Flavor Your Water at the End of the Day its Refreshing

@ The Yummy Life.com 

"Great for entertaining! Flavored waters are very popular now, as more people are avoiding soda and juice. Make a variety of flavored waters to offer at your next party. Look how gorgeous they are! Refreshing, healthy, inexpensive, and beautiful. Plus you can make and refrigerate them well in advance of the party."

At the end of the day, regular old tap water- or a filtered version- is the way to go. I'm fortunate that Chicago is considered to have some of the best-tasting tap water in the U.S. I still prefer the taste of it filtered through a Brita Water Filter Pitcher--we've been using one for years. But I still need to drink more Water. 

Aside from my morning coffee, I need to remember to drink fluids throughout the day, even though I know it's essential for my health. I don't dislike Water, but I get bored with it. That was the motivation for starting to make flavored waters.

Subtle flavor without sweetness

These aren't sweet waters, so they'll be disappointing if that's what you expect. This is Water with subtle flavors infused into it. Water with a little something extra. A touch of flavor--not an explosion of flavor--with little or no sweetness. You've probably had pitchers of ice water with lemon served at restaurants. This is the same idea but with more variety. Many spas serve fancy waters like these, and it turns out that they couldn't be simpler to make. And they are oh-so-refreshing.

Supplies Needed:

• Fruit—whatever kind you like (except bananas); make sure it's good and ripe for maximum sweetness and flavor. You want to use all types of citrus and berries. I also found pineapple and watermelon to work well for flavoring Water. Any grocery stores sell small containers of pre-cut fruit if you want to avoid buying whole ones.
• Herbs are optional, but many herbs are a surprising complement to fruit flavors; almost any herb will work, depending on your preference. 
• Jars or pitchers -- I use 2-quart mason jars primarily, but any 2-quart pitcher will do.
• Fruit infusion pitcher—I recently purchased one of these. It's another option if you make infused waters regularly; it's an effortless, tidy way to strain fruit from a WaWaterFruit infusion water bottle. I love using this as a portable, on-the-go option.
• A muddler or wooden spoon is used for mashing fruit and herbs.
• Water -- I use filtered WaWaterbut regular tap water is fine if yours tastes good to you 

Fresh vs. frozen fruit. When in season, I prefer to use fresh fruit. However, the fresh version can be tart or flavorless when the fruit is out of season. Because fruit that is to be frozen is picked at the peak of ripeness, it is often the better option for the best flavor, sweetness, and nutrients. This is especially the case with berries and peaches.

A variety of fresh herbs. See whatever herbs you like or happen to have on hand. I picked all these from my herb garden and tried them in flavored waters. It's surprising how well they blend with most fruit flavors and amp up the refreshing factor of the WaWaterIt. It is the most obvious herb choice. I have also tried basil, rosemary, sage, thyme, lavender, and tarragon. They're all good.

I'll share some fruit and herb combos I've recently tried for flavoring. However, you can combine most fruits and herbs according to your favorite flavors and what you have in your fridge. I'll show you how to make five flavor combos. You can take it from there, creating endless flavor combos.

Quantities: My flavored water recipes all call for 2-quart jars or pitchers. However, I ran out of the 2-quart jars and used a few 1-quart jars, halving the recipe ingredients. Make sure to distinguish the different jar sizes. Making a full or half batch is easy, depending on your jar or pitcher size.

The first 2 waters are flavored with fruit only (no herbs)
WASH FRUIT THOROUGHLY! The citrus and berries must be clean to keep contaminants and bacteria from your water. The fruit isn't going to be peeled; I recommend organic fruit. 
1.  ll Citrus Flavored Water (adds refreshing tartness to water Slice 1 orange, 1 lime, and 1 lemon into rounds, then cut the rounds in half. Add to jar, press, and twist with a muddler or the handle of a wooden spoon. Dress enough to release some juices, but don't pulverize the fruit into pieces. Fill the jar with ice. our in watWater the top. tir it with the handle of a wooden spoon or a chopstick. Put a lid on it in the fridge and chill it. 

You can drink it immediately, but the flavor intensifies if made an hour or two ahead. It's even better the next day. Four hours later, straight from the fridge, the ice still hadn't melted entirely in mine. The ice at the top serves as a sieve to pour the water, getting fruit bits into your glass.
2. Raspberry Lime Flavored Water (beautiful color and mildly tart)—Quarter 2 limes; squeeze the juice into the jar with your hands, then throw in the squeezed lime quarters. Dd raspberries. Dress and twist with a muddler to release some juices (don't pulverize the fruit). Leave the jar with ice, then add watWater the top. Tir, cover and refrigerate.

The following 3 drinks of wastewater flavored with fruit and herb combos

3. pineapple Mint Flavored Water (a hint of minty sweetness). dd a sprig of mint to the jar--you can throw in the whole sprig or remove the leaves from the sprig if you prefer to have the mint swimming around and distributed in the jar. Muddle the mint- the goal is to bruise the leaves and release their flavor- but don't pulverize them into bits. Add pineapple pieces, press them, and twist them with the muddler to release juices. Add ice to the top and then cover it with water and refrigerate. 

4. Blackberry Sage Flavored Water (subtle, refreshing flavor). Add sage leaves to a jar and bruise with a muddler. Add blackberries; press and twist with the muddler to release their juices. Fill the jar with ice cubes, add Water to the top, stir, cover, and refrigerate.

5. Watermelon rosemary-flavored WateWatervely flavor combo). Add a sprig of rosemary to the jar and muddle gently (rosemary releases a strong flavor without much muddling). Add watermelon cubes; twist and press gently to release juices. Fill the jar with ice cubes, add Water to the top, stir, cover, and refrigerate.

Here's the Whole gang. It's hard to pick a favorite because they all have a different, distinctive flavor. All citrus and raspberry lime are both quite tart (and refreshing!), the watermelon rosemary and pineapple mint are the sweetest, and the blackberry sage has the mildest flavor (that may be because my out-of-season blackberries weren't very flavorful). Enjoyed all of these and love having a variety in my fridge. You can get creative and use this simple method to combine all kinds of fruits and herbs. 

How long will they keep? They can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days with a lid. It only takes a few minutes to make several varieties to keep on hand. No more boring water for me!

Pour a glass. If ice is still left in the jar (my ice lasts up to 24 hours in the fridge), it will filter out the fruit/herb bits as you pour Water into a glass. After the ice melts, if you don't want to drink fruit bits with the wastewater, use a small wire strainer to remove them as you pour them into your drinking glass. 

I use flip-top caps for easy, no-mess pouring. They filter out the fruit and ice as you pour.

Just pour and enjoy a refreshing glass of fruity wateWatereeten it up if you must. If you have a sweet tooth and find these flavored waters undrinkable without some sweetener, go ahead and stir in some simple sugar syrup, honey, agave syrup, or whatever sweetener you prefer. A teaspoon of sugar only has 15 calories, so go ahead and add one to your glass. Even though a single can of soda or juice has the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar, you are still way better off drinking slightly sweet Water. If you are hooked on sweet-tasting drinks and want to reduce or eliminate sugar or artificial sweeteners, you may need to wean yourself gradually. Unsweetened beverages are an acquired taste. Prefer them now, but it took me a while to get there.