Water flavor additives / enhance that aren't just citric and malic acid?

January 3, 2023 10:55 AM

I'm trying to drink healthier or maybe just cheaper now that soda is pushing $8 for a 12 pack, and normally I just buy flavor additive drops (Kool Aid, MiO, Crystal Light, etc) but every last one of them is some variation of water, citric acid and malic acid and artificial flavors to the point that all of them kind of taste the same and have an ultimately unpleasant acidic mouthfeel. Are there any other, better options in the US?

I picked up a 2 pack of Robinson's Summer Fruits from Amazon and it's been pretty good (they claim to have actual measurable quantities of fruit juice concentrate in there! And the usual European focus on not filling themselves with artificial everything, which is nice), but that seems like an import-only good in the States. I also tend to like big and bold and assertive flavors - I can just about tolerate my wife's Hint water in a pinch (but that gets back to the price-per-drink problem, so it isn't really a soda substitute), but any sort of "drop a strawberry or a slice of lemon in a quart of water, it's delish!" suggestions probably aren't useful for me.

Is there anything better, or are they all just sort of variants on a theme? I'm half considering just cutting reconstituted fruit juice concentrate 50/50 with water, since I usually have plenty of that one hand, too.

posted by Kyol to Food & Drink (29 answers total)

If you like bitter or spice flavors, you could try adding a few drops of bitters to your water.
Sometimes I muddle fresh mint leaves in my water (I have a mint plant, though).
posted by Lycaste at 11:00 AM on January 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

Would you consider brewing up a pitcher of iced tea a few times a week? I've never been much of a tea fan but have really gotten into this Good Earth Cinnamon Tea lately. It's got tons of flavor, versus the usual "tea which tastes of boiled twigs" vibe.
posted by jabes at 11:01 AM on January 3, 2023

Yes, seconding iced teas! I'm a huge fan of this TAZO one with hibiscus and passionfruit. It's flavorful, the color is vibrant, I serve it all summer and everyone seems to love it.

I was recently given a box of various Celestial Seasonings fruit teas and they're weird hot (like warm koolaid!) but absolutely lovely when iced. Cherries, berries, blueberries, peach, that kind of thing.
posted by mochapickle at 11:05 AM on January 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

For adding a lot of flavor, you may like fruit teas more than leaf teas.
posted by phunniemee at 11:08 AM on January 3, 2023

Check out Sodastream's: bubly drops flavors
posted by skye.dancer at 11:12 AM on January 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

From how you describe your tastes, I don't think TrueLemon is really going to do it for you, but it's cheap and widely-available enough that you might give it a try.
posted by box at 11:17 AM on January 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Fruit tea is the way to go. If you shop somewhere with bulk tea available, you can try lots of flavors and figure out what concentration works best.
posted by bluedaisy at 11:19 AM on January 3, 2023

I'm seconding Box's recommendation of the "True" line of citrus flavor packets. I get boxes of 500 packets off of eBay for very cheap. True also has a line of unsweetened flavor infusions but I haven't tried them and they're substantially more expensive than the plain citrus packets.
posted by mezzanayne at 11:22 AM on January 3, 2023

I can't say if it's any healthier, and potentially not any cheaper, but you could try looking for what's called a shrub. It's an old way of preserving fruit with vinegar, and can be very tasty and very bold (so the second definition in the link above, not the alcoholic one).

They're relatively straightforward to make if that's something that's in your wheelhouse, and you have a source for largish amounts of fruit (produce auctions, for instance). That would cut costs, and you would probably be able to find a recipe that makes small quantities if you'd like to just try it.

With any type of mixer how much you put in really affects unit cost. When we buy it, it's from Tait Farm in central Pennsylvania, US, but a single bottle will last 6 months because we don't drink it every day and prefer a low concentration mix. YMMV. A specialty food store or fancy-schmancy grocery store would probably carry something similar if you'd like to try.

Personally I think vinegar tastes completely different than the acids you mentioned. You may disagree or even not like it. I certainly think the flavor really pops more than the things you've mentioned. But it is, you know, a syrup, so how healthy...?
posted by AbelMelveny at 11:25 AM on January 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

We make our own sodas at home with flavored simple syrups anda sodastream. We make our own simple syrups as well, but you can buy them.
posted by bilabial at 11:37 AM on January 3, 2023

Seconding iced tea, or you can even just “brew” cinnamon and/or other herbs and spices. I make a biggish batch and put it in four to five 1 quart mason jars in the fridge for a week or so.

