Ways to Serve Water: Ideas for Entertaining and More

There are numerous creative and delicious ways to serve water. Whether you're serving water at the family table or you're planning a special dinner, holiday event, or outdoor party, H2O is an essential addition to every meal, and it never has to be boring.

Water is refreshing, versatile, and healthy, and there are many unique and exciting ways to serve water — a delicious elixir of life.

Water is so much more than a simple palate cleanser in between food and cocktails; it's a healthy part of everyday living and always a gracious option to offer guests as many people prefer to stay away from surgery or alcoholic drinks. When you serve water, your guests will appreciate it.

In this article, we'll discuss a wide array of serving ideas to consider when you offer a refreshing glass of water to your family or guests.

Single-Serve Water: Ways to Serve Water Outdoors and at Parties

When it comes to outdoor get-togethers, serving water from a pitcher or glass dispenser is not always convenient. However, there are sizable sports-cooler beverage dispensers readily available, and you can fill them up for your event with clean, filtered water from home.

Want to get creative for a barbecue or kids' birthday party without adding to the plastic problem by using disposable cups? Why not purchase inexpensive, reusable water bottles at your local dollar store to give out as party favors? You can get them in different colors, have them printed with your guests' names, or leave out fun stickers and colorful Sharpies so guests can decorate their own.

Finally, if you want to get a bit more gourmet with your water service, small, lidded mason jars are ideal for packing water with a handful of flavor infusions if you're looking for a decorative variation on single-serve options. When going this route, you can get creative with the blends of fruits, tea leaves, flowers, and herbs for each jar. To further your country garden party-style presentation, keep them chilled in a large, tin bucket filled with ice.

Create and Serve Sparkling Water

Many people love sparkling water, which offers a tingly, fizzy sensation with every sip. Like plain water, you can infuse your bubbly water with natural juice or fresh fruit to create a great alternative to soda, which is cost-effective and healthier than sugary beverages.

Today it's easy to make your own sparkling water at home with a Soda Stream, Spärkel, DrinkMate system, or similar. Just add your home filtered water and voilà! You're all set to serve delicious, healthy, clean sparkling water to your guests and family.

Ways to Serve Water With Natural Flavoring

It's hydrating and refreshing when you drink a glass of plain water, but it doesn't offer the distinct taste of a flavor-infused beverage. It's a snap to remedy that. There are great natural flavor options to consider, which provide a delicious infusion of herbs and fruits to create an enjoyable drink.

Adding a splash of flavor not only improves the taste when you serve water, but it's also a great way to create a lovely aesthetic when you serve water from a dispenser.

Infused water offers all the health benefits of a thirst-quenching glass of water, with the added benefit of sweet, tangy, or herbal flavor.

Here are a few ways to serve water with flavors, herbs, fruits, and other savory things:

Serve Water With Fresh Berries and Citrus Fruits

Sliced oranges, limes, lemons, and grapefruit are great citrus fruits to add to a plain or sparkling water jug. If you have a handful of fresh raspberries, strawberries, or watermelon during the summer months, you can blend or crush a few flavors together, thus creating a refreshing drink.

Ways to Serve Water With Herbs, Veggies, and Flowers

Fresh herbs, leaves, and flowers create a beautiful presentation and aesthetic enhancement when serving water.

Sage, rosemary, mint, and basil are popular choices for a savory hint of taste, and rose petals or hibiscus buds offer a unique flavor while providing décor for your dispenser.

Cucumber slices offer an excellent taste to sip with your water too. OK, it’s just the one vegetable — but, still — cool as a cucumber, no?

We suggest that you get creative with ingredients when you serve water. Try a combination of basil and lemon, for example. We think you'll be deliciously pleased with the results.

Adding Freshly Squeezed Juice Is a Nice Way to Serve Water

Do you enjoy fresh, organic pomegranate, grape, apple, pear, or cranberry juice? Add a splash of tangy fruit juice to your water to create a tasty beverage without all the refined sugar or additives. These fruits, as well as fresh berries and citrus fruits, offer a great source of antioxidants and vitamins, so you can enjoy the benefits of a healthy drink when you sip and serve naturally infused water.

Decorative Iced Water

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Many people prefer iced water, especially on a hot day. If you're planning an outdoor patio party or summer picnic in the park, flavored ice cubes make a great option that can also allow you to infuse some great taste into the water you serve.

When you prepare the ice cubes, you can choose from various ice cube trays to make ice in the shape of stars, circles, or hearts, for example, or, of course, the traditional cube. Then, add a few bits of fruit or herbs such as fresh mint, basil, lemon, cucumber, or berries.

