Sparkling Waters (the best brands, or make your own!)

Some people prefer plain still water. But many people won’t drink water unless it’s fizzy! So it’s far better to choose good brands, rather than sweet sickly drinks with fake flavours and artificial sweeteners.

In fact, sparkling waters now out-sell cola. Accidentally invented in a brewery in 1676, the first fizzy waters used the basic basic system of attaching a soda siphon to a gas canister. Nothing much has changed!

Check medication before consuming grapefruit or rhubarb. Never give sparkling water to to pets, it could cause bloat.

Before recycling, give a quick rinse (to remove sweet tastes) then pop ring-pulls back over holes (and pinch tops shut) to avoid wildlife getting trapped.

How much water should we drink?

The average adult needs around 1.2 litres per day (more in hot weather or after vomiting or diarrhoea). That’s around six 200ml glasses. So drink two glasses when you wake up, have two more before lunch, and two more before dinner. Add more per glass of wine or beer, or per tea, coffee or cola.

Wash and rinse pet bowls daily. Avoid fizzy water or guzzling water after runs or car trips (to prevent bloat). Don’t let pets drink from puddles (due to bacteria, oil, antifreeze). For outdoor pets, ensure drip-feed bottles are not blocked or frozen.

DASH (sparkling waters with wonky fruit)

DASH Water is a wonderful brand of sparkling water, sold in zero waste cans. You can find these cans in many stores or order online (by flavour or mixed packs). What’s best is that each flavour is made with wonky fruit, that would otherwise have gone to landfill.

40% of fruits and vegetables in the UK are thrown out, simply because they don’t ‘look perfect’ enough to sell or eat. So this company is doing wonders, by using it up to make hydrating healthy drinks. One bashed up berry, curly cucumber and lopsided lemon at a time!

Choose from:

• Peach
• Cucumber Mint
• Blackcurrant
• Raspberry
• Cherry
• Lemon
• Lime
• Orange
• Grapefruit

All drinks have zero sweeteners and calories, so a nice refreshing way to hydrate, instead of sugary sodas or artificially sweetened drinks.

Even better, the cans are made from recycled aluminium. If you drink a lot of canned sodas, you could get together with others to set up an aluminium recycling program (also for clean foil). Then you can sell it to local companies, and use the money to raise funds for community projects.

Book monthly subscriptions online for big savings, and you always have a cooling drink to hand, when you need one. The brand also gives discounts to key workers (NHS, Police Force, Fire fighters etc) and students.

How to serve DASH sparkling water

It’s fine as it is, just serve over ice and garnish with fresh fruit. Or if you fancy something more fancy, here are some ideas from their site:

Healthy Mojito

Fill a glass with crushed ice and pour over 1 tablespoon of agave syrup, 2 shots of rum and 1 shot of lime juice. Sprinkle in a handful of fresh mint, top with Lime DASH and stir. Garnish with extra mint and a slice of lime or two.

Berry Citrus Mocktail

Muddle some mixed strawberries and raspberries in a glass, add some fresh orange juice and a squeeze of lemon. Fill the glass with ice, and top with a mix of raspberry and orange DASH sparkling water.

Re:Water (spring water in recycled aluminium bottles)

RE:WATER offers still and sparkling water sourced from Herefordshire springs, which are packed in beautiful bottles, made from 100% recycled aluminium. When empty, you can rinse and reuse, and easily recycle at end of life.

Look for bottled water in aluminium cans or glass. Although many brands are now in recycled plastic, when littered they  still fall down drains and break into microplastics in the sea, accidentally ingested by marine creatures.

ONE Water (profits fund clean water projects)

Despite water being (along with air) one of our essentials, millions of people worldwide lack access to clean safe water, and 3 million people die each year from waterborne diseases (most are children under 5 years old).

One Water, a canned water brand (still or sparkling), set out to change that with a simple, heart-warming idea: use the profits to fund clean water projects. Sold in Co-op and many other shops nationwide.

Buying a can of One Water does more than quench thirst. Each bottle sold funds programs that bring clean and safe water to people in need. These projects include building wells, fixing local water pumps and setting up water tanks in villages where drinking water is hard to find.

In 2003 (on the same day that Saddam Hussain was found hiding in a bunker) the founder of One Water had just returned from 2 years travelling around the world (which included a spate without safe clean water thanks to Hurricane Mitch in Honduras).

He opened the newspaper to find a photograph of a young girl in Nairobi. She was sitting next to a tap – that was padlocked.

So far his foundation has raised over £30 million, helping to bring clean safe water to over 5 million people.

Monies raised from buying One Water mostly focus on work in 4 countries:

• Ghana
• Malawi
• Kenya
• Rwanda

Projects helped so far include a whole village receiving clean safe water in Malawi (where almost half the country has no access to clean water and 25% of people have no access to clean toilets).

Cans: Sparkling Water with Real Fruits

Cans is an Austrian brand that decided to create a nice soft drink that was not saturated with sugars or artificial sweeteners. Instead, these contain just 3 ingredients:

• Alpine sparkling water
• Fruits from European orchards
• Natural flavourings

Sold in easy-to-recycle cans, they are available in three flavours. You can buy in one-flavour or mixed cans of 24::

• Apple (with lemon & elderflower)
• Cherry (with lemon)
• Lemon (with lime)

The brand is already very successful, having sold over 1 million cans worldwide, realising that there is a huge market for people who want a fizzy soda, that is not overloaded with sweet sugar.

Marlish (sparkling water from the Northumberland hills)

Marlish (in glass bottles or cans) is a brand of sparkling water from Northumberland, with flavoured options of raspberry, blackcurrant or Brazilian orange. This brand was created after accidentally discovering a spring water source, after installing a bore hole as a sustainable water supply for grazing animals.

If drinking their tonic waters, know that quinine should be avoided for some medical conditions and pregnancy/nursing.

Aqua Libra (plain or flavoured sparkling waters)

Aqua Libra used to be on sale in indie health shops when we still had some. It offers cans of sparkling water (you can add still water cans too if wished) plus flavoured options like:

• Cucumber lime mint
• Blueberry pomegranate
• Raspberry blackcurrant
• Watermelon strawberry
• Blood orange mango

Aarke (make your own sparkling water)

Homemade sparkling water obviously works out cheaper long-term, if you prefer it to still. You just have to buy a machine to carbonate the water.

Aarke costs around £200 but after that you only have to buy refill CO2 cylinders and pay your tap water bill, far cheaper than endless bottles of sparkling water, and no packaging. One cylinder will fill the included bottle around 60 times.

To use, just fill your bottle to the fill line with fresh clean water, attach to the machine, push the lever and hold until you hear a buzz. Then release and unscrew the bottle and voila, a bottle of fizzy water!

Carbon 8 is a one-touch countertop water carbonator, which removes chlorine and adds mineral. Purified UV light, just make your own fizzy water, then infuse with a sprig of mint or slices of cucumber or strawberry.