Zing Anything Citrus Zinger Review and Giveaway

I received a green Citrus Zinger for free to facilitate this review and the opportunity to also give one (in the color of winner's choice: green, orange or *pink) away.

When summer roles around, especially when the weather gets hot, we all need to remember to stay hydrated. I admit that I don't really like drinking plain water. Unless it is super cold with lots of ice I don't drink water as much as I should. I do love flavored water a lot though. I flavor my water all kinds of ways, but my favorites usually are with citrus fruits.

The Citrus Zinger from Zing Anything has become my new favorite water bottle. It makes delicious refreshing cold beverages with a citrus zing to them. It is very portable and great to take anywhere. I love it when I am on the go. I have definitely been drinking a lot more water since I got it.

The Citrus Zinger has a very unique design that basically puts a water bottle and a citrus reamer/juicer/press together into one very sweet little gadget. This water bottle works especially well for juicing small citrus fruits like: lemons, limes & bergamot, mandarin, tangerine and clementine oranges. Also, the citrus reamer/juicer/press works as a strainer too so any seeds and rind from the citrus fruit stays put in the bottom cup. The liquid that you place in the bottle will continually mix with the juice and a small amount of the pulp through the strainer while drinking.

The Citrus Zinger is made with America-Made BPA/EA-free Tritan plastics from Eastman. It fits perfectly in a cup holder and the cap has a finger hole for easy carrying. This water bottle is earth friendly because it is reusable. The bottle holds 28 ounces of fluid.

Tips:

1. Before adding liquid you can also load ice into the bottle easily by turning the citrus reamer/juicer/press counter-clockwise then pulling it out from the wide end after first unscrewing the bottom cup. 
2. The liquid is always best when served cold so refrigerate it if you are not drinking it right away. 
3. I have also seen the Citrus Zinger used for juicing cucumbers (just thinly slice crosswise and place as many slices will fit in the cup with the fleshy part through the reamer) and kiwis (cut in half, then place half on the reamer, press for juicing and compost fuzzy peel). For a more intense flavor you can even press more than one citrus fruit into your bottle. You can even add a combination of the citrus with an herb such as mint leaves and/or a fruit such as berries to the cup to get a new flavor. Get creative. (I have more ideas on this post on flavoring water and ZingAnything.com has more recipes too.)
4. You can Zing cold: water, sparkling/carbonated beverages, iced tea, etc.
5. You don't have to add any refined sugar or artificial ingredients to make the perfect refreshing limeades, lemonades and orangeades. If you do find the mix a little sour try adding a little honey.
6. The Citrus Zinger produces one-two drinks per Zing if you leave the rind in the bottom cup to help further infuse.

 Instructions:

1. First unscrew the bottom cup of the Zinger. Then flip the bottle over onto its top cap.
2. Wash and then cut the citrus fruit you are using in half crosswise. Take one of the halves and place the point of the reamer/juicer/press into the center of the flesh. Give it a good press and turn to extract the juice with the reamer/juicer/press.
3. Once you think all the juice has been extracted from the citrus half you may leave the half over the reamer/juicer/press or you can discard compost the juiced citrus half.
4. Replace the bottom cup onto the bottle and make sure it is sealed.
5. Then add whatever liquid you would like to Zing through the small opening at the top after unscrewing the cap.
6. Replace cap tightly and give it a good shake to infuse and blend the flavor and juice into the beverage.
7. Remove cap and enjoy! (recommended shelf life if refrigerated is 3 days
8. To clean: just discard compost the juiced citrus half after unscrewing the base cup. Remove citrus reamer/juicer/press by rotating counter-clockwise then pulling it out from the wide end. Remove the cap and give each piece a good rinsing with hot soapy water and then dry. It is also top rack dishwasher friendly.

BUY IT
You can purchase the Citrus Zinger from Zing Anything for $16.99. They come in green, orange and now pink! Zing Anything also has some other awesome products too, the Aqua Zinger and the Salad Zinger.

WIN IT
Prize: 1 winner will win a Citrus Zinger in their choice of green, orange or *pink free from Zing Anything.

I am trying out Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received product for free to facilitate my review and the opportunity to give another away to my readers. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

*pink is a new color and will expect to ship to you after May 10th.

Homemade Syrups, Sodas and Other Fizzy Concoctions Blog Hop

Photo courtesy: the kitchn

I have been interested in the herbal community and herbs for natural healing and health for ages now. My favorite book on the subject, Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, is dogeared and worn as I have used it many times as a reference. I have many, many herbal friends on Facebook and Twitter. These are my kindred spirits, some with knowledge beyond my years and some just learning like I.

My herbal friend, Kiva Rose, is well known in the wildcrafting and herbal community. She is the Co-Editor at Plant Healer: A Journal of Traditional Western Herbalism, the director and organizer of the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference and the director and instructor of the Anima Lifeways & Herbal School.

So the other day Kiva posted on her Facebook wall that she loves lavender Italian soda with whipped cream. She had made this unique and wonderful sounding drink herself. She has a way of coming up with the most divine sounding recipes and commenting about them on Facebook making us all wish we were at her place for dinner. I love reading her posts on her Facebook wall and on her blog. She is a great inspiration for those of us who have her as a friend. When she posts it is hard not to comment :)

The comments were inspiring too, as one pointed out that the Sodastream that I have in my home and have reviewed here on my blog in the past could be used as the means to carbonate these delicious fizzy drinks. I had thought of making my own syrups, sodas and fizzy concoctions myself but never to the extent of using my Sodastream to carbonate them. Now I was hearing of yummy things like using rose syrup, cream from fresh goats milk, jasmine, elderberry, pomegranate, basil-mint, lemon balm, raspberry, elderflower, prickly pear, mulberry etc. to flavor fizzy water with! These natural sodas/syrups just are better for you and also tastier than their regular counterparts.

I have made my own awesome ginger ale before with the use of an already carbonated lemon/lime soda. I use my Hurricane Stainless Steel Manual Wheatgrass Juicer to juice the ginger root and squeeze out all the precious juice from it. Then we add as much of the ginger juice as we like to the lemon/lime soda and there you go...a yummy ginger ale how ever strong you like it. However, my version doesn't use my Sodastream and usually has high fructose corn syrup in it. I was looking on the web for something that might be better and came across this great post too about some homemade ginger syrup you could use with your Sodastream or carbonation machine.

Kiva's post also inspired me to create a blog hop to show a bit of our creative side. What is a blog hop? Well...A blog hop is a list of blogs or specific posts related to a similar topic. A blog “host” (that would be me) lists a Linky (list of links to other blogs or posts) on their page, along with the Blog Hop rules. There are 2 parts to a blog hop: 1) Each participant adds their info to the Linky so others can see it. 2) Each participant re-posts the Linky on their blog to promote the blog hop (not mandatory, but I hope you will do this part so others may also know about this).

Let's see how many recipes we can come up with for Homemade Syrups, Sodas and Other Fizzy Concoctions. I am intrigued by this concept and would love to connect with other blogs that want to participate in this too. Besides a recipe, pictures of your drink that you have created would be awesome! Add your link with the button below the rules.