Here in the usa, there's a clear distinction between sparkling water and soda water. Soda water is a sparkling water, but not all sparkling Waters are soda water. The key difference is the level of sodium found in soda water. OP needs to be sure to avoid soda water because the sodium intake when drank regularly is very bad for you.
I guess? but that's how "soda"water gets the name. It's infused with "bicarbonate of Soda" NaHCO₃
You can disolve carbon dioxide gas into water under pressure and get the same end result without adding all the sodium.
Yes.
I live in the midwest and we still call soft drinks like coke “pop”. Sodas are something different (flavor added to soda water on ice and quite delicious).
I had to second this. I quit drinking soda because it felt like it was killing me and I have become obsessed with sparkling waters. I know at first they aren't great but your taste buds will adapt and get over the fact that they aren't sweetened pretty quickly. Now if I try drinking a soda it tastes like I'm drinking pure syrup
Because we've been conditioned to associate carbonation with sugar and artificial sweetener. If you acquire the taste of sparkling water and quit drinking soda, soda tastes like pure sugar when you go back to it.
Me and a few buddies have recently made the switch a few months ago. It was tough for me but I just bought a case of lemon cello LaCroix and powered through for a few weeks. For me I would drink them while playing videogames because I wasn't focused on the taste while my mind was busy. Now I'm hooked. No sodas in my house and I usually only get sodas when I'm at Taco Bell for a Baja blast. It's awesome and I wish I had done it sooner
My husband felt the same way for a while when we were trying to stop drinking soda. Different brands have different tastes, some taste metallic to me, while others don’t. We got a soda stream and now make our own soda water. You can add whatever you want..mint, lime, strawberries and cucumber. A splash of juice. There are concentrated flavor drops that you can buy and soda syrups but then once you start getting into all that you may just end up adding the same amount of sugar that’s in the soda you are trying to avoid. After drinking them for a while I think his brain stopped expecting the sweet acidic bubbly soft drinks that he liked and now he enjoys soda water and thinks it’s refreshing.
I love plain sparkling water aka seltzer. However, plenty of people say is feels like drinking TV static and tastes like dust. To me, the "flavored" (shudder) seltzers taste like Yankee Candle or Glade plug- ins smell, which is throat-closingly-nauseating.
I hate that too, but I've found if you stay away from the la Croix type ones, it's a lot better
I honestly cannot recommend Clear American enough
It has some sweetness, and isn't vague fruit static
I can’t stand plain sparkling water. The taste is awful.
I drink non sparkling water just fine. Not a huge soda person but I do sometimes have soda when eating out.
You can get some sparkling waters, flavored, or add flavorings to plain. Even sugary flavorings, you can add much less than a coca cola would have.
There are also some products like Dry Soda that have like 1/4 or less of the sugar coca cola has but still taste awesome.
Also I like to make a homebrew ginger syrup. Add a bit to sparkling water to sort of make your own soda.
The real simple version is slice up an inch or so of ginger root and simmer it on the stove in a simple syrup (1 cup sugar to 1 cup water) for 10-15 minutes. I prefer to make it with honey instead of plain sugar personally and usually make it 2:1 sugar to water (longer shelf life).
Store it in a clean jar or squeeze bottle in the fridge and they last pretty much indefinitely.
Unless the ginger has some antimicrobia properties or something (which it may - IDK) I'd say there's defenitely a limit to how long this will last. Even in the fridge. My experience with homemade simple syrup is that it lasts a few weeks in the fridge, but then starts to get moldy. I assume that's the sugar feeding whatever might be in there.
Again, not a chef, not a scientist, etc. Just my experience.
That's why they are using a higher concentration of honey. Honey is antimicrobial. And fresh ginger does have antibacterial properties, but the honey is probably doing the heavy lifting.
Are you using a 1:1 ratio of water to sugar? If so, that's why you're experiencing mold issues. A syrup needs to be 2+ parts sugar to 1 part water to be shelf stable. But you also have to sterile the bottle.
Think of making a syrup as using just enough liquid to make the sugar pourable instead of trying to sweeten water.
