ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Create A Flavored Water Bar

Updated on June 3, 2009

Water Bars?

Remember the "oxygen bar?" People would go to a club, sit at the counter then grab a tube to breathe in fresh oxygen. Did you ever wonder what would "they" think of next?

Be the first to set up a fresh flavored water bar. With the boom of the flavored bottled water craze, foodservice professionals were bound to figure out a way to capitalize on the idea without having to spend tons of money on manufactured plastic bottle waters. This is, by far, one of the greenest ideas I've seen. No throw away plastic bottles! Best yet, you can recreate this idea at home or ask your caterer to create a bar for your wedding.

Hydration Station

Infused-fruit water was inspired by a little known drink called, "agua fresca", available in Latin countries. Agua fresca is made with strained fruit puree or other ingredients mixed with equal parts of water and are often sweetened with sugar. The agua fresca knockoff idea first reared its delicious head in the U.S. food industry magazines back in 2006. Currently at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Latin staff familiar with the concept are serving their fruited waters version to its student body sometimes sweetening it with flavored syrups.

Powerhouse foodservice companies like Sodexo, who provides meals to universities throughout the US, and corporations like Google, offer flavor water stations as a standard in their cafeterias. Google calls their water station, "a healthy green alternative to soda and manufactured bottled water." At one of Sodexo's water stations, students enjoy flavored waters with no additives or sweeteners. The Sodexo "hydration station" has been a hit at one major university.

_____________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Ingredients

Create your "hydration station" at your summer wedding, outdoor family cookout or at the next hors d'oeuvres soiree. Use your favorite big container of unflavored bottled water. Here are a couple of tips:

  • some fruits work better than others - if the fruit will disintegrate in water don't use it
  • put the fruit right in the water - don't try to separate it from the water
  • cut the fruits in big wedges or slices

Citrus fruits are the best to use but be sure you use what's in season. Purchase at your local farmer's market or find the produce wholesaler in your area. If you live in Maryland, visit www.lmproduce.com at their Jessup warehouse. You'll need to set up an account with your Sales Tax ID number but you can pay cash right on the spot and get anything you want all year round!

Best fruits to use:

  • limes
  • lemons
  • grapefruits
  • pummelos (taste like candied almonds)
  • oroblancos/melogolds (peachlike)
  • orlando tangelos (pineapple/tangy orange marmalade finish)
  • dancy tangerines (watermelon flavor/tart plum like finish)
  • royal mandarins (robust spicy mango after taste)
  • minnesota tangelos (lingering vanilla/fig overtones, floral lemonde after taste)
  • fairchild tangerines (currant pineapple flavor, honeysuckle aftertaste)
  • moro oranges (rich tart plum flavor, wild strawberry after taste)
  • satsuma mandarins (tropical fruit flavor warm cinnamon spice after taste)
  • clementine mandarins (crisp apricot nectar flavor, rich raisiny after taste)
  • honey mandarins (juicy cherry/passionfruit flavors)
  • cara cara navels (cranberry appeal cherry flavored undertones)
  • navel oranges (tart vanilla flavor finish)
  • valencia oranges (sweet and tart orange flavors)

If you must flavor your waters visit my favorite flavor syrup Monin http://moninstore.com/

Equipment

Take a look at some of the options you have for your flavored water station. Check with places like Target or Sams Club for inexpensive clear jar beverage servers with spouts. These containers may only be 2-3 gallons. The first four beverage containers shown are all from Sam's Club. If they are not available in the store, order online. The last, more elaborate container may be found at your local party rental store.

Visit the following links for price information:

Experiment With Recipes

Have fun making your own flavored waters. Try:

  • cucumbers with mint
  • apple spiced with cinnamon sticks
  • spearmint and peppermint
  • lime and mint
  • grapefruit and orange

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)