Sodas, Part One

This summer, my brother and his daughter came to visit me here in St Louis so she could experience her first plane ride. At seven years old, I can imagine that would be a big deal. My family has been involved in the airline industry for years, and I’m an avid traveler, so I take plane travel lightly sometimes. I can’t really recall when my first plane ride was.

When they arrived, we went shopping for provisions for lunch, and my brother went and picked up a carton of Reed’s Ginger Brew! Oh man! As soon as I saw the carton, my mouth started twitching! Reed’s is my favorite among the real ginger beers out there on the market. I know there are some other good ones, but because of the naturalness of the ingredients, I lean towards Reed’s.

I was this close to having a sip, and then my inside voice started screaming, “It has sugar! Don’t do it!” I had to listen. I knew that if I took one sip, the whole bottle would have been gone in probably seven minutes!

Needless to say, we hurried home to my kitchen. It was time for me to come up with an acceptable stand-in. Since there would be no sugar involved, there wouldn’t a fermentation process, but I could boil my own ginger root, add some sparkling water and a little stevia and I would be sippin lovely! Here’s what went into the glass:

one medium sized piece of spankingly fresh ginger root
1 quart water
25mg stevia (the size of the scoop in your pure stevia container)
squeeze of lemon or lime
favorite brand of sparkling water

In a twelve ounce glass, fill half way with ginger brew, add stevia and lemon or lime juice. Top off with sparkling water. Give a little stir to get the stevia to dissolve more quickly. Drink. Make another.

Take that little brother!