Finally, you can infuse your water with frozen mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or cherries, especially during warmer months, if you want to add a bit more pizzazz than just ice.

A couple of scoops of frozen, sugar-free lemonade or limeade juice mix also makes a great flavor option in a pinch.

Freshly Brewed Infusions

The addition of freshly brewed mint, chamomile, or fruit infusion makes a great iced-water drink with little effort. You can brew batches of these infusions to chill in the refrigerator and just add a splash to your filtered water for a little extra flavor.

Use Natural Extracts When You Serve Water

Your pantry may include a few natural flavor extracts and oils you might consider for your water. For example, a few drops of maple, mint, lemon, coconut, or sweet orange extract can add a quick boost in taste if you're pressed for time and want to enhance your water.

Flavor Cartridges Add Pizzazz to Water Servings

If you're looking for another quick way to flavor your water, you can install a flavor cartridge that's easy to use and creates a beautiful variety of sugar-free flavor blends through your faucet filter. This option is ideal if you host frequent house parties or events requiring a lot of preparation and are looking to minimize time and effort.

Blending Fruits and Flavor Combinations When You Serve Water

When you're looking for delicious flavor combinations to boost your plain or sparkling water, you'll find endless possibilities and great blends that you can crush in a blender or slice and add to your water dispenser.

Here are a few tasty combinations to try for your next house party:

• Create a refreshing tropical fruit flavor with a blend of coconut, pineapple, mango, and papaya. You can blend these fruits in a food processor for a more intense flavor or slice and combine them in the water dispenser, either fresh or frozen.
• A berry infusion of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries is a beautiful boost of antioxidants and tart but sweet flavors that work well in water. If you favor a tangy taste, you can concentrate more blackberries with a few cranberries and strawberries. Combine fresh or frozen blueberries and raspberries for a sweeter blend.
• Ginger has significant health benefits as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and pain reliever while offering a zesty flavor. You can easily blend raw ginger root with lemon, lime, and berries to create a beverage with a tasty zing.
• Try a spa-influenced drink with your favorite melon fruits, including cantaloupe, honeydew, or watermelon with cucumber and mint leaves.
• Kiwi and strawberry are popular blends to add to your water dispenser. These fruits blend well together and give your water a full flavor like a light juice, and this blend is ideal in sparkling or mineral water.

Before you mix and serve your favorite blend of infused water, you can experiment with a few extracts, leaves, fruits, and herbs to find some delicious combinations for you and your guests. For example, mint with lemon or lime is a popular refreshing option if you're looking for a simple way to flavor your sparkling or plain water.

Presenting Water as a Decorative Piece

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There are plenty of ways to serve water that are decorative. Suppose you're arranging a long buffet-style table for a catered event or potluck party. In that case, you can enhance the appearance of your presentation by adding a water dispenser on either end of the table, with decorative party-themed ribbons and flowers.

If you want to go all out, you might consider bringing a sense of ambiance and natural beauty with a few tealight candles or LED fairy lights to highlight your water dispenser at a late evening event outdoors.

There are many beautiful ways to decorate, flavor, and design your water dispenser to create an aesthetic display at your next dinner party while offering some tasty fruit, herbs, and extracts. You can add a few slices of lemon or cucumber to add an aesthetic appearance and fresh flavor to your dispenser before serving water. Flower petals, leaves, and herbs provide a beautiful way to accent your water and are all an affordable, creative way to add natural, healthy ingredients, impressing guests at the same time when you serve your signature blend of flavored water.

Whether you serve plain, mineral, or sparkling water, if you get a little creative you'll find plenty of great decorating ideas to present tasty and beautiful water.

Choosing and Caring for Your Water Dispenser

A glass water dispenser is ideal for serving water to your guests and family. It's easy to use and offers sufficient space to add refreshing, natural flavor to enhance the taste and decoration.

Water dispensers are a great way to serve water because they include a small tap or spout that makes for easy, slosh-proof fills and refills.

Water dispensers are a terrific way to keep chilled water in your refrigerator all the time with or without your favorite natural flavors.

And remember, you must maintain the cleanliness of your dispenser to prevent bacteria from accumulating in the container and keep your water tasting fresh.

Ways to Serve Water: Limited Only by Your Imagination

Whether it's just the family or an elegant soiree, you can never go wrong with serving freshly filtered, clean, healthy water. Make it pretty or make it flavorful — or serve water plain if you want.

There are many ways to grace your guests or family members with a pure, healthy beverage that everyone will appreciate.

 Brought to you by homewater.com

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