Convenience trumps environment. Help save the planet: Consider carrying a reusable water bottle.

Despite several years of anti-bottled-water campaigns across the country—declaiming bottled water’s negative environmental impact—Americans are buying more bottled water than ever.

 
Our suggestion: Treat yourself to a new reusable filtration water bottle and become part of the solution. The built-in filter lasts for 100 uses before they need to be replaced, and remove any flavors you don’t like in tap water.

Read the full story about the bottled water “problem” in National Geographic.

Do you know the different types of water?

Now, holiday ice trays like this Valentine cube
tray can be used year-round. Photo courtesy
Lekue.

We have long been advocates of making ice cubes from coffee, tea, juice, wine and soda, so as not to dilute our iced coffee, iced tea, cocktails, punch and soft drinks (original article).

You can add mint leaves to water to create mint ice cubes for Mojitos, basil leaves in water or tomato juice for Bloody Marys and berries in water for any sweet drink.

But the versatile ice cube tray has other uses as well. We use ours to freeze:

 
Depending on the recipe, you can simply pop the cube into the pot.

You can transfer the cubes to a freezer bag after they’re fully frozen, or keep them in a covered ice cube tray (if your tray doesn’t have a tight-fitting cover, use plastic wrap).

When you’re ready to use them, remember that each cube is approximately one teaspoon; eight standard cubes comprises roughly one cup.

Having alternative uses for ice cube trays has enabled us to buy seasonal ice cube trays—hearts, stars, Christmas trees and pumpkins—without the guilt of taking up storage space with “one-use gadgets.”

We often give seasonal ice cube trays as gifts, along with our list of things to use them for year-round.

HOW TO FREEZE HERB ICE CUBES

1. CLEAN. Wash and pat dry. Decide if you want to freeze whole or chopped herbs, and chop as desired.

2. CHOP. The objective is to have the water cover the herbs, so fill the ice cube tray sections with a tablespoonful of chopped herbs or as many whole herbs as fit. Tamp down whole herbs.

3. FILL. Fill the tray halfway, using enough water to cover the herbs (though the herbs tend to float). Freeze.

4. FREEZE. Once the ice cubes are largely frozen, finish filling the tray with water and freeze completely. Remove from the tray and store in freezer bags.

5. USE. Toss frozen cubes directly into the pot or pan. The heat will defrost the cube. If you need to eliminate the water, add the cube first and let the water evaporate.

Never again toss out unused, wilted herbs!

A glass of mineral-rich bottled water can
substitute for a glass of wine. Photo by
Groveb | IST.

Many people enjoy a hearty glass of Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel with a juicy steak.

But what about those who don’t drink alcohol, can’t have it at the moment, are the designated driver, and so forth?

A hearty mineral water can stand up to any steak. One we like is Ferrarelle, Italy’s #1 naturally sparkling mineral water which, along with another favorite, San Pellegrino, has fairly good national distribution.

The sturdy texture of steak mandates pairing with a full bodied mineral water—one that’s slightly salty with significant total dissolved solids (TDS), which provide each water with a unique flavor.

TDS is the breakdown of what percentage of the water is bicarbonate, chloride, fluoride, lithium, magnesium, potassium and other minerals (more about TDS). Spring waters, as opposed to mineral waters, have very low TDS, and their flavor is not heightened by tasty minerals that are naturally dissolved in the water.

At 43 milligrams per liter of potassium and 81 milligrams per liter of silica, Ferrarelle is even more distinctive in its composition. Most high TDS mineral waters have high levels of sodium and/or bicarbonates, which make the water taste saltier.

Ferrarelle is also rich in calcium, magnesium and fluoride (one liter is 2/3 of the suggested daily requirement of calcium). San Pellegrino is highest in suplhates, followed by bicarbonate and calcium.

If you enjoy mineral water, you may enjoy learning about how very different they are from each other.

Check out our Water Glossary and our Mineral Water Section.

Fruit drinks, doubly spiced. Photo courtesy
Prometheus Springs.

Prometheus Springs is an exciting new line of juice drinks. You might call it the hottest line around, thanks to delectable blends of fruit juice, hot spices and capsaicin, the component that gives the heat to hot chiles. As a bonus, it’s certified organic and kosher.

There’s a big market of people who love spicy foods. They’ll love these terrific, refreshing, spicy drinks, which make great cocktail mixers as well.

We love every one of the six flavors:

 
In addition to the spices in each fruit, capsaicin—the heat component of hot chiles—is added for double sizzle.

But the drinks are “mainstream hot.” We prefer mild salsa, for example, and found the heat levels to be just fine.

Check out the full review, and perhaps send some Prometheus Springs to a spicy-hot loving friend.

Or, use them to add sizzle to your Labor Day bash.
 
Find more of our favorite beverages: reviews and recipes.

A festive party drink: iced tea with fresh
berries. Photo © EugeneBochkarev |
Dreamstime.

