Water: Thinking Out Side the Box

by | Jun 30, 2023 | Farm Life | 1 comment

This is the visual representation of Water: Thinking Out Side the Box. It shows a red box floating on a splash of crisp blue water. Above the box are pictures of different Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful. There is mint leaves, blue concentrate, watermelon slushie, lemon tea, peach fruit juice, an ice pop, Tisane tea, a clover flower, pansy flowers, a chopped fruit stick, and a glass of ice water with fruit in it.

The last two weeks we did talks on water with Drinking Water: Down the Rabbit Hole Part 1 and Drinking Water: Down the Rabbit Hole Part 2. This week we continue on a similar line, Water Thinking Out Side the Box. We are going to give you water haters several ways to make your water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful.

Ok, you may not hate water. But do you really love it? Do you think, Oh I want a big glass of water?

Of course, if you are working outside, say on the farm, then yes, you may be thinking that. But most people do not just love, crave or want to drink plain water.

But then, Who said water has to be plain to be healthy?

Why when you mention water do people automatically think plain, boring, and tasteless? Because that is how water is usually “taken”. Yes “taken” makes it sound like a medication. In a way, water is one of the very best medical treatments you can get. Your body and mind must have water to function correctly. But drinking water does not have to be a negative experience.

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

There are many ways to turn your plain water into a fun, festive, thing. You can make water taste good, look cool, and be fun to drink. This is especially good when you are trying to get kids to drink more water.

Water Thinking Out Side the Box:

Way to make your water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful add such things as:

1. fruit juices

2. whole or chopped fruits

3. herbs

4. flowers

5. infused water

6. natural flavor drops

7. ice

8. teas

9. concentrates

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

1.

add fruit juices:

lime

lemon

orange

peach

pineapple

This picture shows 5 glasses of fruit juices with the fruits beside the glasses. There is mango, orange, peach, pineapple, and lemon. The background is in oranges, pinks, and yellows.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to give water some kick is to add fruit juice. Lemon and lime are great in water. Pretty much any citrus juice will give your water a nice light flavor. You could go with peach, pineapple, apple, or grape if you like. We like to add tropical fruits to our water such as mango, or guava.

When picking a fruit juice do not use that sugary, fake stuff you buy at the store. We mean, real, fresh fruit juice. Or at least natural, canned, frozen, or bottled fruit juices. There are any number of fruit juice concentrates you can find at your local grocery. Just be sure to get the real, natural, no sugar added ones.

Give a quick squirt, or splash then stir. It may be good to note that if you do not stir well you could get a big gulp of just fruit juice. This may not be a bad thing with some fruit juices but with some like lemon or line, it may give you a jolt.

Pineapple juice has a chemical in it called “bromide”. Bromide is supposed to help with weight loss. We drink pineapple juice fairly regularly but so far we can not see the weight loss thing. May help with breathing issues as well.

As we have said many times, we are farmers. And as we mentioned in our talk Feeding Your Kids Right by Dr. Lendon Smith M.D., this is a family of farmers with allergies and asthma. So pineapple juice is good for your general health as well as your respiratory system.

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

2. Add whole or cut fruits:

Turn your water into a fruity festival by adding whole fruits or cut-up fruits to your glass.

blueberry

strawberry

pineapple

mango

watermelon

cucumber

This picture shows different kinds of fruits cut up for eating or putting into your drink glass. There are strawberries, mango, watermelon, coconut, cherries, and cucumber. The background is purple on the top and fades into blue at the bottom.

Drop whole blueberries or strawberries into your glass, Just cut up some mango or pineapples and drop them in.

Fresh watermelon gives water a wonderful, fresh, cool twist. Seeds are optional.

Cucumbers will give your plain water a smooth, crisp, flavor.

This is also another “sneaky” way to add healthy fruits to your kid’s diet.

The addition of fruits not only gives you a pleasant taste but adds a splash of color too.

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

3. Add herbs:

cinnamon

mint

lavender

This picture shows the herbs and spices you can add to your water. There is Mint, Cinnamon, Lavender, Rosemary, and Orange Zest. The background is light grey on the top and goes into light green at the bottom.

All of these herbs are safe and pleasant to add directly to your water. A cinnamon stick may seem odd in your water glass but try it before you dismiss it.

Lavender and Mint can be pulled straight from your herb garden. Just swirl a spring of either around in your water, let it sit a bit, and enjoy.

There are, of course, many others you can use. Just pick some and try them out. See what you like and use it.

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

4. Add flowers (be sure the flowers can be eaten)

There is an extensive list of edible flowers out there that most people do not even know about. It is, of course, best not to add poisonous or bitter flowers to your water glass.

rose petals

hibiscus

nasturtiums

pansies

clover

This picture shows some of the flowers you can add to your water for more flavor. There is hibiscus, clover, chamomile, nasturtium, pansy, rose, and dandelion.

