Editor’s Note: I was given a FlavFusion infuser water bottle to try and review.
Flavored Water is Refreshing, But is it Healthy?
When I was child my mother didn’t allow soda in the house. She knew it was not healthy even before the news media told us it actually is. So, we drank milk and, occasionally, juice and . . . ugh . . . Kool-Aid. But mostly, we drank water. Lovely, filtered water.
Then one day, while shopping at the local Wal-mart, we came across something that would delight our taste buds for years to come: Flavored Water. There was white grape, cherry, strawberry, orange, lemon and more. We tried them all. It was water, after all. And, it was sugar-free.
I was certain that I’d hit the jackpot of refreshing drinks. It tasted like sparkling juice and was delightfully sweet. And it was water, so I could have as much as I wanted!
Of course, I didn’t know about artificial sweeteners and artificial flavors back then. Now I cringe when I think of the gallons of that stuff that I drank during my years of physical growth. Yuck.
Now that I know better, I don’t drink artificially sweetened and flavored water anymore. I do enjoy naturally flavored sparkling water from time to time, but I’m wary of that, as well. As you can read in my post about natural flavors, the flavors may be naturally derived, but that doesn’t make them naturally beneficial.
How to Flavor Water Naturally
After learning more about the pitfalls of natural flavors, I decided to try making my own flavored water at home. Simply adding fruit to plain water is easy. However, the fruit gets mushy and you might have to contend with chunks of watery fruit to drink around. You can pour it through a sieve, but that takes time and dirties another dish. You might avoid mushy fruit water by using frozen fruit, but it takes longer for frozen fruit to flavor the water.
The easiest and least messy way I have found to flavor water naturally is with an infuser water bottle. An infuser water bottle holds the fruit in a cylindrical basket of sorts. This allows the fruits to stay submerged in the water instead of floating to the top. It also keeps the fruit from falling apart in the water and creating a mushy mess. In addition, an infuser water bottle is great for on the go.
The Best Infuser Water Bottle
I recently received a FlavFusion infuser water bottle to try. I have definitely enjoyed using it and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a great infuser water bottle.
The FlavFusion infuser water bottle is clear, which means you can see the fruit inside the bottle. It is visually appealing. It has a flip top, which closes smoothly and easily when not in use. The flip top requires the water to be consumed by tilting the bottle instead of sipping. At first, I was afraid that the bottle would drip like so many other flip top bottles I’ve tried. So far, it hasn’t dripped a bit. In addition, it didn’t spill when I managed to knock it over.
The 26-ounce FlavFusion infuser water bottle has three pieces — the bottle, the fruit basket and the lid. The fruit basket twists easily into the lid, which twists simply onto the bottle. I love seeing the brightly-colored fruit nestled in the basket while it releases its sweet flavor.
So far, I’ve tried grapefruit, lemon, oranges, strawberries and cucumbers. The water is bright, delicious and refreshing. As expected, the fruit flavors the water more quickly when the water and the fruit are room temperature. I like to put the bottle with water and fruit in the fridge overnight so that I have more flavor in my water the next day.
For fruits that are bitter, like grapefruit and lemon, infusing for a shorter time is best. The water gets too bitter if the fruit is left in the water for too long. Twenty minutes is plenty for these fruits.
For sweeter fruits, like berries and oranges, leaving the fruit to infuse for longer makes the water sweet and more flavorful. I especially enjoyed the amount of flavor that was created by strawberries left to infuse overnight.
Are you ready to enjoy healthy, flavored water? Hop on over to Amazon and get your FlavFusion infuser water bottle now!
