Buh-Bye Soda, Hello Sparklers
By March 30


High fructose corn syrup, caramel color, sugar, phosphoric acid, caffeine, citric acid, flavor.

What do these ingredients have in common? Each one is in every sip of Coke.

I know you’ve heard it before, but it’s worth repeating: Drinking soda makes us feel slow, ruins our teeth, and sabotages our best efforts to be healthy. Soda adds loads of sugary calories to our system, without giving us a smidgen of the vitamins and minerals our bodies deserve. I dunno about you, but it sounds like a bad deal to me.

If you’re used to downing your daily soda, cutting the habit can feel like pulling teeth. Lucky for us, we can make your own healthy and delicious sparkling beverages to help us say goodbye to sodas for good.

Green Tea Sparkler Recipe

This is one of my favorite homemade drinks. It’s tasty and refreshing, and even has a wee bit of caffeine just like Coke and Pepsi. And it’s up to you whether you’d like to use honey or an artificial sweetener!

Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 green tea bags
4 tsp. honey OR the equivalent in artificial sweetener
2 cups Sparkling Water

Directions
Boil the water, then pour it into a small bowl containing the two tea bags. Let the tea steep for 7 minutes, then remove the tea bags. Add the honey or sweetener, and mix until dissolved. Put the bowl in the fridge until the temperature drops to room temperature or colder. Pour into two tall, ice-filled glasses and fill the rest up with the sparkling water. Stir gently and drink up!

(Variation) Raspberry Refresher Recipe

This is a fruity variation to the green tea sparkler. It doesn’t have any caffeine, for those of you who try to avoid it!

Ingredients
1 cup water
2 raspberry herbal tea bags
4 tsp. honey OR the equivalent in artificial sweetener
2 cups raspberry sparkling water
a few frozen raspberries

Directions
Prepare it the same as the green tea sparkler, but drop a few frozen berries into each glass at the end. Now, there’s a classy drink!

Are you a soda fiend?