ADVENTURES IN ECO-PARENTING

LEAH KLEIN MAKES GOING GREEN CHILD’S PLAY

Kid-Friendly and Eco-Conscious Summer Thirst Quenchers

Now that you’ve got all the right BPA-free, reusable, compost-worthy (or at the very least recyclable),
functional and aesthetically pleasing receptacles, it is time to examine what we’re going to sip from
them this summer.

Thirst Quencing Water Each family has a selection of beverages they offer their children, their teens and their adult guests. Some refrigerators house gallons of milk, others have a good supply of juice for the apple juice guzzlers in the family and others have soy milk or other dairy substitutes. Water is almost always available either in the fridge door, from a filtered water pitcher, from a tap filter or just straight from the faucet. Some of what ends up in the fridge is personal choice and some is just force of habit—from what your mom and grandmother had in their fridges. It may be worth taking a moment to think about what is actually in the fridge and what ingredients are in those bottles, cans and cartons. Get educated! There are actually some fantastic books on the subject, including Squeezed: What You Don’t Know about Orange Juice, and sites like www.fooducate.com.

When your children head out to summer camp, the beach, soccer practice, the playground, the city for the day or just the backyard, you send them off with a backpack full of all their necessary odds and ends: a snack, a lunch, some sunscreen and something to keep them hydrated. Later that day, you welcome them home, hot, tired, sweaty and, if it has been a great day, at least a little sand between the toes, grass stains on their clothes and a few extra freckles on their nose. They need to be hosed down and are looking for something cool and refreshing to put to their lips. A nice cold drink or a homemade ice pop is just what they need. So check out the following kid-friendly (and by kid-friendly, I mean tasty and healthy!) and eco-smart summer thirst quenchers—everything from pure water to flavored waters to juice drinks and DIY refreshers.

Water—Regular Ol’ Water
There is nothing better than a cool glass of water. For kids, you can spice up the water so easily without actually adding anything. Sipping through a straw is always a lot of fun, and Zak Designs has some cute polycarbonate straws (yes, BPA-free) that you can buy at Whole Foods, among other places. If you need something that won’t spill, then just add some ice cubes to their sippy cups and they can enjoy the clink of the cubes against the vessel. For those everyday special occasions, you can even add in some carbonation. Good seltzer, soda water or sparkling spring water tickle your child’s fancy—or, at the very least, her nose.

Although it’s best to have your own filtered tap water or well water at home to drink, sometimes you do need an alternative. Here are some of the best options for an outdoor party at the park, a field trip or as backup drinks to keep in the trunk. In the grocery stores and online, there are more eco-friendly and less sugary options than ever before.

Wateroos
Sometimes your child just wants a juice box like all the other kids. Wateroos are water and flavored waters without sweeteners or artificial anything. Freeze them and they do double duty as a cold beverage and an ice pack for the lunch box. The water is a purified water and the flavored waters are just lightly flavored. For juice drinkers, this might be an acquired taste, but for kids who mostly drink water or diluted juice, Wateroos are the way to go.

Plant It Water
Perfect for freezing and using to cool as an ice pack—and then drinking when it melts, of course—this water is in a Tetra Pak (like a juice box) and has a screw top so it can easily be closed up again. I particularly like their mission to find the best possible eco-friendly packaging, seek out innovative alternatives and new technologies as they arise, and support environmental organizations both locally and globally.

Y Water
I have not sampled these, but they are described as functional waters for children. Essentially, they are waters enriched with certain vitamins and minerals. The Bones Water contains fluoride, which some people are not comfortable with, but the other three Twist waters—Brain, Immune and Muscle—are fluoride-free. Sweetened with sugar cane juice, the water comes in recyclable bottles that are BPA-free.

Twist
This is a flavored organic and natural Artesian well water (that just means it comes to the surface differently than spring water, as it is confined under pressure between relatively impermeable rocks). This water is tasty, refreshing and delicately flavored in lemon, mandarin white tea, mango acai, pomegranate blueberry, West Indies lime and wild strawberry.

Sometimes you need a little something different. Your child has been drinking water all day and he comes home tired, cranky and needing a little more than plain water. Linda West Eckhardt, James Beard award–winning cookbook author, reminds us that sometimes simple is fantastic. Lemon water—a squeeze of lemon into a fresh glass of water with a little sweetener, perhaps a splash of simple syrup or a little sugar—is a basic and delicious thirst quencher. She notes, “It quenches your thirst, children love it and it is cheap. Plus it gives you a good shot of vitamin C with that good hydration.”

Sparkling Essence
Fooducate’s blog gives the lowdown on R.W. Knudsen’s flavored bubbly water beverage, Sparkling Essence, which sounds like a decent Flavrz alternative to soda.