How can you turn a plain iced tea, lemonade, soft drink or cocktail into a thing of beauty? With fresh berries!

Think small: The smaller berries, raspberries and strawberries, work best; you also may be able to find small grapes. If you’d like to add a couple of mint leaves, look for a bunch of mint with smaller leaves.

HOW TO MAKE A BERRY DRINK

1. Berries float in liquid, so you need to layer the ice cubes and berries to anchor the fruit.

2. Add a berry to the glass, followed by a couple of ice cubes to hold the berry down. Keep layering, dispersing the berries evenly around the glass (i.e., not all on one side of the glass).

3. When you’re finished layering, add the liquid and serve.

4. Place a few berries on a cocktail pick as the garnish. When people are finished with the drink, they can use the pick to skewer the berries in the glass.

Variations

 
What would you layer? Please share.

Find more of our favorite non-alcoholic drinks and drink recipes.

We recently purchased a bargain-size package of culinary lavender on Amazon.com. Our intent was to make lavender tea,* which we consume by the potfull.

When a very large pouch of lavender arrived, we had to figure out what to do with all of it. We didn’t want to go the high-calorie dessert route—lavender pound cake, crème brûlée, panna cotta and so forth.

So lavender iced tea was a no brainer. Then we turned to lavender lemonade, a lovely gourmet twist.

When we made a four-cup version of this recipe, all the lemonade was gone in a minute. So this larger recipe makes a bit more than a gallon, or 16 eight-ounce servings—two 64-ounce pitchers.

*Lavender tea recipe: Steep lavender to taste with the tea leaves; start by making just one cup of tea with 1/4 teaspoon per 6 ounces of water, and adjust to strength to taste with a subsequent cup).

LAVENDER LEMONADE RECIPE

Ingredients

Make lavender-infused lemonade for a gourmet twist. Photo © Edith Frincu | Dreamstime.

 
Preparation

1. BOIL. Boil one gallon of water plus the sugar in a large saucepan.

2. INFUSE. Add lavender and simmer for 15 minutes. If you don’t want to strain it out, place the lavender in a mesh spice ball/tea infuser.

3. ADD. Cool to room temperature. Add lemon juice, strain out lavender and chill.

A bunch of dried lavender. Photo by Ewa
Dacko | SXC.

VARIATIONS

 
LAVENDER SIMPLE SYRUP

You can make lavender simple syrup in advance; then, just spoon it into unsweetened lemonade or iced tea. You get both sweetener and lavender flavor at once!

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar fully dissolves.

2. Add the lavender buds and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain out lavender and let the syrup cool. Keep in a tightly-capped jar (no refrigeration needed) and use it to sweeten plain iced tea, hot tea, unsweetened lemonade and cocktails.

3. Consider making extra bottles to give as gifts.

 
MAKE LAVENDER WATER, TOO

You can also flavor water with lavender. Simmer the lavender in water for 15 minutes, cool and refrigerate.

MORE LEMONADE TIPS

Cucumber and dill give a subtle, delightful
flavor to a carafe of water. Photo © Maxim
Shebeko | Dreamstime.

Ayala’s Herbal Water is one of our favorite Top Picks of all time. The calorie-free bottled water is flavored with combinations of herbs and spices. Here’s our review.

It’s not easy to find Ayala’s where we live, but we do the next best thing: We add herbs and spices to pitchers of water. We don’t get the same flavor extraction that Ayala’s does, but we do get a subtle note of flavor that turns plain water into something special.

Turn that pitcher of ordinary water into something special with herbs and spices. You may already add lemon or lime slices, berries or cucumber your water pitcher. But try some new flavorings with sweet herbs or spices—in addition to the fruits or by themselves.

Herbs For Flavoring

Before adding herbs to the water, crush them slightly in your hand to release the aromatic oils. Let the flavor infuse for 15 minutes or more. The longer you infuse, the more flavor is extracted.

Spices For Flavoring

You can also start with spices, such as:

 
Then, try combinations such as ginger-cardamom and mint-clove—and whatever sounds good to you. One of our favorite combinations is cucumber-dill.

FOOD TRIVIA: LAVENDER

Lavender derives from the Latin word lavare, to wash. The Romans used it to scent their bathwater.

The Roman Legion brought the plant to Britain, where it later became popular in homeopathy: to ease stiff joints, battle infections, provide a calming influence and other remedies. Lavender was used for repelling insects, masking odors (potpourri) and was carried in nosegays to try to ward off the plague and pestilence.

Today, we know that a far better purpose is in baking, condiments, ice cream, iced tea and other recipes—like flavored water.

There’s no need to boil water to home-brew iced tea. Photo by Kelly Cline | IST.

If you brew pots and pots of iced tea to get through the summer heat, here’s a way to do it that requires no hot water.