You might also find that cutting up a lemon (lime/orange/etc) and putting it in a jar(s) of water in the fridge for a while gives some time for the flavor to really diffuse into the water - I find that is much stronger than just putting a slice of lemon into water that I’m about to drink.
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 11:38 AM on January 3, 2023

Try ice teas/tisanes, definitely. Ones to explore: roasted barley tea (the quenchiest!), cold brew mint tea, hibiscus tea with various fruit infusions, classic oolong, ginger tea, concentrated spice heavy chai cut with milk/oat milk/coconut milk etc, and fennel seed tea. If you need sweetener I suggest making a simple syrup that you add to each glass so you can adjust how much you want depending on what else you’re having (if I am enjoying some fruit or sweet treats, I like my beverage to not be sweet. If I’m having something spicy I like my beverage to be sweeter, etc.)

I also do like to add bitters to my cold teas. Where I am there’s a bunch of local companies that make funky flavored bitters. My favorite is probably cardamom bitters, followed by classic angostura, then my third place twins of smoke and cacao. Ginger tea with cardamom bitters? Awesome. Smoke and cacao bitters in mint tea tastes and smells like winter fireplace minus the ashes. Angostura is great at balancing any outsized flavor like too sweet too sour too much tannins.
posted by Mizu at 11:47 AM on January 3, 2023

The whole Celestial Seasonings range does *great* as iced tea, and brewing requires almost no effort: I do 2 bags to a half-gallon Mason jar, stick it in the fridge, hey presto. I fish out the tea bags with a fork (or just let ‘em plop in my drinking glass and then shake them into the compost from there), but there are almost certainly pitchers with inserts that would make this easier/allow you to brew in a larger quantity than 32oz at a time.

The Blueberry is my favorite (I ultimately went down to 1 bag per jar, because I think I was dyeing my teeth!), but my mom is partial to the Wild Berry Zinger. Those two get their acidity from the vitamin c in hibiscus, and sweetness usually from a bit of dried apple. Bonus: watching the solutes swirl out of a bag of blueberry tea is proper HYPNOTIC - a very six-year-old-in-front-of-a-lava-lamp pleasure.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:09 PM on January 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

Ymmv but I’m currently drinking a splash of apple cider vinegar and vanilla flavored stevia drops in ice water and I really enjoy it. To me it’s more interesting than the prepackaged drops.
posted by music for skeletons at 12:10 PM on January 3, 2023

Tart cherry, cranberry, and a couple of other “health” juices associated with superfood hype are also available in small, highly-concentrated bottles - expensive individually, but easy to stretch and packed with flavor. The pucker-punch of real, unsweetened cranberry juice is one of my favorites - I usually make spritzers with seller, but it’s great in bracingly cold still water, too.

(Note: I say “hype” not because I believe these juices don’t have potential health benefits, but because they’re often sold with *really* strong marketing claims, or have become more easily available due to markets for superfoods, rather than demand from people who just like the taste. It also means that sometimes it’s easier to find them in stores or aisles that focus on natural supplements, rather than in the normal juice aisle.)
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:12 PM on January 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

As with the concentrated juices idea, I just pour a little kombucha (from the store in twist-top bottles) into water I've carbonated. Adds a good amount of flavor without anything unpleasant as far as I know.
posted by teremala at 12:21 PM on January 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

People mentioning Celestial Seasonings brought to mind their Red Zinger tea which is a hibiscus tea. I grew up on the stuff in the Summer. Usually we mixed it with powdered Crystal Light (ha! Haven't thought about that stuff in years) but these days I just use lemonade or lemon water and some simple syrup. But I also think it's really tasty on its own, sans lemon or sugar, which would definitely be healthier, though maybe not to your tastes.
posted by AbelMelveny at 12:39 PM on January 3, 2023

Fee Brothers various bitters are great for this. Technically they have alcohol, but I wouldn't think twice about even a cab driver drinking my usual five drops in 16oz of water on the job.
posted by bowbeacon at 12:40 PM on January 3, 2023

