Cherry Vanilla Flavored Water

Take two minutes to make this cherry vanilla flavored water and you will thank yourself all day. Enjoy the flavors of a dessert while you hydrate, without being an overly-sweet drink. Wonderful any time of year, thanks to frozen cherries. Just two ingredients plus filtered water! So much better than store-bought soda or even sparkling water.

It doesn't get much easier than this, yet it may be the best-tasting water you've ever had! No fancy mixing required, and it's easy to alter to your taste. This is a flavored water not a juice or soda, so it is flavorful without being sugary-sweet.

Ingredients

There are just two ingredients required for this recipe, beyond the filtered water:

Frozen cherries - It's important to use frozen, as they give off more flavor and color than fresh or dried. I keep a batch in my freezer at all times so that I can have cherry vanilla water any time of year.

Vanilla powder - I prefer vanilla powder to vanilla's other forms for its soft yet very vanilla flavor. If you only have access to vanilla liquid, paste, or pod, try first using a tiny bit and add more to taste.

Let's make cherry vanilla water!

This recipe makes about 8 cups of cherry vanilla flavored water, so use a pitcher that can hold that amount. If yours is smaller, try halving the recipe.

First, you'll add five frozen cherries to the pitcher. Then, add the vanilla powder. Pour in the 8 cups of water, which will mix the ingredients for you (no need to stir).

The frozen cherries will thaw over time, releasing a nice light pink color into the water as well as more flavor.

The cherry flavor is subtle, with vanilla being the forward note. When you're finished with the water, enjoy those cherries!

Serving

You can give this delicious water to one person (how about yourself?) to drink throughout the day. On days when I have a pitcherful nearby throughout the day, I find that the flavor really helps me drink more water.

Sharing the pitcher with up to four of you is also wonderful. It's a lovely alternative to tea or a canned or bottled drink, and it won't take any time for you to put it together. Such a crowd pleaser!

water safety

It's important to wash anything that's going into your water well. Wash your hands and produce well; soaking fruit and veggies for 5 minutes and then rinsing can help remove anything that shouldn't be in your drinking water.

Be sure to drink water with fresh produce in it within two hours. If you're not going to be done by then, place it in your fridge until you're ready to drink more. You can keep a pitcherful in the fridge and just keep pouring it into a glass when needed; it will stay nice and cool that way. Otherwise, keep it ice cold with lots of ice.

There can be a lot of stuff we'd rather not be drinking in tap water. Using filtered water helps remove it.

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