My Mom’s husband is also taking on a weight-loss diet similar to me and my hubby: a sort of Primal crossed with the Atkins Induction. Knowing he loves diet soda, I sent him some of these Pomegranate Cherry Fast Flavor Sticks from Trader Joe’s (TJ’s). He asked for more! (Yes, I sent them in the mail.)
Now, an Izze is natural carbonated juice. But, what if you want something that’s yeast-free, natural, and as little sugar as possible? You’ll need something sweetened with stevia and maybe erythritol (my two non-caloric sweeteners of choice). Enter these two great products.
Two similar Berry-or-Cherry-flavored products for flavoring carbonated water like Perrier or with the SodaStream.
These TJ’s Pom-Cherry Fast Flavor Sticks make your drink red with natural colors. They’re gluten-free and party-friendly (unless you have white carpet).
Tip: Be careful with the Trader Joe’s Flavor Sticks going into carbonated water! I use a tall glass because this tends to foam up quite a lot.
The Flavor Sticks have only 13 calories. But, here’s another solution which is calorie-free!
The clear liquid stevia extracts from SweetLeaf are quite exciting to me, because they are even more natural with fewer ingredients. The Berry flavor is similar to the TJ’s Pom-Cherry sticks. I know a few kids who love this flavor. Now, some people might discern the difference and even prefer the TJ’s. But, the SweetLeaf option is available to those who want Zero calories and fewer ingredients. Or, no color–better if you spill your drink (what a great option with children!)
Now, if Trader Joe’s is too far out of your way, you could try eBay! But, for the SweetLeaf liquids, you could Google it. I would recommend these options:
Bonus: I happen to not own a SodaStream (yet), so I buy bottles of Perrier at Costco. No doubt I’ll be blogging about this later this year after some cost analysis.
Ideas: You do not have to use carbonated water; you could use these sweet flavors to add to regular water or to bump up some tea or juice, gelatin, chia seed pudding. Perhaps we’ll soon be adding our whole food Vitamin C powder to some of this Berry Water (more on that later).
My 5 year old and I both I like to have a treat with one of these drink options and Trader Joe’s Seaweed Snacks (only 99 cents) for a salty hit.
Share? Do you have a quick idea or recipe using a flavored stevia product? Could you share with all of Hearth and Gnome’s readers?
