Everyone knows that drinking water is good for you – and far better than sugary alternatives. This summer’s trend appears to be fruit infused water – because let’s be honest drinking plain old boring water all the time isn’t exactly appealing. But what about children? Most kids aren’t keen on water or fruit – so how do you convince them to put down their sugary drinks and try a fruit infused water? Meet the ECO Orange!

Ricola’s Summer Drinks Campaign: The ECO Orange

The ECO Orange is the recipe I have come up with as part of Ricola’s Summer Drinks Campaign.

“Ricola make mouth-wateringly good Swiss herbal sweets, sugar free with sweeteners, made with only natural colours and flavours – naturally! The secret being a magic blend of 13 herbs naturally grown in the fresh pure air of the beautiful and tranquil Swiss mountains.”

They wanted bloggers like myself to show how easily Ricola Sugar-free sweets could be dissolved to make the perfect non-alcoholic summer drink. We all know that children’s consumption of sugary drinks is a real problem (and with the sugar tax now introduced to help combat it). I wanted something which would encourage my children to make that switch from fizzy to water. It is important to note that it was not just the final product which encouraged my children to drink it, but the fun method of making it together: Including the use of sweets, dissolving them and what child does not enjoy making ice!

About The ECO-Orange Drink

ECO means not to harm the environment and this ECO Orange drink is going to be much kinder to the environment that it ends up in (ie the body). Well obviously this drink is much kinder than some drinks on the market with less sugar and vitamin C. The ECO part of the name actually comes from the 3 Ricola sugar-free sweet flavours utilised to make the drink (making it easier to remember) – Elderflower, Cranberry and OrangeMint.

The ECO Orange Drink Ingredients

• Water
• Orange (peeled)
• Basil leaves
• Ricola Elderflower Swiss Herbal Sweets (3)
• Ricola Cranberry Swiss Herbal Sweets (3)
• Ricola OrangeMint Swiss Herbal Sweets (3)

The ECO Orange Drink Apparatus

• Jug
• Kettle
• Spoon
• Ice-trays (and freezer)
• Glass
• Straw

The ECO Orange Drink Method

Dissolve 3 Ricola Cranberry Swiss Herbal Sweets in 300ml of boiling water and let cool. Then place the liquid into ice-trays and freeze until hard. Next dissolve 3 Ricola Elderflower Swiss Herbal Sweets in 200ml of boiling water and let cool down. Do the same with 3 of Ricola OrangeMint.

Take the ice-cubes from the freezer and place 3 in the bottom of a glass. Gently place 3 orange segments in the bottom of the glass and add half a glass of each of the Ricola flavoured waters.  Place an orange segment on the side of the glass and top with basil leaves and a straw to serve.

The ECO Orange recipe may be adapted to use more of your favourite Ricola flavoured Swiss herbal sweets and different fruits. My children just loved experimenting with the different flavours and seeing which mixed together well – and it was a cheap way of not only encouraging them to drink water, but keeping them entertained on a hot day.

Which flavours would you try? There is also LemonMint, Liquorice, Mountain Mint, and The Original (which is sweetened with Stevia).

This is a sponsored post. I was sent free samples of the entire Ricola range in order to design a Summer Drink. Words and opinions are honest and my own, apart from those in quotation marks. This is a unique recipe designed by myself.