Water Education - Water and Health

Recipes for Great Drinks

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It has been said that drinking water is boring. After all, it's clear and has no smell. This makes it hard for water to compete against many other colorful and 'fruity' drinks that our taste buds crave. But there is an option to 'liven' up your water.

Try some of these great recipes to make your water memorable and enjoyable.

  • Cinnamon Water. Take of bruised cinnamon, 1 lb.; water, 2 galls. Simmer in a still for 1/2 an hour, put what comes over into the still again; when cold strain through flannel. Eau Sans-Pareil. Take 2 galls. of fine old honey-water, put it into a still capable of holding 4 galls., and add the thinly pared rinds of 6 or 8 fresh citrons, neither green nor mellow ripe. Then add 60 or 70 drops of fine Roman bergamot; and, having luted the apparatus well, let the whole digest in a moderate heat for 24 hours. Draw off, by a water-bath heat, about 1 gall.
  • Jessamine Water. Take 6 lbs. of the white sweet almond cakes from which jessamine oil has been made abroad; beat and sift them to a fine powder, and put to it as much fresh oil of jessamine as will be required to make it into a stiff paste. Let this paste be dissolved in about 6 qts. of spring water, which has been previously well boiled, and left until it has become about half cold. Stir and mix the whole well together, and when the oil and water have been well combined, let the whole stand until the powder has fallen to the bottom of the vessel. Now pour the liquid off gently, and filter it through cotton, in a large tin funnel, into the glass bottle in which it is to be kept for use. The powder or sediment, which has been left at the bottom of the vessel, when dried by the heat of the sun, answers very well for making almond paste for the hands.
  • Jamaica Pepper Water. Jamaica pepper is the fruit of a tall tree growing in the mountainous parts of Jamaica, where it is much cultivated because of the great profit arising from the cured fruit, sent in large quantities annually into Europe. Take of Jamaica pepper, 1/2 lb.; water, 2 1/2 galls.; draw off 1 gall. with a pretty brisk fire. The oil of this fruit is very ponderous, and therefore this water is made in an alembic. Myrtle Water. Infuse 8 or 10 lbs. of the cuttings of green myrtle in nearly 20 galls. of rain or river water, and add thereto a pint of fresh yeast, after it has stood for 24 hours. At the end of another day and night, put the whole into a still, with 1 lb. of bay-salt. Draw off the whole of the water, and next day infuse more myrtle leaves as before and distill again. Repeat the same a third time.
  • Orange-flower Water. Take 2 lbs. of orange flowers, and 24 qts. of water, and draw over 3 pts. Or, take 12 lbs. of orange flowers, and 16 qts. of water, and draw over 15 qts. Orange-peel Water. Take off the outward yellow rind of Seville oranges, 4 oz.; water, 3 1/2 galls., draw off 1 gall. by the alembic, with a brisk fire.
  • Peppermint Water. Take of the herb of peppermint, dried, 1 1/2 lbs.; water, as much as is sufficient to prevent burning. Distill off a gallon. This has been known to allay sickness when nothing else would succeed and is used in flatulent colics. A wineglassful may be taken, and often repeated. Another.--Take of oil of peppermint, 1 lb.; water, a sufficient quantity. Draw off 30 galls. This is stimulant and carminative and covers disagreeable flavors.
  • Portugal and Angel Waters. Take 1 pt. of orange-flower water, 1 pt. of rose water, and 1/2 pt. of myrtle-water; to these put a 1/2 oz. of the distilled spirit of musk, and an ounce of the spirit of ambergris. Shake the whole well together, and the process will be finished. Rose-water. Take off the leaves of fresh damask roses with the heels cut off, 6 lbs., water, as much as to prevent burning. Distill off a gallon. The distilled water should be drawn from dried herbs because the fresh cannot be got at all times in the year. Whenever the fresh are used the weights must be increased; but whether the fresh or dry are made use of, it is left to the judgment of the operator to vary the weight, according to as the plants are in greater or less perfection, owing to the season in which they grew, or were collected.
  • Small Snail Water. Take of balm, mint, hart's tongue, ground ivy, flowers of the dead nettle, mallow-flowers, elderflowers, each a handful; snails freed from their shells, and whites of eggs, each 4 oz.; nutmegs, 3 oz.; milk, 1 gall. Distill in a water bath to dryness. Strawberry Water. Take of the bruised fruit, 20 lbs.; water a sufficient quantity. Draw off 23 galls.; this water is very fragrant.
  • Basic Sports Drink o 1 quart (32 oz) or 1-liter water o 1/3 cup sugar o 1/4 teaspoon table salt o Flavoring to taste - orange juice, lemon juice, etc. Keep refrigerated.
  • 20-Oz. Sports Bottle's Worth of Sports Drink; 3 tablespoons table sugar; 1/8 teaspoon table salt; Flavoring to taste - orange juice, lemon juice, unsweetened Kool-Aid or Wyler's drink mix, etc. Suggest trying 2-3 tablespoons of juice or 1/3 packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid; Fill halfway with water, mix well.; Top off with water. Keep refrigerated.
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