We did a talk last summer on How to Make Home Brewed Jamaica Tea.

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

5. Infused Water

 

Infused water is a great way to get nutrients and enjoy your water. Infused water is basically just steap and chill. You add fruits, veg, flowers, herbs, or whatever to a jar or pitcher of water. You then put it in the fridge for several hours and let it chill. This allows the water to “suck out” the good stuff and give you nutrient-rich, flavored water.

This picture shows two glasses of ice water. Both glasses have ice, water, fruit and straws in them. The glasses have lemon, blueberries, strawberries, and mint in them.
This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

6. Add Natural flavor drops

This picture shows six different natural fruit flavors. Each is a slice of the fruit. There is a bright green lime, a bright yellow lemon, an orange, a red strawberry, a pink and green watermelon, and an orange and yellow grapefruit. Each fruit slice has a matching color splash under it with the words fresh juice in white.

There are many kinds of flavor drops available peppermint drops, cherry, orange, and many others. These are the kinds that are used in baking and food prep. Do not just grab any flavor and use it. There is no telling what you will be putting into your drinking water.

Make sure you read the info on the package. Get the natural flavors, not the ones that are made with un-nameable chemicals. Or the ones that are made in unbelievable ways. (look up artificial vanilla and how it is “made”)

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

7.  Add ice: ice does not have to be boring

This picture shows a large pitcher of ice water and a glass of ice water. There are mint leaves and nasturtium flowers in the ice cubes. The background is a soft, blue.

Regular ice cubes can be spruced up by adding fruit or flowers to the cubes themselves.

Shaved ice makes for a fun drink.

Cute reusable ice character molds can add some fun and make for interesting conversations.

Chill the glass before: Put your glass in the fridge and let it chill before you add your water, this will give the water an edge.

Put your water or flavored water into the freezer for an hour or so. Then take it out and let it partially melt to a slushy. If you have added any flavors, accents, or colors they will just make the slushy more fun. Kids love slushies and slushies are a great way to get your kids to drink more and not whine about it.

This picture shows a watermelon slushie and a blender with fruit in it.

You can also go with a fruit pop. The ones made with water and real fruit. What kid does not like a fruit pop? They come in many flavors and cool colors. Sometimes you can get fruit pops in cool shapes too.

This picture shows five ice pops. There is a red watermelon pop, a green kiwi pop, a purple grape pop, one with chopped fruits in it, and a red, white and blue pop. The background is a light grey.
This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

8. Make an iced tea

This picture shows two kinds of tea. There is a sign for Sassy and Southern, Sweet Iced Tea and a pot of Tisane hot tea. The background is a very light brown.

Regular tea bags are many people’s go-to for flavoring their water. Ice tea bags are easy to use and there is no time wasted boiling water.

Herbal Tea: Any natural, herbal tea will give a flavor kick to your water. Tea Drops make bag-less tea. The drops are, just as it sounds, little drops of tea, pressed into a dry shape. You just drop one into your water, hot or cold, and enjoy a new flavor. Tea Drops offers a wonderful selection of flavors and combinations of tea.

Tisane Teas are basically dried herbs, flowers, and/or fruits that are used like herbal tea. You just steep your Tisane Tea in water, cold or hot, and enjoy the additional flavors.

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful

9.  Add concentrates

This picture shows six small bottles of water drop concentrates. There are silver, orange, pink, yellow, purple, blue, and green bottles. The flavors are written below the bottles, apple, orange, blueberry, grape, strawberry, mint, and mango. The background is a pale silver with silver sparkly stars.

With natural, concentrates you can make your flavored water to your preferred strength.

Concentrates add color as well as adding flavor. Color may not be needed when drinking water but then neither is flavor. But both can make it more fun.

This is a divider picture. It is a crisp, blue wave of water splashing around.

So no matter if you like water or not, you can make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful. Any one of these options or any combination of several can make drinking water fun for kids and more pleasant for adults. Adults may even find they like some of these things in their water. So have fun with making your drinking water more fun, pleasant, and flavorful.

 

As with most things, we are sure there are many other ways people use to make water “better”. And there are many other things you can add to water to make it more fun, pleasant, and flavorful for you. Use your imagination and try new things. You never know what you will or will not like until you try it. If adding fruits or flowers to your water is too big a step, start with a natural concentrate and see how it goes. Or add a splash of fruit juice. If you can not wholeheartedly jump in feet first, then start with baby steps and see how it goes.

We hope you have enjoyed this talk on Water Thinking Out Side the Box: Ways to make drinking water more fun, pleasant, and Flavorful.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.

This is the Out Standing in the Field logo with Spike the donkey.

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Kitty

Great. Where do you get the concentrated fruits?

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