Celebrate the season with three refreshing, whole-food, plant-based beverages (3 WFPB Beverages) that are perfect for any gathering!
Enjoy Classic Cola, Green Fizz Arnold Palmer, and Pink Tea Fruit Punch—as delightful alternatives to sugary sodas and cocktails. Naturally sweetened with zesty citrus, applesauce, or homemade raisin syrup, these drinks burst with flavor and fizz without any added sugars. Ideal for toasting at gatherings or simply enjoying with meals, these beverages offer a vibrant and guilt-free way to elevate your holiday experience!
No dates required! Only common raisins.
Table of Contents
| 🔪 The Recipe: | 3 WFPB Beverages |
| ⏲️ Estimated Time: | About 5-10 minutes. |
| 🍽️ Servings: | Around 3-4 servings (~$0.34 USD ea.) |
| 💵 Cost to make: | Around $1.02 USD / $1.45 CAD / € 0.97 |
| 🕹️ Difficulty: | Very Easy |
The Menu
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Why WFPB Drinks?
Now is the time when there’s lots of cheer, toasts, and other cork-popping moments. As mentioned in the Universal Food Guide, and as they and other studies suggest, you should only drink: water, green tea, and hibiscus tea.
Life can get pretty boring though with only water and tea. Carbonated beverages are also great for making you feel full (satiating), so I wanted some simple drinks that you’d actually want to toast too.
I also wanted to take this time to tell you to stop using pre-packaged tea bags, since so many are coated in or even made of plastic—filling up your body with more microplastics. I share some safer alternatives to tea bags on substack
This study titled Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea shows that a single teabag can release “approximately 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics” into your drink!
Which Common Teabags Contain Plastic?
They test the following brands: Twinings Tea, PG Tips, Yorkshire Tea, Tetley (Liptons), Pukka Tea, and Clipper Tea.
Similarly, I also wanted to offer some alternatives to alcohol since excessive drinking is common this time of year. If you didn’t know already no level of alcohol is safe, according to the current evidence and respected institutions like the World Health Organization, CDC, Canadian Government, UK Government, and many more. I don’t want to be a total party-pooper, so if you are drinking alcohol then consider having one of these drinks as a chaser or pre-drink to help fight the damage from the alcohol.
If you want to know more about these, as well as the scientifically proven best methods for making tea, then make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter on substack.
Have ideas for recipes or feedback? Let me know in the comments or connect with me on substack or Instagram!
If you’re looking for some festive holiday meals to pair with your drinks then check out the Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry Dream Sandwich, Plant Based Pierogies, Simmer & Serve: Easy Chili, Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup, or checkout more of the Fall Recipes.
⭐Full 3 WFPB Beverages⭐
🍬Raisin Syrup Paste – WFPB Sweetener with a Low GI🍬
Raisin Syrup / Paste
Equipment
- 1 Pot
Ingredients
- ½ cup raisins (I used Thompson here)
- 2 cups water
Instructions
- Add raisins and half of the water to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and mash the raisins when they become soft. You can also blend them with any kind of blender to make this easier.When it becomes very thick then add the second cup of water, stir well, and cook until it thickens up again. It should be the same consistency as apple sauce.
Video
🥤Classic Cola🥤
Classic Cola
Equipment
- 1 Glass / Cup
Ingredients
- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- ⅛ tsp lemon zest
- ⅛ tsp cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp coriander
- ⅟16 tsp ginger
- ⅟16 tsp nutmeg
- 4 tbsp raisin syrup or date syrup (taste at 2 tbsp because 4 might be too sweet for you)
- ½ cup carbonated water
Instructions
- Add everything, except for the carbonated water, and stir well until fully mixed. You can save this in the fridge for ready-to-add carbonated water drinks.)When ready to enjoy your cola, slowly add the chilled carbonated water while gently mixing. Drink right away for the best results, or seal and store in the fridge for 24 hours before it starts to go flat.
Video
🍵Green Fizz Arnold Palmer🍵
Green Fizz Arnold Palmer
Equipment
- 1 Glass / Cup
- 1 Fine Mesh Strainer or tea ball (prefered)
Ingredients
- 1.5 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- ¼ tsp ginger powder
- ⅛ tsp lime zest
- ⅛ tsp lemon zest
- 2 tbsp raisin syrup or date paste
- 1 tsp green tea or 1 bag (opened to avoid plastic)
- 1 cup carbonated water
Instructions
- Add everything, except for the carbonated water, and stir well until fully mixed. You can save this in the fridge for ready-to-add carbonated water drinks.)When ready to enjoy your Arnold Palmer (iced tea-lemonade), slowly add the chilled carbonated water while gently mixing. Drink it right away for the best results, or seal it and store it in the fridge for 24 hours before it starts to go flat.
