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Do It Yourself Sports Drinks And Flavored WaterShare
Do It Yourself Sports Drinks and Flavored Water
As of 2006, an estimated 60 billion PET single-use beverage containers were bought. Approximately 45 billion of these were discarded after one use. (Container Recycling Institute) Bottled water is a rip off – people in the U.S. spent over $100 billion on it in 2006 alone. Factor in all the money spent on flavored waters and sports drinks and the waste is overwhelming. Take back control of your spending and consumption of disposable items by making your own flavored waters and sports drinks at home. Check out our Replacements for Soda & Water Containers here.
Electrolyte Replacement Drink
Replace electrolytes after work outs, heat exposure or illness without all the artificial flavor, added sugar and wasteful packaging. (Makes 1 liter)
Ingredients:
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 teaspoons cream of tarter (or eat 2 bananas for potassium)
- 1Tablespoon sugar
- 1 liter warm water
- Optional: 1Tablespoon orange juice or 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Instructions:
Mix together in a large pitcher – the warm water helps the dry ingredients dissolve. Keep refrigerated, and bring a reusable bottle full when you know you’ll be breaking a sweat.
Homemade Ginger Ale
Adapted from The Healing Kitchen: From Tea Tin to Fruit Basket, Breadbox to Veggie Bin – How to Unlock the Power of Foods That Heal by Ellen Michaud
A refreshing, natural beverage that soothes stomachs and aching joints. Skip the artificially-flavored and sweetened stuff and reach for this simple, low calorie alternative. (Makes 4 servings)
Ingredients:
- 4 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
- 2 cups water
- 4 teaspoons honey
- 2 cups seltzer water
- Lemon slices
- Ice
Instructions:
Finely chop or shred ginger in a food processor or with a hand grater. Boil water and add the ginger to it. Cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Strain.
Add honey. (More can be added to taste.)
Allow mixture to reach room temperature. Pour 1/2 cup in a glass. Add seltzer, a lemon slice, and ice. Stir and serve. Any leftover drink must be refrigerated or the mixture will begin to ferment and you'll have ginger beer!
Cold-brewed Coffee
According to a study by CBS news, people who visit coffee shops once a day, five days a week spend about $780 a year on regular drip coffee. That’s not even counting more expensive drinks like lattes and iced coffees. All that money and all of those paper and plastic cups in the landfills are a huge waste. You can get the same fresh, full-bodied flavor in your coffee – hot or cold – by cold brewing at home. Cold-brewed coffee may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s actually an easy way to extract a well-rounded, smooth coffee from your beans. The brew is strong enough to be used in place of espresso in lattes and other drinks as well. These instructions are for making small quantities of coffee, to make a larger quantity you can use more ingredients and larger containers, or consider buying a toddy system with replaceable, reusable filters. Check our all of our tools for the coffee and tea lover here.
Ingredients and Items You’ll Need:
- A storage container for the final brew – a pitcher or a tall jar with a lid will work
- A tall glass or mason jar with a lid for brewing
- A second tall glass or jar to pour the steeped coffee mixture into
- A stainless steel kitchen strainer with a fine mesh (if you don’t have fine mesh, you can use cheesecloth in addition to the strainer)
- Coffee
Instructions:
Measure 5-6 tablespoons of medium-course ground coffee into the brewing glass. Add about 1.5 cups room temperature water and stir until there are no lumps. If you’re increasing volume, a 4:1 ratio of water to coffee will work best.
Put a lid on the container and let it brew for a minimum of 3 hours – it can sit up to 12 hours, depending on how strong you like your brew.
Strain the brewed coffee through the stainless steel strainer into the second container. Clean out the first glass, and strain the mixture back into the original container. If the filter clogs at any point stop pouring and clean it out before resuming.
Pour the final mixture in your storage container or pitcher and put it in the fridge. The mixture is 2-3 times stronger than drip coffee, so dilute it with an equal amount of water to start – adjust to taste. You can also dilute in milk or non-dairy milk for a latte-like drink.
Flavored Water
Bottled water was bad enough – disposable plastic bottles of (most likely) water from a municipal source (tap water!). Then came flavored water – sweetened with artificial flavors and wastefully packaged for your “convenience”. Overpriced, unhealthy and needlessly wasteful – pre-packaged flavored water is a rip off. Save money and drink things you can actually pronounce by flavoring water at home.
Essential Oils
Add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to cold water or iced tea – start with one drop and add to taste. You can combine flavors for more complex beverages. We like:
- 2 drops of peppermint
- 1 drop sweet orange, 1 drop cinnamon
- 1 drop ginger, 1 drop lemon
Fruit-Infused Water
Why recreate fruit-flavored water with imitation flavors when you can use the real deal? Cut up fresh fruit and drop it into a pitcher of water. Our Takeya Fruit Infusion Jug makes it easy. We like:
- Kiwi and strawberry
- Strawberry, raspberry and blackberry
- Cucumber and lemon
- Orange and mint leaves
- Honeydew and cucumber
- Watermelon and fresh basil
- Lemon and fresh lavender
— Oprah.com
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