The French like Panaché

"Le Panaché comme au café"

and I drink it every weekend. Well, maybe for not future weekends, but I have had it every weekend so far. On my first friday night out the girls, our Brit friend DJ, and I went to a little pub near Place d'Italie called Cyber Café or Club or something that's not really important to the story. Since it was our first time at a french bar, we didn't know what sorts of alcohol they'd be serving or how to even recognize or interpret liquor lingo if we saw it. Well, the decision was made pretty easy when one of us ordered Panaché. We all passed it around, putting our tongue at risk for what was to come. Easily enough, it went down smoothly and there was like a hidden surprise in there when I swallowed. That last line sounds like a toy popped out of my cereal box, but i meant that the taste of the Panaché was like a nice glass of swallowable beer. Ah, the first clue to what it is. It is beer-well at least that's what it is classified as on the menu. We were told at the bar it's also a mixture of club soda and lemonade. Mmm-mM! Well we then realized we weren't getting a lot of beer for our buck, but we enjoyed this unique flavor from France. The next day or so, my two friends, Zoe and Kendra, spotted Panach (the nickname to Panaché, because sometimes it's more fun to sound like you've been drinking this poison for awhile) at the Carrefour. They bought ten glass bottles for just over one euro. Strangely enough it cost me 3 euro for six cans at Monoprix (so it looks like i was the fool in this story). How can it be so inexpensive (well if you're addressing Z&K), you ask? (or at least I sure did!) We checked the ingredients: looks like the only way you can get buzzed from this is if you convince yourself you are. It's hardly 1% alcohol. So this explains a lot: why I left the bar that friday night so completely happy and legitimately feeling great, why this is so cheap (well, i suppose even for 6 cans..) and why I totally like them. The rest is just juice. However, I consider it as being a happiness inducer juice (okay, i know now i'm making a counter-argument to the amount of alcohol that's in it if I'm dubbing it "happy juice" but it really is just 1%!). Every time I cracked open the can lid, I've had a memorable, fun night. This just proves you don't need to get slosh buckling drunk every night to have a good time. Even Panach can promise a Panawesome night, unless you decide you mix it with real beer and end up having a Panauseous one. 

complete list of ingredients: lemonade, orange juice, beer. Note: every bar may make it differently-for instance, club soda instead of OJ, etc.