Dress Up Your Water – Water-Infused Recipes
Our staff here at Optimum is passionate about keeping our clients and their loved ones hydrated. A 2004 study from the Family Economics and Nutrition Review explains, “Whether drunk from the tap or a bottle or eaten in foods, water has important health benefits. Insufficient consumption can lead to muscle spasm, renal dysfunction, increased risk of bladder cancer, and even death.”
One of the biggest complaints we hear from people struggling to get hydrated is that water has no flavor – they’d rather drink a Gatorade or root beer, something with lots of sugar that tastes good. After hearing these complaints, our Optimum staff compiled these recipes for infused water! You and your family will have no trouble hydrating when your water tastes like a refreshing summer treat.
Infusing your water with fruits, vegetables, and herbs not only helps you drink plenty of water without the negative effects of calories and sugar, but can also provide added health benefits, including immunity boost, blood sugar regulation, appetite control, and heartburn prevention.
Recipes for Health Benefits
Some infused water recipes include ingredients specifically for the added health benefits of those fruits, vegetables, and herbs. We’ve compiled a few of our favorite health-conscious infused water recipes for those who’d like to get more than just hydration out of their water!
Green tea, mint, and lime: health benefits include better digestion, congestion and headache relief, immunity boost, and fat-burning properties.
Strawberry and kiwi: health benefits include blood sugar regulation, immunity boost, and improved cardiovascular health.
Cucumber, lime, and lemon: health benefits included appetite control, improved digestion, and water weight/bloating management.
Just lemon: health benefits included improved kidney health, healthier skin, and pH regulation.
If you’re interested in the additional health benefits of infused water beyond how easy it makes hydrating, we suggest trying one of the above combinations!
Flavor Recipes
For those of you who are looking to make drinking water more fun for you and your family, we’ve also compiled some awesome recipes (some with ingredient alternatives!) to spice up the flavor of your water. These recipes will make drinking water a treat without any of the added sugar and calories in sodas or juices. For each of these recipes, we recommend mixing the ingredients with five cups of water; an additional one cup of ice cubes is optional if you’d like to cool your beverage or dilute it.
Strawberry, Basil, and Lemon:
- 1/2 cup strawberries stemmed and sliced, fresh or frozen
- 5 large fresh basil leaves torn
- 1 lemon thinly sliced
**Try substituting oranges and blueberries for lemons and strawberries for another tasty flavor combination!
Honeydew, Cucumber, and Mint:
- 1/2 cup honeydew cubes
- 1 cucumber thinly sliced
- 10 fresh mint leaves torn
**Try substituting jalapeno for the honeydew for a refreshing kick!
Blackberries, Orange, and Ginger:
- 1/2 pint blackberries
- 1 orange thinly sliced
- 1 (2-inch) piece of ginger peeled and thinly sliced
Blueberry, Lemon, and Rosemary:
- 1/2 pint blueberries
- 1 lemon thinly sliced
- 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
**Try substituting raspberries for blueberries to give this recipe a little more sweetness.
Watermelon, Kiwi, and Lime:
- 1 cup watermelon cubes
- 2 kiwi diced or cut into circles
- 1 lime sliced into circles
Mango, Raspberry, and Ginger:
- 1 mango peeled and cubed
- 1/2 pint raspberries
- 1 (2-inch) piece of ginger peeled and thinly sliced
Tips and Tricks
Now that we’ve shared some of our favorite infused-water recipes with you, we wanted to provide some tips and tricks to make creating your infused-water beverages easier than ever! For your ingredients, we suggest selecting organic produce whenever you can, but be sure to wash and rinse all ingredients before adding them to your water so as to remove pesticides and chemicals. We also recommend never using hot water in your recipes as it can make the ingredients disintegrate more quickly, compromising the nutrients the product can bring to your recipe.
Harder fruits such as apples should be sliced very thinly as their density means it takes longer for these fruits to release their flavors and nutrients. However, softer fruits such as berries and citrus can be sliced thick or thin, halved, or quartered. For fibrous roots and herbs such as rosemary or ginger, we recommend crushing those with a spoon for optimum flavor. Leafy herbs like mint or basil should be torn, not crushed.
When preparing your infused water recipes, anything that calls for ginger or rosemary will need an overnight soak to get the ingredients to release their flavors. Cucumbers, melons, and citrus fruits release their flavor almost immediately. Infused water should never be left to soak at room temperature for more than two hours.
Citrus rinds can start to add a very bitter flavor to water after four hours of soaking, so we recommend peeling the citrus before adding it to your water. If you don’t drink your prepared infused water within the first 24 hours, we recommend straining out the solids as they will start to disintegrate. Create your infused flavored water for your office with your own Optimum Bottleless Water System. Check out our selection today to find the best one for your office.
