<p>I make coffee ice cubes to put in the iced coffee so it doesn’t get watered down.</p>
<p>Arnold Palmer slushy? I like the sound of that! I shall definitely try. </p>
<p>Ooh, homemade Italian sodas are great. You mix soda water, flavored syrup (like the bottles you see in the coffee section, or grenadine), cream, and ice. You can come up with all kinds of flavors. </p>
<p>The greek grocery in the neighborhood has a divine sour cherry syrup that you can dilute with water or sparkling water. They suggested it’s fabulous over ice cream as well, but we haven’t tried that yet. ;)</p>
<p>I like the combination of seltzer and cranberry juice too. It’s even better with a splash of grapefruit juice. I told my non-drinking son that I thought grape fruit juice was the gateway drug to beer. Once you get to like that slight bitterness beer tastes good too!</p>
<p>I’ve been drinking water with sliced cucumber in it. Delicious.</p>
<p>Oh and when we were in Jordan we were served lemonade with tons of mint in it. Very good.</p>
<pre><code>4 cups water
2 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice (8-10 lemons)
1/4 cup finely diced mint
1 cup sugar
</code></pre>
<p>If you use hot water and add the sugar it will dissolve more easily, but you need to serve it cold.</p>
<p>A variety of mints grow in my garden. When inspiration strikes, I gather a large handful of leaves and stems, push them into a quart canning jar and pour on the boiling water. Strong is the goal. After a time, I strain out the liquid and refrigerate, to later pour over ice. Pineapple mint is my favorite.</p>
<p>Any of the fruit herbal teas can be great, brewed strong and later chilled. </p>
<p>Any of the cranberry juice mixes, especially cran grape or cran raspberry are great mixed with lemon or lime fizzy water. The juice makes a barely flavored drink, low in calories. Sometimes I buy the frozen concentrate, to make more of a natural soda. </p>
<p>On occasion, I will buy sherbet, and mix with the same lime or lemon fizzy water. Raspberry is great, and again tones down the calories of just eating the sherbet alone. </p>
<p>Nice reminders on the ginger tea. Mint lemonade sounds lovely. </p>
<p>So many great ideas! Italian sodas? That’s a new one for me, with the cream. Yum. Lemon or lime juice/syrup with mint is great too— a non-alcoholic Mojito. Bookmarking this thread with all of your suggestions.</p>
<p>Not everyone’s favorites and not particularly cheap or easy to find, but I like Malta and Cucumber pop (not together). Malta is heavily malty and sweet. Cucumber pop tastes like cucumbers, very refreshing.</p>
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<p>How cucumber-y does it taste? Do you need to do anything to get the cucumber “juice” out or do you just slice it up and put it in? Do you add any sugar?</p>