Water, only better.

I have a nasty habit to which I willfully confess.  I love Diet Coke. 

Scratch that...Diet coke is sooo 2009. 

I love Coke Zero (with Splenda). But as with most artificially sweetened products, it's only a matter of time before science finds all sort of pesky things about it.  Like that it will someday kill you.  Slowly.  And painfully.  So I try (albeit inconsistently) to reduce my intake when I can muster the resolve.  I still remember discussing my diet coke habit with my doc and he turned to me and said, "That SH*T' is bad for you."  Ouch.

Fortunately, I also love other carbonated drinks.  If champagne wasn't full of empty calories that would render me drunk all day, I'd probably be toting the Veuve in my Sigg.  Sadly, I need to be somewhat coherent.  Well, most of the time anyway.  So I'm onto plan C:  as in Carbonated water. 

Carbonated water, club soda, mineral water, sparkling water.  They are all one and the same, yet the source and price can vary greatly.  Personally, I am not shelling out my life's savings for Perrier, and I got tired of schlepping bottles of Club Soda home every week.  Not to mention the fact that I don't like buying and using (even if I'm recycling) all of that plastic. So finally I broke down and bought a portable home-carbonating system.  Luckily, I have a friend who got me a sick discount at Williams-Sonoma.  You can get a perfectly decent model for about $100 from Soda Stream. You just need to replace the CO2 cartridges as they run out, which provides 60-110 liters!  They also offer a free exchange program:  you return the empty cartridge and they give you a full one.  Sweet deal if you ask me.

So now that I had this snazzy contraption, I felt like I needed to make the water a little more exciting as well.  Today I decided to make Muddled Basil Fizzy Water, with the help of my lovely assistant, Ellie.

Muddled Basil Fizzy Water:

Here is the lineup.  The Penguin by SodaStream looks like metal, but it's just playing dress-up.  Really, it's mostly just plastic.

The Penguin Carbonating system

By the way, I did not stage these shots- cats are drawn to anything plastic or shiny or small or big or just about anything of which you might want to take a photo.  A bag of basil qualifies.

What a ham!

To Muddle or Not To Muddle:  (Muddling is just a fancy bar-term for 'mush.')  You can buy special muddlers that are wooden and flat or flat/jagged on the end.  Mine went MIA in the kitchen remodel a few months back, so I improvised with something that EVERYONE owns.  Even full-fledged beer-guzzling/TV-dinner bachelors own one of these, right?

Not the ideal muddling implement, but it'll do in a pinch.

I added just a little bit of water before muddling:

You can go crazy and mash up the leaves to bits, or just muddle enough to get the essence released into the water.  Sometimes I like it moderately shredded, but not so much that I smile at someone with a huge hunk of basil between my teeth.  Not cool.

Apparently Basil-Muddling is all the rage with kittens these days...

oh, am I in this shot?

Finally, add ice and the rest of your sparkling water.  Garnish with a whole basil leaf or two.

No sooner did I turn my back to put away the water, but my 'helper' decided that she would sit on MY blogging stool.  MY BLOGGING STOOL! 

Apparently, she was intending to write the post for me.   She might do a fine a job if it wasn't for the lack of opposable thumbs and a slightly smaller cerebrum.

Mummy, you have a run-on sentence here.  Puh, LA schools.

There are so many other options for jazzing up your H-2-0.  

• Fruits of all sorts:  Slices of watermelon, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, whole (frozen) blueberries or grapes, muddled raspberries or blackberries, pomegranate seeds
• Sliced cucumbers
• Chia seeds (these will actually thicken up in your water)
• Muddled Mint leaves
• Mint and Lime...just like a Mojito without the booze and sugar (I know what you're thinking: what's the point?)
• Obviously, you do NOT need fizzy water.  Plain water works well too.  Nice to use in a large pitcher for parties and BBQs also.

[**Edited to add: EEEEEEKKKK! I'm totally mistaken- forgive me readers... My guilty pleasure, Coke Zero is NOT made with Splenda, but with "a blend of aspartame and acesulfame potassium  (Ace K)" per the Coca Cola Website.  Thanks to my friend Heather for pointing this out!  I repeat:  EEK!**]

Q:  What other interesting additions can you add to water?  Do you stay away from the evil world of artificially-sweetened sodas?  Do you have any advice for someone who is trying to kick the habit?