Healthier Soda

[bootsmagee]

I rarely drink soda, and most juices are wayyy too sweet for my taste as well.  At work I drink water only, but at home I  prefer something more flavorful with meals.  I buy fruit juice or lemon/limeade, and mix it with seltzer to make my own soda.  Seltzer is pretty cheap, and I find that I can make a half-gallon of juice last for at least 2 weeks by mixing with seltzer.  I usually mix 2/1 seltzer/juice.  I don't have kids, but I know they love soda.  I imagine it would be a great alternative to giving them pepsi/sprite as well.

[James]

My three kids don't have flavored drinks at home.  They have milk with meals, otherwise they have water.  Once in a while for a birthday or special occasion we allow them to pick a bottle of pop, but that is probably less than 6 times a year.  We do allow them to have pop or juice on those occasions we eat out though, and then there is grandparents house, etc...  :)

[MrSaturday]

I make big pitchers of iced tea and flavor/sweeten them with a half-can of frozen juice concentrate.

It's good, not too sweet, and costs about $.50 per gallon.

[Mrs MM]

Great ideas!  We used to drink Club Soda and Lime (of CSL) back in the day.  It was nice and refreshing in the summer.  Now, we mostly stick to water and of course the fancy homemade lattes every morning.  :)

We have mint in our garden right now, so some club soda and mint would probably be quite yummy.

I never drink juice and am generally not a fan of sweet drinks, but our little boy drinks "juicy water" sometimes, which is apple juice mixed with a bunch of water.  He's never had soda (and never expressed an interest) and I'd like to keep it that way for some time...

[James]

I just remember what we had every Sunday growing up, my mom would mix weak orange juice with 7-up and we would have that with popcorn for dinner.  (We always had our big meal of the day right after church)  We would all sit around the table reading while eating popcorn and drinking this concoction...

We have mint in our garden right now, so some club soda and mint would probably be quite yummy.

We are still waiting for mint to grow up here in Wisconsin, but once it does we have mojitos with some regularity...  :)

[dancedancekj]

I had thought about creating a home carbonation system. According to this Instructable, it comes out to approximately $0.04 per 2 liter bottle - doesn't get much cheaper than that?

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Soda-Water-%26-Home-Carbonation---Pays-For-Itsel/

[chrissyo]

Now, we mostly stick to water and of course the fancy homemade lattes every morning.  :)

Curious - I know you mention you are semi-paleo these days. Does that include the move away from dairy, too? If so, have you found a good alternative milk for lattes? I have started limiting dairy as much as possible (as well as going nearly entirely GF from sensitivities to both), so have had to switch from latte to coffee with a small amount of cream.

[igthebold]

Best to love living off just water... but I don't. I have an almost Dickensian obsession with drinks.

I have ginger beer plant, which is like kefir grains, but for making soda. That's what I use to make the various sodas I like: ginger beer, rosemary-lemon-honey soda, herbal tea soda (try Tension Tamer and Red Zinger), green-tea-honey soda, etc. Only one it doesn't work for is root beer. For that I use brewer's yeast.

I make the brew, bottle in 20-oz PET bottles, keep on the counter until hard, then refrigerate to slow down the yeast. PET bottles are strong.. way better than glass for homebrew soda. Also way easier to clean than a keg.

For a generic not-quite-water drink during the day, I make Rooibos unsweet tea. Quite refreshing and nice when it's hot out, plus no caffeine and lots of Buzzwords for Health.

I also do soda-style kombucha, which is like vinegar soda. :)

Jimmy

[HeidiO]

I do a lot of iced tea in the summer - currently Ginger Pear is my fav.  Also like Mangostein herbal tea added to black tea.  And Earl Gray is good iced.
Heidi

[AJ]

Now, we mostly stick to water and of course the fancy homemade lattes every morning.  :)

Curious - I know you mention you are semi-paleo these days. Does that include the move away from dairy, too? If so, have you found a good alternative milk for lattes? I have started limiting dairy as much as possible (as well as going nearly entirely GF from sensitivities to both), so have had to switch from latte to coffee with a small amount of cream.

I'm not Paleo, but are you allowed to eat nuts? If so, could you use unsweetened almond milk? Its too thin to cook with, but its good to drink, and it is basically just almonds and water.

[Roadrunner53]

Can some of you post your tea recipes. Sounds dumb but I never make Ice tea and do like it. Would like more jazzier ice tea recipes!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We don't drink soda, and don't keep it in the house. (The kids always order Sprite on flights, and I'm sure my parents occasionally let them have it at a restaurant when they are together 1x/year or whatever.) At the house, we have water, milk, & hot tea.

[simonkkkkk]

Cola light maybe a idea?

[beekayworld]

I put a few drops of Sweet Leaf stevia sweetener into seltzer water. They have cola flavor, coconut, and vanilla. The vanilla makes it taste like a cream soda.