The Healthy Drinks Worth Always Keeping in Your Pantry

What you drink is shaped, more than we like to admit, by what happens to be in the cupboard. When the easiest thing to hand is a sugary fizzy drink, that's what gets poured. Stock the good stuff instead, and the healthy choice becomes the lazy one. Here are four kinds of drink worth keeping in permanently, so there's always something better than a can of pop within reach.

Magnesium water

Magnesium water has become a bit of a wellness talking point, and there's a sensible idea underneath the hype. Magnesium is a mineral the body needs for normal muscle and nervous-system function, and plenty of us don't quite get enough of it from food. Magnesium water simply means water with extra magnesium in it, whether that's a naturally magnesium-rich mineral water or plain water with a drinking-grade magnesium or electrolyte supplement stirred in. It's a gentle way to top up while you hydrate.

One important safety point. Magnesium water for drinking is not the same as Epsom salts, which are magnesium sulphate meant for the bath, never the glass. If you want to try it, use a product made and labelled for drinking, follow the dose on the pack, and check with a pharmacist or doctor first if you take medication or have kidney problems.

Natural juices

A good natural juice earns its place too. The ones worth keeping are 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice with nothing added, rather than the sweetened "juice drinks" that are mostly sugar and water. A splash brings flavour, a little natural sweetness and some vitamins to breakfast, smoothies or a jug of water.

Two honest caveats. Juice still counts as free sugars, so it's a small glass alongside a meal rather than something to sip all day. And it's no replacement for whole fruit, which brings the fibre juice leaves behind. One juice that pulls its weight is prune juice, a traditional aid for digestion. Our prune juice is a handy one to keep in the door of the fridge.

Fermented drinks

If there's one category to add to your cupboard this year, make it fermented drinks. Kombucha and kefir are lightly fizzy, tangy and full of the live cultures associated with a healthy gut. They make a genuinely satisfying swap for a soft drink, with far less sugar and a lot more character. The research on gut health is still developing, so treat them as a tasty part of a varied diet rather than a cure, but they're an easy, enjoyable habit to build.

Our kombucha range runs from classic ginger to zesty citrus and low-sugar options, so our Organic Ginger Kombucha is a good place to start. And for a version that lives in the cupboard rather than the fridge, our instant kombucha sachets stir straight into water, ready whenever you want one.

Plant-based milk

Plant-based milk is the quiet workhorse of a well-stocked pantry. Oat, soya, coconut and almond drinks all keep unopened for months in their ambient cartons, which makes them ideal to buy ahead and always have in. You'll reach for them constantly: in coffee and tea, over cereal and porridge, blended into smoothies, and in cooking and baking wherever a recipe calls for milk.

A couple of pointers when you choose one. Go for unsweetened where you can, and look for versions fortified with calcium and vitamins if plant milk is a regular part of your diet. Oat drinks are the most versatile all-rounder, so a carton of organic oat milk is a sound default to keep on the shelf.

Building your drinks cupboard

You don't need all of these at once. Pick the ones that suit how you actually drink, keep a small stock in, and let them become the easy option. A carton of oat milk for the everyday, a bottle of real juice for flavour, a kombucha for when you fancy something fizzy, and a magnesium or electrolyte drink to hydrate with. Fill the cupboard with the right things and the rest takes care of itself.