This week I’ll pack up my skis, crampons, harnesses, avalanche equipment, knives and spices and head to Norway for Sister Summit Amplified. I can’t WAIT!
I can’t wait to see Norway, and this part of the world, to spend meaningful time with the incredible group of women joining us, and to cook for them, connect with them and gather inspirations and one last hit of winter.
But, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit sad about leaving the newly blooming spring happening across the Rocky Mountains right now.
The mornings are lovely – cool and crisp. The birds have returned, the sunsets long and pink. And the irises and lilacs are bursting all over our yard, little pops of purple that catch my eyes through the kitchen windows — it might be my favorite time of year.
By the time I return home from Norway, these vibrant purples will have faded and new blooms will take their place. But there’s something so intoxicating about the lilacs. And so, this week I decided to bottle them up so I could enjoy them when I got home…and this Lilac-Lemon Soda was born.
Over the past 20 years we’ve seen all sorts of “healthy sodas” land in our laps. The carbonated soda-water activated ones you make yourself, and the “gut healthy” ones you buy at the grocery store so chalk full of ultraprocessed calorie free sweetneners and prebiotics it’s hard to know what you’re actually drinking. You’ll never see me call a recipe I’ve created “gut-healthy” because it’s not what I put in – but what nature puts in – that makes it so. The additives in New Age Soda are prebiotics. (the food that healthy gut bacteria love to feast on!) But those foods can’t fuel a healthy gut if the good gut microbes don’t get in there in the first place. Naturally fermented foods – like kimchi, sourdough, and this soda – are where those good guys get in. So if you’re going to *actually* enjoy a gut-healthy soda, you’re probably going to have to make it yourself. Ahem.
That’s right, the “original fizzy lifting drinks” weren’t made with soda-spraying contraptions. Before refrigeration, before preservatives, before shelf-stable anything — there was fermentation. Humans have been coaxing wild yeasts and beneficial bacteria to do the work of preservation (and pleasure) for thousands of years. Natural fermentation is simply this: wild microorganisms present on flowers, fruits, and in the air around us feed on sugar, releasing carbon dioxide and creating that signature fizz. No commercial yeast packets. No forced carbonation. Just time, warmth, and a little trust in the process.
What you get is a living drink — lightly effervescent, slightly tangy, and genuinely alive in a way that no store-bought soda ever is.
Because what passes for soda in most bottles is closer to flavored sugar water than anything the earth made. When you brew your own, you control everything: the sweetness, the botanicals, the fermentation time, the fizz level. You also get something most commercial sodas can’t offer — probiotics, enzymes, and the natural byproducts of fermentation that support your gut rather than tax it. Even the ones with “gut health added,” can’t touch the actual incredibleness of this one that brews while you watch.
There’s also something quietly satisfying about watching a jar of flowers and honey come alive on your counter, or knowing that it’s brewing outside in the sun. It’s alchemy, really — and it takes about five minutes of hands-on time.
This soda is PERFECTION. Fizzy, lifting, floral, fresh and precious in a way that drinking flowers only can be.
And, lilac, honey, lemon, and grapefruit don’t just taste good together — they work together in a way that makes Ayurvedic sense, especially as we move through spring.
Spring is Kapha season: heavy, cool, damp, and slow. The qualities we’re working against are the same ones that show up as sluggishness, congestion, and that thick, leaden feeling that can follow a long winter. This soda is a direct counterpoint.
Lilac brings an astringent, slightly bitter quality — both rasas that pacify kapha and help clear ama (accumulated toxins) from the channels. Grapefruit is sharp, sour, and light, stimulating agni (digestive fire) and cutting through heaviness. Lemon does similar work — sour rasa in small amounts kindles digestion and supports liver function, which is particularly relevant in spring when the body is naturally detoxifying. Honey, used raw and never heated past lukewarm, is one of Ayurveda’s most valued foods in spring, specifically — its scraping quality (lekhana) helps clear kapha from the tissues.
The fermentation process itself adds another layer: the light acidity and probiotic activity support a microbiome that’s often sluggish after winter, and the natural effervescence is itself lightening and stimulating — the opposite of heavy, which is exactly what spring calls for.
Drink it cool but not icy. In sophisticated amounts. Before or between meals if you want the digestive benefit most.
Don’t forget that it’s crucial you NEVER HEAT YOUR HONEY here. Simply add it to the jar, and let it be. The sun will do it’s good work.
Lastly, I don’t add yeast when I make this soda – I just let nature take its time. But if you want extra fizz (or faster action,) add it!
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