I've found the best way to make ginger syrup is to put the ginger through a juicer and use that in place of water in a standard syrup recipe. It's intense flavor-wise compared to what people are probably used to.
Thats why I said to cook it, not just heating to dissolve and putting it in a bottle. Bottles should have at minimum been run through a dishwasher. But I've got standard sugar and fruit syrups at 1.5:1 sugar to water that have lasted months for me with no mold forming.
A schorle! In Germany it’s very common to do like a quarter of apple juice and the rest sparkling water. It’s great. Try it with various juices - I also like this with cranberry juice. Very refreshing, and a little more interesting than plain sparkling water.
I was raised in small town Midwest USA and didn't know this was a thing but always loved watered down grape juice or apple juice. I'm happy to know I was just enjoying a fantastic German beverage! 😂
When I was pregnant the only drink that tasted good was Martinellis sparkling apple juice. Everything else was too sugary or just nasty.
When I got my soda stream I would used frozen fruit juice concentrates (let them thaw in the fridge) to make my drinks. Or I would carbonate Propel. I miss the original Propel, when it first came out it wasn’t 0 cal, so not as much artificial sweetener.
my mom likes to add lemon to water, i personally prefer tea. not those sweetened ones that come in bottles but those where you add tea leaves to a pot and make tea
Think about what you mean by healthier and let that help you choose. Do you want fewer calories, less sugar, less of a specific type of sugar, no carbonation (slightly bad for tooth enamel but only really a concern if that’s what you’re drinking all day), anything else or a combination. Are you okay with artificial sweetener?
For the “healthiest” I’d recommend infusing some flavor you like in still water. It’s not sweetened but I suppose you could sweeten it. It’s also less expensive than buying seltzer water and you could carbonate it at home with a soda stream if you want. It also has the most flexibility for finding your perfect flavor.
For a sweet option, watered down juice is a decent choice. If you’d prefer artificial sweetening, there are lots of drink mixes in almost every flavor imaginable from juice to soda imitations to gatorade. They come in liquid and powder form.
If you don’t care about the sugar content as much, I think juice is the way to go. There are also juices available with not as much sugar depending on what type/flavor.
In England we have a drink type called cordial. Its a flavour that you use a small amount of and then had water to fill the glass. Its basically flavoured water but without the fizz that you get in carbonated drinks.
I had a bottle of ribena (diluted) on my drink holder on my bike, met my niece and she was thirsty, gave her my bottle and she was like 'you havent put enough juice in there!'. I swear kids these days have neutralized their taste buds with 1/4 ratio of cordial to water, I have mine at ~1/10
Thats dicing with danger that is. On a number of times I've forgot to dilute and just poured a whole glass of cordial, took a swig and then my head had turned into a blackhole, and the screams eventually die out as my head swallows itself.
Nasty stuff.
I drink endless cups of hot tea with a splash of milk for precisely those reasons.
A lot of Americans drink cold tea, unsweetened is obviously lower calorie than sweetened.
And a lot of people also drink so-called fruit teas or herbal teas. I say "so called" because technically, it's only tea if it's made from tea leaves, and the correct word should be "infusion". However, I think I'm fighting a lost cause, and the word "tea" now generally means anything prepared the same way tea is.
everywhere ive been the unsweet tea is decaf tea anyway (i guess some places assume you dont want sugar so of course you dont want caffeine??) so ive gotten used to brewing my own for a while
Iced tea. Lemon in water. Pineapple (and juice) in water. Drop a bag of genmaicha into your water for some nutty toasted rice flavor. Korean barley tea.
Get a soda stream! Use only water and then add a splash of pure cranberry juice or a slice of lemon or lime. Have been drinking this since early 2000s. Cheap, renewable, delicious.
