Take a look at the ingredients in store-bought sodas, and you’re likely to find junk like the following:
- High fructose corn syrup
- Refined sugar
- Artificial sweeteners
- Unnamed chemicals in “artificial flavors”
- Artificial coloring and dyes
- Preservatives
- Foaming agents
Yuck! This toxic load on our bodies has been tied to tooth decay, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and disease. This is not what we want to be feeding our families!
Fortunately, making your own homemade soda is simple and even health-giving. In fact, many sodas were originally herbal drinks formulated to cleanse and tone, aid digestion, and boost nutrients.
Here are four homemade soda recipes infused with herbal goodness.
#1 Homemade Ginger Ale
Did you know? Ginger ale was originally blended to help people relieve indigestion and stomachaches. Ginger helps with digestion, stimulates circulation, and is anti-inflammatory. It’s easy to make your own healthy homemade soda with ginger and honey instead of sugar.
Get the recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale
#2 Ginger Bug Soda Starter
It’s fun to experiment with making your own old-fashioned fermented sodas! Fermented sodas contain probiotic bacteria for a healthy gut, as well as B vitamins. The first step is to make a ginger bug starter culture, and then you can use it to ferment any sweetened herbal tea.
Get the recipe: Ginger Bug
#3 Root Beer with Sarsaparilla
Root beer has a rich herbal origin with plants like sarsaparilla root, birch bark, and sassafras bark. Sadly today, modern root beer is mostly carbonated water with high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. So let’s recreate this health-giving homemade soda in our own kitchens!
Get the recipe: Root Beer
#4 Blueberry Shrub
Sweetened fruit vinegars, also known as shrubs or drinking vinegars, were once a common way to preserve fruit, and they have come roaring back to popularity! You can make your own refreshing and antioxidant-rich shrub by mixing this blueberry vinegar with honey and sparkling water.
Get the recipe: Blueberry Vinaigrette
Want More?
Are you looking for more delicious ways to infuse herbs and spices into your drinks and meals? My Herbal Kitchen online course, you will learn how to take better care of your and your family’s health every time you share a bite or sip.
