Fruit Flavored Sparkling Water

     I grew up in a household where the beverage served at every meal for both children and adults was milk.  So 1950s.  As we offspring started growing up and reaching our full adult bone mass, milk was phased out.  Iced tea, all year round, not just in the summer, became the regular drink.  When I moved out, I always had a pitcher of homemade iced tea in the fridge.  Somewhere along the way, I got lazy and switched to tap water.
     I still mainly drink tap water, but more and more, I find myself giving in to the temptation of those fancy, fruity flavored waters.  Shop Rite is always running specials, piling mountains of fizzy water twelve-packs at the entrance to the store.  Their exotic names belie the fact that they are only subtly flavored and barely sweetened.  Anything with zero calories can't taste that good.  Or can it?
     Dasani was my first.  I tried most of the flavors and settled on Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon as favorites.  I tried mixing some orange juice with the Blood Orange flavor thinking I could create a low calorie Orangina, but the result was bitter tasting.

 

 I remained true to Dasani until someone, offering me a bottle of what they thought was plain water, accidentally gave me a bottle of Poland Spring Sparkling Orange.  There was no going back to Dasani.

 

 Then came the coronavirus grocery shopping experience.  You can go to the store with a list, but be prepared to make substitutions.  During Week #1 of sheltering in place, I bought one of the three remaining loaves of rye bread from the specialty bakery because every other loaf, roll, bagel, muffin, and pita was gone.  I like rye bread, but you don't schmear it with strawberry preserves at breakfast time.  The water and soda aisles were stripped bare, and there were limits on how much one shopper could buy.  During Week #2, I found a pallet of AHA Sparkling at the end of the soda aisle.  It was even on sale.  I grabbed Orange-Grapefruit (delicious mixed with OJ) and Apple-Ginger (yummy mixed with apple juice).  During this third week's grocery run, I grabbed a case of Peach-Honey.  I mixed this flavor with some Kosher for Passover peach flavored sparkling grape juice.  Tasty.

   
The world of sparkling water just gets better and better.  I'm beginning to prefer this water to my usual wine.  Never thought I would see that day come.