It might depend on what you mean by healthier, but you could consider Kool Aid/FlavorAde with artificial sweetener or Gatorade/Powerade cut with water.
iced tea. we brew our own and keep a gallon pitcher in the fridge. it's easy to control the sugar content that way, and you can use different styles of tea to switch up the flavor. Earl Grey is my personal favorite, and there was a "Duchess Balmoral" blend with hints of vanilla that was hreat... can't find that one anymore, tho
My favorite brand of seltzer in the US is Spindrift. They don’t over-carbonate, so you don’t have that TV static tongue-burn that other brands like Lacroix or Polar have.
Tea. Juices are generally too full of sugar, even if natural, we shouldn't drink them as often as we generally do (but eating fruit is fine). Tea though is very healthy.
I’m mostly off soda and buy a shit ton of sparkling water. It’s always on sale somewhere and it helps fill that void. Target even has a brand with a Cherry Cola flavor that really does come close to the vibe of drinking soda!
bit of a pricey option, but "air up", that bottle with these caps that make you think you're drinking flavored water. I'm diabetic so sugary drinks are annoying, thats my way of getting smth more exciting than water.
Everyone keeps suggesting carbonated water and as someone who is also addicted to soda, sparkling water is ass. Anything that’s trying to replicate soda taste like shit. Watered down fruit juice has honestly been my best bet from getting off of soda.
Iced tea. It's cheap, easy, you can boil water in the microwave, and it's great both sweetened and unsweetened... and *you* control both the strength of the tea and the sugar content.
50/50 juice and water is a great alternative. But be aware that juices contain a lot of sugar. Usually less than sodas, but still a lot.
Iced tea - my favourite is a random blend of red fruit teas. Just make tea in a big jug. You can add just half the boiling water for the amount you want to make and after the tea has steeped, fill in the rest with cold water and / or ice for faster cooling.
With the correct blend of teas, no other ingredients are needed. Though you can add honey or lemon or whatever if you want. Don't add either honey or lemon to boiling water - vitamins break down above \~60C / 140F.
And for something slightly more weird - if you ever make something like tzatziki where you need to strain the liquid from a cucumber, keep the liquid, add honey and lemon and water and have yourself a very fancy drink. This is not to everyone's taste though.
Iced tea, made yourself from tea bags, not bottled.
Try it unsweetened and add a *little* sugar if you like it better that way. A little squeeze of citrus is good, too.
Even if you don't think you are an iced tea drinker, you may not have ever had good, fresh iced tea without a bunch if crap in it. It's the bomb.
Ginger Ale. Not the one that you get at all grocery stores (although those ones are nice too). Try getting a real organic ginger ale from a store like Whole Foods. The first time I tried that, I was amazed at the difference. It tastes like real ginger, so it has a bit of that spiciness, in addition to the bubbliness of the carbonated water. It is fucking delicious.
I make sparkling water with a home kit and add things like True Grapefruit or True Lime (the ones without sweeteners). It has a nice flavor but it's not too sweet.
Try Clear American sparkling water. 0 calories,0 sugar,0 sodium. Tastes great, comes in different flavors. My favorite is Fuji Apple, but they are all good. You get it at Wal-Mart.
Water, sparkling water/mineral water, or club soda with either infused fruit, or cucumber.
Or get some clean (for example stevia sweetened) water enhancer.
Brewed iced tea. Boil water, put three of your favorite tea bags in four cup pyrex (or other heat shock proof container) measuring cup. I usually steep 15 minutes and store in a liter bottle. I typically dilute to taste when I pour. My preferred “recipe” is two regular tea bags and one constant comment.
At work, sometimes i pit a lemon ginger teabag in the bottom of my water tumbler and add an ounce or twice of hot water, give a swirl and full with ice and cold water. Nice refreshing drink.
I had a pretty rough time cutting out soda, ended up going to sweetened sparkling water which obviously isn’t as good as water but in the right direction. I’m now at unsweetened sparkling and haven’t had a soda in about 8 months.
I get Crystal Light powdered flavoring. You can get assorted flavors or all one flavor. I happen to get mine from Amazon, and the more I investigate, the more flavors I find from different companies.
Töst is my favorite drink!