If I want something soda-like I get a strongly flavored juice (like 100% tart cherry or pomegranate) and do 10-25% juice and the rest a sparkling water (spindrift is my favorite). If I want to get fancy, a squeeze of lime juice and/or a couple dashes of bitters makes it feel extra special.
posted by CleverClover at 12:43 PM on January 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

Genmaicha - you don't even have to buy it, just toast some dry rice grains on a dry pan until they turn golden, then brew like tea. Very pronounced taste and excellent at thirst-quenching.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 1:07 PM on January 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

This inspired me to just now put celery bitters in my soda stream water and it was great.
posted by rsclark at 1:07 PM on January 3, 2023

I used to go the shrub and seltzer route but now I just take a can of seltzer and combine with 4-8 oz of my favorite kombucha in a mason jar. less syrupy plus beneficial bacteria from the booch!
posted by noloveforned at 1:45 PM on January 3, 2023

simple syrup and a dash of bitters in bubbly water is pretty great.
posted by tangosnail at 2:13 PM on January 3, 2023

Not exactly an additive, but I can highly recommend Air Up - 750ml bottle and the flavours last way longer than suggested, too
posted by DrtyBlvd at 2:30 PM on January 3, 2023

I don't like the chemical taste of flavor drops so I sometimes put fruity herbal tea bags in my water bottle. Tea will eventually steep even in cold water, it just will take longer and not taste as strong as tea steeped in boiled water, but it's still stronger than most water flavor drops.

However, if you need something in water to make it palatable then what you probably actually need is a good water filter. Plain water tastes pretty good when it doesn't taste like tap water chemicals or bottled water plastics.
posted by Jacqueline at 2:49 PM on January 3, 2023

Licorice ramzy is a drink which is licorice root soaked in water overnight, and is incredibly delicious and very strongly flavoured. I also sometimes throw yogi's egyptian licorice tea into a pitcher of water and drink that, for a more cinnamony option.

Vanilla/almond/orange/maple extracts are good, a small capful in a glass of water - I don't know if this is a bold enough flavour though, I do it because I don't like drinking water, not because I am replacing my pop. Craft bitters and strong juices are both great which everyone has covered.

I like Organika brand electrolyte + collagen powder - one scoop mixed into twice the amount of water (and ice preferably) they suggest. Only the wildberry flavour of this is good tasting, and there's a strong stevia component, so you'd need to acquire that taste first. There are flavoured stevia drops available that might also work if you DO like stevia. Sometimes I like vanilla stevia drops in water but sometimes they also randomly just gross me out.

Monin brand makes something called "concentrated flavours" which are a vegetable glycerin formula - I have the cucumber and blueberry ones, they're okay in water, but I wouldn't call them bold flavoured before the glycerin component starts being the main flavour.

I think crystal light that comes in the small "on the go" powder packs are 150x better tasting than the liquid water additives. The lemon lime and pink lemonade are excellent and sour, and the raspberry ice and cherry pomegranate (and fruit punch if you can find it!) are delicious sweeter options. I mix them with closer to 750 ml of water than the suggested 500 and I think they taste better at that dilution. They're also way better with ice. Most non-carbonated drinks improve vastly with ice.

Sometimes I will put a spoonful of frozen juice concentrate into water and drink it but that's just making juice and I assume you know about juice ;)
posted by euphoria066 at 1:03 PM on January 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Vimto/Ribena -( the "Light" versions are much lower in sugar) are delicious, and they are imports, but often cheap imports in Indian or (other ex-UK colonial) grocery stores.
posted by lalochezia at 3:48 PM on January 4, 2023

Just regular tea leaves. You can cold infuse them, but I personally would brew them strong, and dilute them to taste.

As for Crystal light, I think their "grape" and "lemon ice tea" are not bad, and quite economical if you drop one pitcher pack in one gallon of water (a bit lighter than recommended 2 quarts). You can buy ice tea in packs of like 16 pitcher packs and then it becomes quite economical.
posted by kschang at 9:37 PM on January 4, 2023

Along the lines of Crystal Light, I use On the Go packets of powder with brands like Skittles, Kool-aid,, Crush, and some store brands. The powders are very much stronger than the liquids. They are sweetened with aspartame and maltodextrin. And I get to feel like a kid again with a big glass of cherry kool-aid.
posted by CathyG at 11:39 PM on January 4, 2023