Flavrz
Flavrz is an organic, concentrated liquid drink mix that you can add to water or seltzer. They are mainly sweetened with agave and are free of artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and chemicals. They can be added to still water for slightly sweetened drinks, mixed with iced teas to add a fruity dimension to the drink or mixed with seltzer for a homemade soda. The mix comes in three flavors: cherry-berry, lemon-lime and tropical.

Soda Stream USA
Soda Stream USA is the place to get your fizz on. They sell four types of seltzer makers, all of which are eco-friendly and BPA-free. You can get them online, or if you want the glass carafe and the dapper Penguin water carbonator, they are available at Williams & Sonoma. They sell all the classic soda and diet soda syrups, one energy drink (the unhealthy stuff) and four natural, unsweetened syrups as well. This is not your grandmother’s seltzer maker either—one cartridge will carbonate up to 60 carafes of soda or seltzer.

Fever-Tree
Fever-Tree makes a really nice ginger ale that is ideal for kids who can handle a little spice or pregnant mommies who are feeling a little queasy. These ginger ales remind me of the ginger beer we drank as children. Ginger has a soothing effect on parents and children alike, and Fever-Tree’s version is not too spicy or sweet. Fever-Tree sells their drinks primarily as cocktail mixers, so once the kids are hydrated and dinner is on the stove, you can have the ginger ale as is, mix a virgin drink or make yourself a cocktail.

Teisseire Mix
A personal favorite of mine is the Teisseire Mix from France. The fruit syrups have no artificial flavors, sweeteners or preservatives. The “sirops” are very tasty and come in a huge variety of flavors. Teisseire Mix is available online at Frenchy Bee and Touch of Europe.

Eco-conscious note: Watch your juice intake, not only for the extra sugar but for the carbon footprint that the disposable packaging has on our earth. Day to day, go for filtered tap water in a reusable Sigg, Klean Kanteen or BPA-free Nalgene bottle. When totally sustainable First Juice isn’t doable (like at a party), here are some smarter options.

Honest Kids
Honest Tea, the folks who brought us bottled iced teas that were not overly sweet, now have Honest Kids.

First Juice
For the little ones and beyond, there are the First Juice drinks. More like a flavored water than a nectar, this juice is fairly watery in taste, but it does have some fruit and veggie juices and purées. Available in a toddler-friendly, BPA- and phthalate-free bottle with a no-spill built-in sipping valve, this juice is organic and naturally low in sugar. I sampled most of the line, including the new purple carrot combinations, and I found them all very tasty and refreshing.

Ice Pops The most requested thirst quencher in our household at the end of the day is a popsicle, but if you look through the freezer section at Whole Foods, most of the flavors are exotic, have strange textures or have portions that are just too big. If you look in the standard grocery store for popsicles, you’ll find ingredient lists that take up a full side of the box and include a whole lot of numbers and ingredients that don’t grow at the farm. Making your own popsicles is a simple and inexpensive way to keep the kids cool. Check out www.idealbite.com for a list of popsicle molds, including ones that are BPA-free.

As children, we made our juice pops with juice and water. More often than not, what happened was that you sucked all the flavor out of the pop and were left with ice. Remember that? They were delicious but a bit tricky to eat because they started off rock solid and then quickly melted into a watery mess.

For a better-textured ice pop, try a smoothie pop. Make a smoothie using yogurt, fresh or frozen fruit, and a little sweetener (maple syrup, honey, raw sugar, agave syrup). Add a little water, juice or milk to thin it out. Then pour into molds and freeze.

Teeccino Herbal Coffee Nothing beats an ice-cold iced coffee on a hot summer morning—or afternoon or evening. But who wants all that caffeine?

Teeccino Herbal Coffee
For the preteens, teens, moms-to-be and others who are steering clear of caffeine, there is Teeccino. This no-caffeine, no-coffee alternative tastes pretty good, especially if you want a creamy, sweet beverage. The Teeccino is made primarily from chicory, barley, figs, dates, carob and nuts. Available in flavors like Maya Caffé, Maya Chocolaté, Maya Chai, Vanilla Nut, Hazelnut, Java, Mocha, Almond Amaretto, Chocolate Mint and Original, it’s brewed like coffee, contains no sugar or chocolate and has only 20 calories per serving. Teach your kids to brew their own, then blend with some ice, a little sugar and some fresh organic cream (or ice cream). Not only will your kitchen be the hip new coffee shop in town, but you might order one up yourself.

May you thirst for adventure, fun, time with family and lazy days in the summer sun—and nothing more.

Leah Klein is a water lover. She's drinking filtered Cambridge, MA water over ice with a splash of mint syrup on a really hot day. Isabelle (5) is also a water lover and smoothie mixologist and Henry (2 1/2) is the resident orange juice guzzler. She writes as the Boston Food Mom for Examiner.com at www.examiner.com/x-1240-Boston-Food-Mom-Examiner and can be found on Twitter@bffoodie.