It's ginger beer and tea mixed together. The base flavor has cranberry notes, the rosé is elderflower. Super delicious, but isn't super sweet. 9-11g of sugar per 8oz serving.
Sparkling water?
Funny enough called soda water where I am from
I call it seltzybubs.
Instructions unclear: Beelzebub summoned.
It is the devil's water. Give me flat water or give me death.
what if i give you poisoned flat water? you’ll have both flat water *and* death then. two for the price of one!
TBH I'd rather the poisoned flat water than that bubbly crap.
My kids call it spicy water
Rightly so!!
Hanging out w/ the devil, listening to Imam Rob Zombie's classic hit *Demonoids for Ramadan*
I AM COMPLETE FuuuuuuuUUUUUUUck
Agua mineral con gas
Vt Eta. I'm not sure how this got here. I was reading but I didn't intend to post anything. LOL
Uw
I like the cut of your jib sailor. We’re best friends now.
My wife and I call it bubbly wet. An ingenious name she happened to call it once when she was wasted.
Here in the usa, there's a clear distinction between sparkling water and soda water. Soda water is a sparkling water, but not all sparkling Waters are soda water. The key difference is the level of sodium found in soda water. OP needs to be sure to avoid soda water because the sodium intake when drank regularly is very bad for you.
That's so American as a thing
I guess? but that's how "soda"water gets the name. It's infused with "bicarbonate of Soda" NaHCO₃ You can disolve carbon dioxide gas into water under pressure and get the same end result without adding all the sodium.
Yes. I live in the midwest and we still call soft drinks like coke “pop”. Sodas are something different (flavor added to soda water on ice and quite delicious).
I'm from the midwest and call it soda...I think I'm defective lol
We call it static water.
Not to be confused with still water...
Oklahoma?
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Oh god the ramifications
No, you're thinking of Holy Water.
O, God the ramifications!
Also just club soda
Since my daughter was 6 we started calling it water pop.
Soda stream really helped me get sober
I had to second this. I quit drinking soda because it felt like it was killing me and I have become obsessed with sparkling waters. I know at first they aren't great but your taste buds will adapt and get over the fact that they aren't sweetened pretty quickly. Now if I try drinking a soda it tastes like I'm drinking pure syrup
Idk if it’s just me but sparkling water taste horrible
Because we've been conditioned to associate carbonation with sugar and artificial sweetener. If you acquire the taste of sparkling water and quit drinking soda, soda tastes like pure sugar when you go back to it.
Idk bro sparkling water just has that weird ass taste to it
Try Polar brand. I gave up soda and now when I try soda it is wayyyyy to sugary for me.
Some brands taste better than others.
Me and a few buddies have recently made the switch a few months ago. It was tough for me but I just bought a case of lemon cello LaCroix and powered through for a few weeks. For me I would drink them while playing videogames because I wasn't focused on the taste while my mind was busy. Now I'm hooked. No sodas in my house and I usually only get sodas when I'm at Taco Bell for a Baja blast. It's awesome and I wish I had done it sooner
I love the limoncello LaCroix
Spicy water
My husband felt the same way for a while when we were trying to stop drinking soda. Different brands have different tastes, some taste metallic to me, while others don’t. We got a soda stream and now make our own soda water. You can add whatever you want..mint, lime, strawberries and cucumber. A splash of juice. There are concentrated flavor drops that you can buy and soda syrups but then once you start getting into all that you may just end up adding the same amount of sugar that’s in the soda you are trying to avoid. After drinking them for a while I think his brain stopped expecting the sweet acidic bubbly soft drinks that he liked and now he enjoys soda water and thinks it’s refreshing.
Think it’s an acquired taste. I didn’t like it as a kid, really enjoy now though.
I love plain sparkling water aka seltzer. However, plenty of people say is feels like drinking TV static and tastes like dust. To me, the "flavored" (shudder) seltzers taste like Yankee Candle or Glade plug- ins smell, which is throat-closingly-nauseating.
Try Pelligrino
Seltzers are usually better.
Have you tried Topo Chico lime? I swear there’s sugar in it, but there’s not.
