bit queasy.

Bournvita was the interesting one, it had a texture a bit like freeze dried coffee.  I used to put it in cold milk and have a crunchy milkshake.  Camp coffee made a good milkshake too.

EricTheWeary said:

When can I look forward to thinking ' mmm, original flavour please?' 

Is that an Alberto Frog reference? 

Googled him - cartoon frog? Complan is in Original or a couple of other flavours. 

Yeh @BigBearKris Complan is a sort of meal substitute thing although my mother has drunk it regardless for years. A bit like when she was younger and did the Ayds diet ( and @equalsql you thought Horlicks wouldn't get past marketing now!) and ate a month's worth of diet sweets in a day. We might tend to think of the elderly as thin and frail but she's about 18 stone, so I guess Complan works. 

bluechargeboy

@Philly_Q ; I was always totally dumbfounded when Alberto chose strawberry milkshake over chocolate, what an amphibious pillock.

Emp_Fab

GSPBASSES

Phil_aka_Pip said:

The weirdest is hot water. My mum drinks it. WHY???

thermionic said:

My mum drinks that as well, sometimes with a twist of lemon. My dad liked a drink of horlicks on a Sunday night when me and my sister were kids, funnily enough I don’t think he does now.

My daughter drinks hot water with a twist of lemon, for medical reasons. This is a dietary thing, all to do with kidney stones. She's been advised not to drink tea and no more than two cups of coffee a day. She is also on a restricted diet purely to help stop  kidney stones from forming.

oaf

My grandmother would drink this:



Never understood why...!