Flavored Water with Fruit Syrups (Italian Sodas and Spritzers)

Quick Summary: How to use homemade fruit syrups to flavor water, sparkling water, and other drinks. A healthier alternative to diet soda with real fruit flavor. Includes tips for staying hydrated and a simple berry spritzer recipe. Prep: 5 min | Serves: 1

Jump to: RECIPE | | Homemade vs Commercial | How to Use Fruit Syrups? | How to Make Blueberry Spritzer | FAQ

I started experimenting with fruit syrups to help my daughter break her diet soda habit. The idea was simple: if flavored water looked beautiful and tasted good, maybe she’d reach for it instead of a can. It worked.

These syrups add real fruit flavor to plain or sparkling water without the artificial ingredients in commercial flavored waters. They’re also a lifesaver for anyone on a slow carb or keto diet trying to drink enough water each day.

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Why Homemade Fruit Syrups Beat Commercial Flavored Water

Beverage syrups (that is, natural fruit beverage syrups) have a lot going for them actually:

• You don’t need very much to give flavor to a drink, so you can keep the calorie content low.  You have the option of flavoring your drink to your own standard of taste and calorie content, unlike sodas or flavored waters you buy already prepared;
• The fruit is “real” fresh fruit (not flavoring), and you don’t need to boil it for very long, so the beneficial nutrients are not boiled out of it;
• They keep in the refrigerator for 2 months and you add the carbonation fresh each time you use them, so you don’t have to worry about your drink being “flat”;
• Herbs and spices are easy to infuse into the syrups while being made, so you can get some very creative, unique flavors;
• There is a lot of versatility in using them, from water, to sodastream carbonated waters, to lemonade, to tea, to smoothies, to cocktails.  They can also be drizzled over fruit salads, combined with vinegar for Shrubs, used as a glazed over grilled meats, and combined with oil and vinegar for salad dressings.

Creative Ways to Use Fruit Simple Syrups

Here are some of the ways we have used simple syrups lately, both in cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks:

The drink in this photo is lemonade in a pint jar with a couple of tablespoons of Ginger Lime Syrup stirred in. 

The water pitcher with fruit in it is something we’re trying to keep filled up and visible so that we are tempted to drink more water.  It’s always much easier to go to water instead of soda if it is on your counter looking beautiful and refreshing (and easy). 

Sangria lends itself to the addition of fruit syrups. It’s fun to make a big batch of sangria for celebrations also.

I got this SodaStream Sparkling Water & Soda Maker last summer when I was getting into making the syrups.  I love it!  You just fill the gray liter bottle with water, screw it into the white attachment, pump the top five times, and Voila, you have sparkling water to keep in your fridge and use until you need to fill it with water and repeat. 

It’s a perfect foil for the syrups.  Caveat:  the syrup packages that come with it do not taste very good and they do have various preservatives in them.

These are just some ideas on how I personally like to use the syrups.  I know there are a lot of mixologists that are using syrups in all kinds of fancy cocktails.  Some sleuthing on google will lead you to a lot of different recipes for using the syrups.

If you want to make your own homemade fruit syrups. this How-to on homemade drink syrups will help you out.

How to Make a Berry Spritzer

FAQ

If you want to explore further, check out these guides to homemade drink syrups for cocktails and mocktails.