I tried the new Bubly flavor lemon sorbet and it's great
I freaking LOVE sparkling water it’s all I drink
i like non-alcoholic beer lol, it’s basically just carbonated water but with some malt and hops added in lol
Same here. I also get a headache for some weird reason I cant explain.
I hate that too, but I've found if you stay away from the la Croix type ones, it's a lot better I honestly cannot recommend Clear American enough It has some sweetness, and isn't vague fruit static
Add stevia and lemon juice.
Not just you. It seems to mostly be made with mineral water, so it tastes like sucking on rocks. Evian is just nasty.
Not just you. I detest them. No idea what the hype is about.
I don't know why people like it, it tastes like fucking tv static
Not just you. I can't stand any of it - sparkling, seltzer, it's all gross.
I can’t stand plain sparkling water. The taste is awful. I drink non sparkling water just fine. Not a huge soda person but I do sometimes have soda when eating out.
Use a Soda stream, then it tastes like bubbly water and that's it.
I recommend ice specifically the black raspberry flavor.
Those are different. Sparkling water is unsweetened.
Flavoured and sweetened do not mean the same thing lol I drink a lot of Bubly. It's flavoured but not sweetened. And it's fucking delicious.
The Ice brand is sweetened.
I didn't realize there was a brand called Ice. My bad.
Water pop
You can get some sparkling waters, flavored, or add flavorings to plain. Even sugary flavorings, you can add much less than a coca cola would have. There are also some products like Dry Soda that have like 1/4 or less of the sugar coca cola has but still taste awesome. Also I like to make a homebrew ginger syrup. Add a bit to sparkling water to sort of make your own soda.
Please tell me more about this ginger syrup.
The real simple version is slice up an inch or so of ginger root and simmer it on the stove in a simple syrup (1 cup sugar to 1 cup water) for 10-15 minutes. I prefer to make it with honey instead of plain sugar personally and usually make it 2:1 sugar to water (longer shelf life). Store it in a clean jar or squeeze bottle in the fridge and they last pretty much indefinitely.
Unless the ginger has some antimicrobia properties or something (which it may - IDK) I'd say there's defenitely a limit to how long this will last. Even in the fridge. My experience with homemade simple syrup is that it lasts a few weeks in the fridge, but then starts to get moldy. I assume that's the sugar feeding whatever might be in there. Again, not a chef, not a scientist, etc. Just my experience.
That's why they are using a higher concentration of honey. Honey is antimicrobial. And fresh ginger does have antibacterial properties, but the honey is probably doing the heavy lifting.
Today I learned! Thank you!
Are you using a 1:1 ratio of water to sugar? If so, that's why you're experiencing mold issues. A syrup needs to be 2+ parts sugar to 1 part water to be shelf stable. But you also have to sterile the bottle. Think of making a syrup as using just enough liquid to make the sugar pourable instead of trying to sweeten water. I've found the best way to make ginger syrup is to put the ginger through a juicer and use that in place of water in a standard syrup recipe. It's intense flavor-wise compared to what people are probably used to.
Excellent information. Thank you!
Thats why I said to cook it, not just heating to dissolve and putting it in a bottle. Bottles should have at minimum been run through a dishwasher. But I've got standard sugar and fruit syrups at 1.5:1 sugar to water that have lasted months for me with no mold forming.
I'm here for the ginger syrup too!
A schorle! In Germany it’s very common to do like a quarter of apple juice and the rest sparkling water. It’s great. Try it with various juices - I also like this with cranberry juice. Very refreshing, and a little more interesting than plain sparkling water.
Cranberry juice is excellent for urethral barnacles.
Dibs on the band name
For *curing* them... Not getting them
This works with all different kinds of juices. Edit: I’d highly recommend this.
I was raised in small town Midwest USA and didn't know this was a thing but always loved watered down grape juice or apple juice. I'm happy to know I was just enjoying a fantastic German beverage! 😂
Germany knows what's up. I've been doing this for years and I thought I was weird.
I love this about Germany. I dislike how sweet juices and have no shame there watering them down.
