Huckleberry Mint Sparkling Water

I love sparkling water! It's wonderful that companies are finally adding variety and making sparkling water more readily available.  However, I think that it is still fun making your own at home (and it tastes better too)!  Especially if you already have ingredients in your garden.  My mint was ready for harvesting and I had some leftover huckleberry juice from a frozen bag of huckleberries.  So I had all the ingredients available for a refreshing treat after a long morning spent splitting wood for winter.  If you are interested in trying this recipe it's super simple!

First grab a few clippings of mint from the garden (or grab fresh mint from the produce section if you do have a crop of your own):

Next you'll want to wash the mint under cold water to get rid of any debris.  Then drop a few leaves into your cup and pour just enough juice to cover the bottom of the glass.

Use a spoon to bruise/muddle the mint.  This will allow it to release it's flavors.

Let the bruised mint sit in the juices for a few minutes.  The timing will be trial and error, depending on how strong you like the mint flavor.  I use a Soda Stream to make my sparkling water so I usually let the mint sit while I'm carbonating the water.  You can use bottled sparkling if you prefer.  Once your mint has had time to steep add in your sparkling water.  You can either remove the mint at this point or leave it in.  The longer that it sits in your drink the stronger the mint flavor will be.

That's all there is to it.  With a few simple ingredients from your garden and less than five minutes you have a refreshing and tasty drink with no added sugars.  What I love about garden sparkling water is that the combination are only limited to the scope of your imagination.  You can also use fruits that you have frozen, just crush them a little to get the juices out.  Plus then the fruit can act as ice cubes.  Below are a few that I have tried and love.  What are your favorites? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Blackberry/Sage (muddle the blackberries and sage together)

Raspberry/Lime (for those of you lucky enough to live in citrus country)

Strawberry

Blueberry/Mint (just be sure to muddle the blueberries to get the flavor)

Watermelon/Mint

Strawberry lemonade

Blackberry/Mint

Apple

Coconut

Lavender/Mint

Vanilla/Heavy Cream (makes it like an Italian cream soda)