The Charmed Kitchen

Homemade Fruit Sodas

Most days I am perfectly content to just drink water. But I understand that most people aren’t like that.

When friends stop over, I want to offer them something more than just ice water. Alternatives might include fruit juice or soda pop. I sort of combined the two into a fruity, fizzy drink that is fun to drink.

When it’s hot- and even when it’s not- cold, fizzy drinks are fun to drink. No special equipment is required to make these, and they are better for you than commercial soda.

I use 2 ingredients- club soda and either concentrated fruit juice or fruit syrups. In every grocery store you can find juice concentrates in the freezer section. Just place a spoonful of the concentrated juice in your glass- add club soda and stir gently to mix. Add ice and serve. Ready when you want it.

One benefit is that you can control how much juice to add. Make it more, or less sweet, to suit your taste. Sometimes I add just a little, so it is more like infused water than soda. If you like it sweeter, fine.

You can also use fruit syrups- sold in lots of grocery stores and beverage stores. Read the label. The ones I buy have 2 ingredients- fruit juice- which is listed first and sugar which is listed second. That’s it. No high fructose corn syrup or a bunch of artificial ingredients and most of what is in the bottle is juice.

I’ve make “soda” from frozen concentrated grape juice, orange juice, apple juice and pineapple juice. I’ve used fruit syrups made from blueberries, sour cherries, strawberries and blackberries. You can use them individually or do combos. All I did was combine them with soda water. They are fun for kids to make, too.

You can dress them up with fancy ice cubes. Just add small pieces of fruit or mint leaves to ice cube trays, fill with water, and freeze. Also nice when guests stop over.

Is this stuff better for you than water? I suppose not. But sometimes we all want something more than plain water. For me, this is a nice option- fizzy fruit juice.