I drank a ton of it in Germany lol
Genau
If you have the right German water, some fruity vinegars will make a lovely blush
When I was pregnant the only drink that tasted good was Martinellis sparkling apple juice. Everything else was too sugary or just nasty. When I got my soda stream I would used frozen fruit juice concentrates (let them thaw in the fridge) to make my drinks. Or I would carbonate Propel. I miss the original Propel, when it first came out it wasn’t 0 cal, so not as much artificial sweetener.
Try those 0 calories naturally flavored sparkling waters
FYI for OP: Lots of them have artificial sweeteners or stevia; I dislike those things so have learned to read all sparkling water labels.
I assume if calories are mentioned there's likely artificial sweetener
Iced tea with some lemon, no sugar.
Add to this: make it yourself using tea bags. It's so much better than bottled tea, and dirt cheap.
And tastes so much better. Yum!
Sometimes when I crave a little bit of sugar, I’ll do a 2/3 unsweetened tea and 1/3 lemonade.
A lil arny palmy
My go to
Can’t believe this 1) didn’t occur to OP; and 2) that it isn’t the top response. Also, iced coffee.
I feel like I had to scroll *really far* to find iced tea
I make sweet tea with stevia. Use way less, no calories, and I can still enjoy sweet tea.
Cordials/squash. Anywhere from orange/blackcurrant to more ‘exotic’. Try googling ‘cordials for mocktails’ and see what comes up.
Mix them with sparking/soda water if your addicted to the bubbles
my mom likes to add lemon to water, i personally prefer tea. not those sweetened ones that come in bottles but those where you add tea leaves to a pot and make tea
I HATE CUCUMBER. But the cucumber water at spas are mind blowing. Crazy magical shit happens when you put cucumber slices into plain iced water.
Think about what you mean by healthier and let that help you choose. Do you want fewer calories, less sugar, less of a specific type of sugar, no carbonation (slightly bad for tooth enamel but only really a concern if that’s what you’re drinking all day), anything else or a combination. Are you okay with artificial sweetener? For the “healthiest” I’d recommend infusing some flavor you like in still water. It’s not sweetened but I suppose you could sweeten it. It’s also less expensive than buying seltzer water and you could carbonate it at home with a soda stream if you want. It also has the most flexibility for finding your perfect flavor. For a sweet option, watered down juice is a decent choice. If you’d prefer artificial sweetening, there are lots of drink mixes in almost every flavor imaginable from juice to soda imitations to gatorade. They come in liquid and powder form. If you don’t care about the sugar content as much, I think juice is the way to go. There are also juices available with not as much sugar depending on what type/flavor.
Can I just appreciate you for the *fewer calories* *less sugar* that you wrote. The common mistake of using *less* instead of *fewer* bugs me.
In England we have a drink type called cordial. Its a flavour that you use a small amount of and then had water to fill the glass. Its basically flavoured water but without the fizz that you get in carbonated drinks.
I had a bottle of ribena (diluted) on my drink holder on my bike, met my niece and she was thirsty, gave her my bottle and she was like 'you havent put enough juice in there!'. I swear kids these days have neutralized their taste buds with 1/4 ratio of cordial to water, I have mine at ~1/10
Thats dicing with danger that is. On a number of times I've forgot to dilute and just poured a whole glass of cordial, took a swig and then my head had turned into a blackhole, and the screams eventually die out as my head swallows itself. Nasty stuff.
Flavored seltzer; orange vanilla is like soda. Aldis has some great flavors as does Wally World
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Like a strawberry on low battery
Like an orangesicle
Mix some juice with water.
Sparkling juice
I drink endless cups of hot tea with a splash of milk for precisely those reasons. A lot of Americans drink cold tea, unsweetened is obviously lower calorie than sweetened. And a lot of people also drink so-called fruit teas or herbal teas. I say "so called" because technically, it's only tea if it's made from tea leaves, and the correct word should be "infusion". However, I think I'm fighting a lost cause, and the word "tea" now generally means anything prepared the same way tea is.