Video
🍹Pink Tea Fruit Punch🍹
Pink Tea Fruit Punch
Equipment
- 1 Glass / Cup
- 1 Pot
- 1 Fine Mesh Strainer or tea ball (preferred)
Ingredients
- ½ tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp apple sauce
- 1/16 tsp mint dried or 1 leaf fresh
- 1 tsp hibiscus tea or 1 bag
- 1 cup water boiling
- 1/16 tsp tarragon dried, optional garnish
Instructions
- Add all ingredients except for the tea and water to your cup or pitcher. Add your tea to a tea ball or fine mesh strainer and place it overtop of the cup. Pour the boiling water over the tea and fill it so the tea is sitting in the boiling water.Let steep for 5 minutes before removing the tea. For an iced/cold version add half the water, steep for 5 minutes, then remove the tea and add ice.
Video
🧂If you absolutely must add sugar or other sweeteners then try to add them to taste, to the top of the food, so you use less, and add it in small amounts, and only after tasting it first. The same goes for other “less healthy” additions, but the idea should be to try to limit and eventually remove adding them, over time, when you are ready.
After a few weeks of not eating a SAD diet your tastebuds reset and you’ll notice the natural sugars in foods, check out the great article, and subscribe to, Michael Corthell on Substack.
Protips
Use Only Plastic-Free Tea Bags
- As I mentioned most tea bags are coated in plastic. Ideally, use a tea ball and fresh loose-leaf tea for the best and safest result. You can also look for certified plastic-free tea bags, or as I’ve done, you can also cut open your potentially unsafe teabags and use a small mesh strainer to avoid adding additional microplastics from infusing the plastic coated bag.
Zesting Without A Zester
- Use a box/cheese grater. Don’t press too firmly so you avoid getting too much pith. It’s good to give this a quick mince after also.
- A vegetable peeler will work to get strips that you can either mince with a knife or grind quickly with a spice grinder or blender. Use a spoon to scrape off any pith.
- Use a serrated or steak knife to slice off shallow strips of peel that you can quickly mince or chop.
- Try a fork. You can use a fork in a pinch to zest fruit, but it’s more time-consuming and difficult.
- Scrape the pith. Take a spoon and remove all of the pith. Then either mince it or pulse the peel in a spice grinder, or leave it out to dry and grind it into a powder.
Drinks In A Hurry
- Premix all the ingredients except for the carbonated water to have quick and ready to go drinks—just add carbonated water! You can even freeze the mix in ice cube trays and then thaw or add them to boiling water.
Too Much Caffeine In Tea
- Hibiscus is caffeine free so I suggest drinking hibiscus since it is incredibly healthy. You can also look for decaffeinated green tea.
Carbonated Water & Hibiscus Tea
- The carbonated water should have two ingredients: water, and carbon dioxide (CO2).
- I like this blend of hibiscus, white tea, apple flakes, and licorice root. You can create a similar with a mix of white tea, hibiscus, star anise, and 2 extra tablespoons of apple sauce.
I’d Rather Have Alcohol
- If you must have alcohol then these drinks will help to undo and protect against the damage from drinking.
As I mentioned earlier, even the CDC & WHO state that there is no safe level of alcohol so at least do your best to limit your intake if you cannot resist, and try to drink some of these drinks before, after, or during, to mitigate the damage of alcohol.
Nutrition Facts Table – 3 WFPB Beverages
| Serving size: 1 of the 3 drinks (roughly) |
| Nutrition Facts: 🔥 68.0 Calories (3.4% DV, based on 2,000 calories) 🧈 0.2g Fat (0.3% DV of 65g) – 🥓 Saturated Fat: 0.0g – 🚫 Trans Fat: 0.0g – 🌰 Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.0g – 🥑 Monounsaturated Fat: 0.0g 🥚 Cholesterol: 0.0mg (0.0% DV of 200mg) 🧂 10.6mg Sodium (0.5% DV of 2,300mg) 🌾 18.5g Carbs (0.2% DV of 400g) 🥬 1.1g Fiber (4.0% DV of 28g) – 🍬 Sugars: 13.1g (26.3% DV of 50g) 💪 0.7g Protein (1.5% DV of 50g) 🍌 175.8mg Potassium (3.7% DV of 4,700mg) 🦴 17.6mg Calcium (1.4% DV of 1,300mg) 🔩 0.4mg Iron (2.0% DV of 18mg) 🌤️ 0.0mcg Vitamin D (0.0% DV of 50mcg/2000IU) 🍵 0.2mg Caffeine (0.1% DV of 400mg) |
The Science – Sources
| 🧪 This section tells you all about the ingredients’ scientific effects, from the latest medical research, and cites sources so you can investigate further. |
| This section is being updated and is in progress… check back soon or check the Ingredients Lookup |
| Feel free to browse older recipes science sections until then, since many of these ingredients have been used before. Raisin Butter Tart, 12 Minute Pull Apart Pumpkin Spiced Blondie |
| Raisins / Dates & Glycemic Index |
Please tell me how it turned out! Did you: try it, like it, hate it, change it, or do something else unexpected???
If I’ve made any mistakes, or something doesn’t make sense, or if you want more/less details, please let me know in the comments.
Stay healthy and nourished! Happy cooking!
Chef Robert Leigh.
Celebrate with Freshness: 3 WFPB Beverages You’ll Love This Season
Help me fight disease by receiving new free
mouthwatering healthy-unhealthy recipes every week!
Please share this now so we can eradicate
chronic disease from the world, with tasty meals!
follow me on