Fizzy Alternatives

Published on October 1, 2009

I love a good drink. (Maybe too much.) And too much drinking can get in the way of all the eating I like to do; it also gets fattening. So, when I fix a drink, I try to do it with a mixer that's low in calories—that way I can spend most of my calories on food.

Years ago, I switched to diet tonics and such, but the flavor was never quite right. I'm delighted with the line of mixers from a British company called Fever-Tree, especially their Bitter Lemon mixer. I'm also jazzed by the tonic water from the Brooklyn-based company Q Tonic (its site has an interesting lesson on the history of tonic water, natch). These products were designed to be of the same caliber as the spirits they enhance. You won't find any artificial sweeteners in them, and they tend to be less caloric than their high-fructose corn syrup competitors.

And then, there's the water issue. Sure, I want to consume my 64 ounces of water a day, but I don't want it to be boring tap water the whole time. I could buy bottles of Poland Spring, San Pellegrino, or Gerolsteiner, but then I get saddled with all kinds of carbon footprint worries. What to do? I've decided to make my own, delectable soda water by carbonating tap water. For more information on fizzy alternatives, check out our Tools and Gadgets post about the wonders of the Soda-Club System.