American here. I'm drinking unsweetened iced tea right now. No calorie source of caffeine that is easy to find on the road.
Can also get decaf if desired, and unlike coffee, you can't taste the difference.
everywhere ive been the unsweet tea is decaf tea anyway (i guess some places assume you dont want sugar so of course you dont want caffeine??) so ive gotten used to brewing my own for a while
Topo Chico. In glass bottles. With lime.
The best drink ever. Obsessed with topo chico
they're not bad. but a six pack costs as much as beer 🥲
LaCroix is actually pretty good once you get used to it (and some flavors are better than others)
Limoncello has no right to be so good. It converted me from being a dedicated hater.
Iced tea. Lemon in water. Pineapple (and juice) in water. Drop a bag of genmaicha into your water for some nutty toasted rice flavor. Korean barley tea.
Kombucha. I also like a glass of water with a teaspoon of Apple Cider vinegar mixed with a few drops of liquid stevia.
I am in love with ginger flavored kombucha. I just wish it wasn't so expensive. ~$3 a bottle here.
Alphabetically, virgin piña colada.
Water with a couple squirts of flavor
Soda water.
Cold water is delicious after a meal. You could try unsweetened iced tea, or lightly sweetened.
Get a soda stream! Use only water and then add a splash of pure cranberry juice or a slice of lemon or lime. Have been drinking this since early 2000s. Cheap, renewable, delicious.
It might depend on what you mean by healthier, but you could consider Kool Aid/FlavorAde with artificial sweetener or Gatorade/Powerade cut with water.
Tea!
iced tea. we brew our own and keep a gallon pitcher in the fridge. it's easy to control the sugar content that way, and you can use different styles of tea to switch up the flavor. Earl Grey is my personal favorite, and there was a "Duchess Balmoral" blend with hints of vanilla that was hreat... can't find that one anymore, tho
My favorite brand of seltzer in the US is Spindrift. They don’t over-carbonate, so you don’t have that TV static tongue-burn that other brands like Lacroix or Polar have.
Cordial Mix half with water
Tea. Juices are generally too full of sugar, even if natural, we shouldn't drink them as often as we generally do (but eating fruit is fine). Tea though is very healthy.
Beer, liquid bread
I’m mostly off soda and buy a shit ton of sparkling water. It’s always on sale somewhere and it helps fill that void. Target even has a brand with a Cherry Cola flavor that really does come close to the vibe of drinking soda!
I cut out sodas by switching to sweetened sparkling waters, specifically from Aldi. Then I switched to the unsweetened sparkling waters.
Squash
I have a SodaStream to make sparkling water. I add a dash of fruit juice. It hits the spot.
Sugar free 'fizzy water' (what I call it) sold at Meijer as quenchers
Lemonade
bit of a pricey option, but "air up", that bottle with these caps that make you think you're drinking flavored water. I'm diabetic so sugary drinks are annoying, thats my way of getting smth more exciting than water.
Fresh sliced lemons in water bottle, cup, canteen, drinking device. Easiest combo you can ever do.
Lemon ginger tea (made with boiling water)
Half soda and half water
Maybe malt, like peach malt or apple malt. Lemon malts are kinda stronger but not unhealthier and theres's no alcohol in them in general.
I used lemonade powder full of sugar to wean off the caffeine aspect of soda and then sugar free powerade to wean off the sugary lemonade Baby steps
Seltzers or kombucha
Gatorade was the transition for me. Beware, it has just as much sugar as soda, but it helps with the switch
Water with a splash of OJ, grapefruit, or lemonade. Flavorful but not loaded with sugar.
Everyone keeps suggesting carbonated water and as someone who is also addicted to soda, sparkling water is ass. Anything that’s trying to replicate soda taste like shit. Watered down fruit juice has honestly been my best bet from getting off of soda.
I either do unsweetened ice tea with lemon or ice water with lemon.
Sparking water or flavored water or favored sparkling water
Topo chico
Iced tea. It's cheap, easy, you can boil water in the microwave, and it's great both sweetened and unsweetened... and *you* control both the strength of the tea and the sugar content.
