Kick the Soda, Keep the Fizz

I've been a soda drinker for about six years. In that time, I've kicked the habit twice. The first time was easy - cold turkey, no problems. The next time I went through it, four years later, was torture. At first, it was purely the caffeine addiction - I got that terrible withdrawal headache, felt foggy-headed and I missed that lift my cola gave me. But after a month or so had passed, my cravings were still powerful. I lusted after the cold tingle of that first drink - it was always the palpable memory of that first drink that haunted me, the relief of the cool fizz as it washed down my throat. Every time my spouse popped open a can, the sound of it made my mouth water and my senses jump, only to be let down when my better judgment informed them that no, there would be no cold soda forthcoming.

This went on for weeks, til I began to feel like one of Pavlov's dogs - I'd find myself responding to the sound of a soda can opening by showing up out of nowhere at my spouse's side, charming my way into "just one sip" to recreate the heaven of that first drink. I knew eventually I'd have to give even that up, as well. By hanging on to that one sip, I was only prolonging the torture.

I reasoned that it would be a good idea to have other beverages available to drink. Normally, our household doesn't host juice, Kool-Aid or any of those other brand-name drinks, so the only options are tea, water or my husband's stash of soda. It seemed like a good time to try something new. I'd recently been culturing milk for kefir, a yogurt-like product that was thin enough to drink. Compared to yogurt, the kefir culture contains a greater range of probiotics that are beneficial to gut health. I knew from researching about kefir that the source of the culture, the kefir grain, could be used in other liquids as well. So I separated some of my grains out of the milk kefir jar, rinsed them well and began experimenting with creating a kefir beverage from flavored waters.