Drink mix to add to water?

[optical]

I don't want to keep paying for expensive bottled water and I hate the taste of boiled faucet water - what are some good brands of drink mixes that I can buy to make my water taste like maybe lemonade or ice tea or anything else?

Would appreciate chinese characters(for brand names), pin yin, wikipedia links, etc

Thank you!

[Eden7]

you may try Juice powder... Tang 果珍 "Tang" brand...lemon flavor.it can be mixed with cold water.

[yonglin]

I suspect that this is why Chinese people drink tea.

[Xiao Kui]

I don't want to keep paying for expensive bottled water

Expensive???? What are you drinking - Perrier?

I pay $10 US for 55 gallons, which last me and my 2 roommates 3-4 months

[optical]

How can you get 55 gallons for 10 dollars? I am buying the big 4L jug for 4.50, that's the best deal I've found so far. I'll have to look for tang... I liked that in america.

[optical]

I just got back from Auchan (the psychotically over crowed "super market" full of pushing screaming pyschos, aka. a fun place to be) and I found Tang! So thank you so much for suggesting that eden7 I am really happy now, I just made some of it and it tastes great with the boiled city water - I even found some Nestea powder!

And also they had those same 4L jugs of water for 2.90 - Damn campus store markup charging me 4.50....

[imron]

Water from supermarkets is expensive. You should be able to get a big 19L bottle of water delivered to where ever you live for between 5-10kuai. This thread has more information about buying water.

That being the case, I also second Yonglin's suggestion of drinking tea Bear in mind though that there are good teas and bad teas. Cheap tea similar to what you get for free in restaurants can be had for almost nothing, but it tastes like rubbish so you're still back at your original problem. Good tea will probably start around 200RMB for 500g. That might seem a bit pricey, but just keep in mind that 500g is actually a lot of tea. A reasonably sized container of good tea will set you back about 40-50 RMB and depending on how much you drink, it should last several weeks. You probably don't want to buy more than that at a single time, because it will start to lose its freshness.

Depending on your tastes, you might like to try starting out with something like 铁观音 Tieguanyin or 龙井 Longjing tea. The former is a sweeter tea, and the latter is more bitter.

[cdn_in_bj]

How about 酸梅汤? You can buy the drink mix powder at any grocery store.

[Pravit]

I LUV 酸梅汤, also thirding the tea suggestion. Support your local tea leaves dealer!

[889]

广东省工商局抽查桶装饮用水 逾六成不合格

http://health.voc.com.cn/Article/20078/200787102310968104.html

[owshawng]

How about barley tea? It's what most Korean restaurants serve instead of water. I like the tea ideas too. You can brew up 2 or 4 liters at a time and then keep in in the fridge. I use whole black tea leaves and they only cost $1 US an ounce in New York. tastes so good no need to add sugar or syrups. Only costs a few cents a gallon/4 liters to make.

Those powder mixes are just loaded with artificial chemicals and sweetners. You're already getting exposed to tons of pollutants living in China or any big city in the world, so why go out of your way to add more?

[zozzen]

7-up is a convenient choice and it tastes really not bad. In Vietnam, many supermarkets are really selling "7-up water" (around 50% 7-up , 50% water) .

And yeah, bottled water is really really cheap in china, even cheaper than many asian countries around her, but i will only buy famous (reliable) brands like Kansifu, Wahaha and Robust. A bottle of 550ml distilled water of these brands is only RMB0.7.

I like the tea ideas too. You can brew up 2 or 4 liters at a time and then keep in in the fridge.

I did it too, but my sport plastic bottle always have bad smell (possibly my saliva fermented in it). No matter how many times i washed it, there would be smell after one or two days. Do you know how to wash a plastic bottle?