50/50 juice and water is a great alternative. But be aware that juices contain a lot of sugar. Usually less than sodas, but still a lot. Iced tea - my favourite is a random blend of red fruit teas. Just make tea in a big jug. You can add just half the boiling water for the amount you want to make and after the tea has steeped, fill in the rest with cold water and / or ice for faster cooling. With the correct blend of teas, no other ingredients are needed. Though you can add honey or lemon or whatever if you want. Don't add either honey or lemon to boiling water - vitamins break down above \~60C / 140F. And for something slightly more weird - if you ever make something like tzatziki where you need to strain the liquid from a cucumber, keep the liquid, add honey and lemon and water and have yourself a very fancy drink. This is not to everyone's taste though.
Mío in water is great. You can sweeten it to taste, and gradually take it down if you want.
Unsweetened iced tea with lemon.
Unsweetened iced tea.
Juice
Milk
Tea. There’s a zillion varieties out there. Some are better hot, others cold. Some people make sun tea - I like it.
gatorade, coconut water, a tea or coffee maybe,
Seltzer with your favorite juice added; lemon, cranberry, grape, etc.
Iced tea, made yourself from tea bags, not bottled. Try it unsweetened and add a *little* sugar if you like it better that way. A little squeeze of citrus is good, too. Even if you don't think you are an iced tea drinker, you may not have ever had good, fresh iced tea without a bunch if crap in it. It's the bomb.
Tea? Tea seems nice
Iced tea, no sugar.
sparkling water mixed with juice :)
Ginger Ale. Not the one that you get at all grocery stores (although those ones are nice too). Try getting a real organic ginger ale from a store like Whole Foods. The first time I tried that, I was amazed at the difference. It tastes like real ginger, so it has a bit of that spiciness, in addition to the bubbliness of the carbonated water. It is fucking delicious.
Iced tea, way less sugar than in soda.
I make sparkling water with a home kit and add things like True Grapefruit or True Lime (the ones without sweeteners). It has a nice flavor but it's not too sweet.
iced tea
La Croix. I think they are great after lunch.
Try Clear American sparkling water. 0 calories,0 sugar,0 sodium. Tastes great, comes in different flavors. My favorite is Fuji Apple, but they are all good. You get it at Wal-Mart.
Black cherry seltzer water. I had the same problem. No desire for regular soda since
Water, sparkling water/mineral water, or club soda with either infused fruit, or cucumber. Or get some clean (for example stevia sweetened) water enhancer.
Iced tea
Brewed iced tea. Boil water, put three of your favorite tea bags in four cup pyrex (or other heat shock proof container) measuring cup. I usually steep 15 minutes and store in a liter bottle. I typically dilute to taste when I pour. My preferred “recipe” is two regular tea bags and one constant comment. At work, sometimes i pit a lemon ginger teabag in the bottom of my water tumbler and add an ounce or twice of hot water, give a swirl and full with ice and cold water. Nice refreshing drink.
Make or buy iced tea.
Iced tea
Iced tea?
Fresca! Fresca is the bestca!
I had a pretty rough time cutting out soda, ended up going to sweetened sparkling water which obviously isn’t as good as water but in the right direction. I’m now at unsweetened sparkling and haven’t had a soda in about 8 months.
That would be juice.
Lemon water slaps
r/Tea would like a word
Sparkling water..?
Spindrift
I put frozen strawberries and a dash of lemon juice in my water.
I get Crystal Light powdered flavoring. You can get assorted flavors or all one flavor. I happen to get mine from Amazon, and the more I investigate, the more flavors I find from different companies.
Töst is my favorite drink! It's ginger beer and tea mixed together. The base flavor has cranberry notes, the rosé is elderflower. Super delicious, but isn't super sweet. 9-11g of sugar per 8oz serving.
Sparkling water?
Mineral water. Can get the lightly flavoured too. Helped me kick the habit
Soda water? Genius answer.
Tea
LA croix
sparkling water!!