slow living: the start of summer and fizzy drinks

we’ve got the first decent weather report of the season this week, which makes me oh so happy!

i have a major sweet tooth (and salt tooth, and fizzy tooth…), so as soon as hot weather starts up, my cravings switch from hot sweet drinks to fresh fizzy drinks. i think all diets are bullshit, so i’m not about to tell you to go restricting your pop or juice consumption. you do you. i just drink literally so much bubbly stuff on a daily basis in the warm months that my body wouldn’t be able to handle the amount of refined sugar if i solely drank soda. i used to hate fizzy water, but since i killed my kombucha scoby last year (i’ve got skilllllzzzz…not good ones, but whatever), i’ve been trying to find mixes for fancy cocktails that i can also use sans alcohol during the earlier portion of the day. i absolutely hate all artificial sweeteners because they make my mouth fuzzy (stevia, you’re gross), so i’ve been opting for carbonated water flavoured with fresh citrus and herbs to get my fizzy fix.

there are so many flavour combos! and it’s super simple to play with them too, because you’re usually just looking for a hint of flavour unless you’re fully infusing something. i’ll probably do that later this summer… anyway, today i opted for hibiscus petals for the colour and fresh lime for a hint of tartness. i’m thinking i need to bake a cake soon and infuse hibiscus into a few different things to make it extra pretty. hibiscus is one of my favourite (slightly more fugitive) natural dyes, so i have a big bag of petals kicking around the kitchen. this colour took three petals in about 2 minutes, so you can imagine what a cake with infused icing will look like! i’ll be sure to share the results…