As much as we would like to steer our children away from traditional sodas with high fructose corn syrup and a myriad of chemicals and stabilizers, they so often seem to crave them. Why not consider a different approach to a healthier soft drink and turn their thirst into a fun group activity. Old fashioned soda siphons hold an appeal for all ages, but if you don’t have one, or can’t easily get one, you can use any seltzer water, club soda or consider an all natural ginger ale as your drink base. One fun advantage of using a soda siphon is that you can put in an iced tea base to turn into the sparkling base for your ‘soda’ even before your fruit and tea syrups go in. 
Simply put ice and about a tablespoon of your chosen tea syrups into a glass. What child can resist the chance to ‘squish’ fresh fruits and berries, or even some fresh herbs or flower petals into their drinks as well. If you don’t have a muddler handy, the back of a spoon will also work. When ‘their masterpiece is finished, then just add the ice and seltzer. 
Tea syrups are easy to make, and once strained well, will hold for weeks in your refrigerator. Once you have them stocked into your kitchen, you will be amazed at how often you may reach to them not just for drinks, but to drizzle over fresh fruit, pancakes or more. Inexpensive ‘honey bears’ make the perfect holders for small hands to help themselves, and add an extra level of whimsey. Everyone’s tastes can be met by mixing and matching your syrups and ranging from the slightest hint of sweetness and flavor for more adult palettes, to an intense fresh fruity drink sure to please all. Gather your assortment syrups, ripe, fresh ‘squishable’ berries, fresh mint and perhaps fruit purees and prepare to have lots of fun! To make a syrup out of your families favorite teas or tisanes simply steep them for the appropriate amount of time in water the correct temperature for that tea, but use two or three times the amount of tea leaves that you would in order to make the tea for drinking. Strain the concentrated infusion into a small saucepan and add equal parts raw sugar. Stir over medium low heat until all of the sugar is dissolved and it comes just to a simmer, then remove from the heat and let cool. The key to a long stable life for your syrup is to make sure it was very well strained. Any bits of tea leaves, fruits or herbs left will shorten the life of your syrup dramatically. Store covered in the refrigerator until ready to use. To make a more complex multi-component syrup, consider some of the following recipes: Spiced Keemun and Cherry Simple Syrup Yield: roughly 4 cups Tea Syrup
5 cups water- 4 cups raw sugar
- 1 lime wedge
- 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cherries
- 4 each Star Anise or 2 teaspoons whole Anise Seed
- 1 teaspoon clove
- 1 teaspoon crushed black pepper
- 4 tablespoons full bodied black tea leaves, preferably Keemun
Stir water, cherries, Star Anise, clove and black pepper in a saucepan and squeeze in lime. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in sugar and simmer until light syrup forms. Stir in the tea leaves and remove from heat. Let cool, then strain well. Note: ½ cup coarsely chopped dried cherries may be substituted for the fresh cherries. Green tea may be substituted for the black tea as well. Ginger and Peach Simple Syrup Yield: roughly 4 cups Tea Syrup
- 5 cups water
- 4 cups raw sugar
- 1 orange wedge
- 4 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
- 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh peaches or apricots
- 4 tablespoons green tea leaves, Sencha works well
Stir water, ginger and peaches in a saucepan and squeeze in lime. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in sugar and simmer until light syrup forms. Stir in the tea leaves and immediately remove from heat. Let cool, then strain well. Note: Fresh apricots may be substituted for the peaches, or .5 cups dried apricots or peaches may be used. Oolong tea may also be used instead of green if desired. Oolong and Plum Simple Syrup
Yield: roughly 4 cups Tea Syrup
5 cups water- 4 cups raw sugar
- 1 lime wedge
- 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh plums, preferably red plums
- 2 each cinnamon sticks, preferably Ceylonese
- .5 teaspoon clove
- 4 tablespoons Oolong tea leaves
Stir water, plums, clove and cinnamon in a saucepan and squeeze in lime. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in sugar and simmer until light syrup forms. Stir in the tea leaves and remove from heat. Let cool, then strain well. Note: Black tea may be substituted for the Oolong leaves if a more full bodied syrup is desired. Satsuma Plums are particularly nice for both flavor and dramatic color, but any favorite style of plum will work well. Other combinations to consider include black tea and Concord grapes or berries, green tea and citrus, Green tea or pouchong and passionfruit or strawberries. These are large batches of syrup. To make your final beverages you will only be using a few teaspoons of syrup, so the final amount of sugar in any drink is quite small. If you are looking to completely eliminate sugar from your diet however consider omitting the sugar. You will then not have a syrup, but a flavor concentrate. Then blend in some finely pureed fruit, of the type that you used to make the syrup, to thicken your concentrate so that it is in a squeezable form.
