Tasting notes Drink yourself healthy

Soft drinks don’t have to be a soft touch – these pick-me-ups pack a heartening, health-giving punch

I’D USUALLY BE the last person you’d find with a jar of burping kimchee on the worktop or a flip-top bottle of fermented kombucha in the fridge. Keeping a sourdough starter alive over the past few months has been enough of a struggle (feeding times are regular entries in my diary), and even that wasn’t created from scratch. But just recently – and yes, I realise, about three years late – I’ve been thinking of starting a water kefir: the fizzy fermented probiotic concoction of water, sugar and kefir ‘grains’. A friend offered me a glass one hungover morning in December – the ultimate cure, she said – and it perked me up at once. Spritzy and spiced, like Orangina-meets-berocca but far less sweet. A project for dry January, perhaps, since I’m craving something with more bite than virtuous hot water and lemon.

For ready-made vim and vigour, there’s Bumblezest, the new glass- bottled shots Dan Watson created after tinkering with lemon water and honey and adding herbs from his garden. The flavours aren’t shy (a throat-numbing ginger and turmeric version positively shrieks better health when sipped neat) but can be watered down. The cayennespiked milk thistle and apple cider vinegar combo has quickly become a regular morning pep-up.

Sweeter, but also with a sour backbone of cider vinegar, are Nonsuch Shrubs produced by Henry Chevalier Guild (of Aspall fame), which bring the centuries-old tradition of ‘drinking vinegars’ up to date with a blend of sparkling water, fruit and herbs (peach and basil is a favourite). Finally, for warmth, there’s Heath & Heather, whose white tea with fennel and peppermint is the perfect restorative, hungover or not.