Instead of brewing tea the conventional way, in boiled or near-boiled water, do it via cold infusion. The tea steeps in cold water—really!

The process might sound strange, but it works and can produce even more highly-flavored tea.

Results are more noticeable depending on the type of tea used. Cold infusion shows Darjeeling tea to better advantage, for example.

INFUSE OTHER FLAVORS

You can add another layer of flavor by infusing herbs or fruits with the tea.

Mint is the herb standard-bearer for tea; but if you have other sweet fresh herbs at hand (such as basil, lemon basil or rosemary), use them. Crush the herbs in your hand first, to release the aromatic oils.

Or, slice in some stone fruits—cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums or nectarines.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COLD INFUSION TEA & SUN TEA

Sun tea is a similar process: tea made with cold water instead of hot water. The difference is that it is placed in a sunny location to steep, and the warmth of the sun speeds up the steeping process.

To make sun tea, follow the same instructions as for cold infusion, but let the tea steep in the sun for four hours—on a window ledge, the porch or other sunny spot. Then refrigerate.

As with cold infusion tea, experts note that the gently slow-brewed, tea has stronger flavor than conventionally hot brewed tea.

Let us know how you like it!

Find more iced tea recipes in our Gourmet Tea Section.

In our childhood, our mom made pitcher after pitcher of iced tea using a bottled tea concentrate named Redi Tea—at least that’s what we recall. Online searches for “Redi Tea” yielded only that “White Rose Redi-Tea was the world’s first instant iced tea powder, introduced in 1953.”

Perhaps by our time, they had come up with a concentrate; but it’s no longer made. There are other brands filling the void—in fact, the biggest user of iced tea concentrate is foodservice (restaurants, delis and other businesses that provide prepared food).

Yes, fellow iced tea lovers: The majority of iced tea served in U.S. restaurants isn’t fresh brewed from leaves. Most of it is made from a tea concentrate: just add cold water to the liquid, toss in some ice and serve it to the customer.

The fastest way to quality iced tea: Just mix concentrate in water and add ice! Photo courtesy B. W. Cooper’s.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that: Tea concentrate is a quick and easy way to serve large quantities of iced tea—or make just one glass, if you’re so disposed. It’s not a lesser product: There are good tea concentrates and mediocre tea bags.

We recently made the acquaintance of four flavors of B.W. Cooper’s Tea Concentrate. Among his other activities, company founder Barry Cooper is the tea master for Gevalia teas.

Made with organic tea leaves and mostly presweetened (but still just 16 calories per serving*), all four flavors we tried hit the spot. The line includes:

 
There are 32-ounce bottles on Home Shopping Network and 64-ounce bottles at Sam’s Club and Coffee.org, the biggest selection we found. If we do the math correctly, the large format makes 16 gallons of tea (if you’re a big iced tea drinker, that goes pretty quickly).

There are also mini bottles: four ounces of concentrate that make one gallon of tea. We like them as small gifts, party favors and stocking stuffers.

For more information, check out the company website, CooperTea.com.

Find more of our favorite teas in our Gourmet Tea Section.

*The principal sweeteners are non-caloric sucralose and acesulame potassium (ace-K—details about these sweeteners). But there‘s no artificial flavor. There is also a bit of corn syrup (not HFCS), which the company says improves the mouthfeel.

We prefer iced tea with no sweetener, or a just a touch, such as the bottled teas crafted by Honest Tea and Inko’s White Tea.

So we are not a prospect for Sweet Leaf Tea, a brand we’ve tasted on numerous occasions. In organic and all-natural, original and flavored variations (lemon-lime, mint & honey, peach, raspberry, etc.), it is Southern-style sweet tea. Made with excellent tea, it’s a hit with many, but too sweet for us.

So we were excited when the brand introduced two flavors of Diet Sweet Leaf Tea, The Original and Citrus.

They’re absolutely delicious, and some kind of magic incantation must have been cast over the sucralose to make the drinks taste so natural.

Diet “The Original” Sweet Leaf Black Tea

If you doubt our word that a zero-calorie sweet tea can taste as good as this, company owners Clayton Christopher and David Smith recount the true story of how they ran out of Original Sweet Tea at an Austin City Limits Music Festival. They served Diet The Original for a few hours and no one noticed.

Sweet Leaf’s two diet tea flavors. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Diet “Citrus” Sweet Leaf Green Tea

As with The Original, Diet Citrus is made with filtered water, plus organic green tea, natural flavors, citric acid and ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

While Diet The Original has very fine tea flavor, Diet Citrus has layers and layers of flavor: not just citrus but peach and pineapple, as well.

We’ll be ordering them in bulk. Fortunately, both flavors are made in 64-ounce plastic jugs along with 16 ounce glass single-serves. Buy them by the jugful.

The line is certified kosher by OU.

Here’s a store locator. You can also buy Sweet Leaf on Amazon.com.

Find more of our favorite iced tea brands, plus recipes.