Cheap Summer Hydration: Infused Water & DIY Drinks

The cheapest summer drink in Switzerland is tap water, and nothing else comes close. A litre from the tap costs about CHF 0.002, roughly 500 times less than bottled. Add a sliced lemon, a few cucumber ribbons or a sprig of mint, and that same water becomes a flavoured drink for a few centimes a litre.

The saving is not trivial. A two-person household that drinks bottled iced tea and flavoured vitamin water through the hot months easily gets through 60–70 litres a month at CHF 1.50–2.50 a litre. Switch most of that to tap-based drinks and you spend under CHF 20 instead of well over CHF 100, a summer saving of CHF 250–300 across June, July and August before you have changed anything else in the trolley.

Why is bottled hydration so expensive in Switzerland?

Switzerland has some of the highest grocery prices in Europe. Food and non-alcoholic drinks sit around 61% above the EU average, and packaged drinks are where the mark-up is most visible. You pay for the bottle, for hauling heavy liquid across the country, for the brand and the chilled shelf space, not for the water inside.

The average Swiss household already spends about CHF 636 a month on food and non-alcoholic drinks, according to the Federal Statistical Office. Drinks are a soft target inside that figure: unlike bread or milk, most of what you pay for a flavoured bottled drink is packaging and margin, and almost all of it can be rebuilt at home for centimes.

The trap is the single-serve bottle. A half-litre iced tea from a kiosk or the chilled aisle is CHF 2.00 or more, which works out at CHF 4 a litre. The same drink brewed at home lands near CHF 0.20 a litre. That gap is what this article is about.

What does each drink actually cost per litre?

Per-litre maths is the honest way to compare drinks, because bottle sizes are designed to hide it. Here is how the common summer options stack up, using typical Swiss shelf prices against a home-made equivalent.

Coffee is the one row where the DIY cost is higher than the rest, but even there iced coffee made at home is a fraction of the café price.

How do you make infused water that tastes of something?

Plain tap water is cheap but dull, which is exactly why people reach for the bottle. Infused water fixes the flavour problem for almost nothing. The method is trivial: fill a jug with cold tap water, add something aromatic, and give it a few hours in the fridge to draw the flavour out.

Combinations that work with cheap Swiss-supermarket produce, especially in high summer when lemons, cucumbers and berries are at their lowest:

• Lemon and mint: the classic. One lemon and a few sprigs of mint flavour a two-litre jug for around CHF 0.60.
• Cucumber and a squeeze of lime: clean and barely sweet; half a Swiss cucumber is plenty at the July price floor.
• Berries and basil: use slightly soft strawberries or the last of a punnet, a good way to rescue fruit before it goes to waste.
• Apple and cinnamon: a cheap late-season version once the stone fruit fades.

One piece of fruit or a small handful of herbs per litre is the right ratio. It is not a Znüni in itself, but it turns water into something the kids will actually drink, which is the whole point.

Are homemade sports drinks really cheaper, and do they work?

Isotonic drinks are the most over-priced category of the lot, at CHF 3.50–5.00 a litre for what is essentially sugar, salt and flavour in water. On a hot afternoon at the Badi or after a run, the homemade version does the same job for about CHF 0.20 a litre.

The recipe is old and well understood: to one litre of water add roughly a level teaspoon of sugar or a spoon of honey, a pinch of salt (about a quarter teaspoon), and the juice of half a lemon. That gives you the carbohydrate and sodium an isotonic drink provides, at a fraction of the cost and without the bottle. For everyday hydration you need none of it, since water is fine, but for genuine sport in the heat it is a real, cheap alternative.

Is Swiss tap water safe to drink straight from the jug?

Yes, and this is the fact the bottled-water industry would rather you forgot. Swiss tap water is controlled at least as strictly as bottled water, comes largely from springs and groundwater, and across most of the country tastes clean straight from the cold tap. Running it cold for a few seconds and keeping a covered jug in the fridge is all the treatment it needs.

The cost difference is almost comical. At roughly CHF 0.002 a litre from the tap against CHF 0.50–1.00 for bottled still water, you are looking at a several-hundred-fold mark-up for water that is, if anything, more tightly monitored. We ran the full comparison in our guide to tap versus bottled water in Switzerland, and the tap wins on nearly every axis except fizz, and even fizz is cheap once you own a refillable carbonator.

A five-step summer drinks routine that pays for itself

None of this works if the jug stays empty and the bottle is easier. The habit is what saves the money. Five steps make the switch stick:

1. Keep two jugs in rotation. One chilling, one in use. A drink only beats a bottle if it is already cold when you are thirsty.
2. Brew a batch of iced tea once a week. A few tea bags, a litre of hot water, then cool, dilute and chill. Our homemade iced tea and sirup guide turns this into one afternoon that stocks the fridge for days.
3. Infuse tonight for tomorrow. Sliced fruit and herbs need a few hours, so build the jug in the evening and it is ready by morning.
4. Refill on the move. Carry a bottle and top it up from the tap. Switzerland is full of drinking fountains, and a refilled bottle is a bottle you did not buy.
5. Buy bottled only on Aktion, for the exceptions. Sparkling water for guests, the occasional crate: get it at the promotional price, never at full price.

How much can a household save over the summer?

Put the per-litre gaps back together across a season and the numbers are real. A rough model for a family of four through the three summer months:

• Iced tea and flavoured water: about 40 litres a month swapped from CHF 1.80 to CHF 0.20 a litre, saving around CHF 64 a month.
• Still and sparkling water: about 30 litres a month from CHF 0.70 to near zero, plus carbonator refills, saving around CHF 18 a month.
• The occasional bottled sports drink or iced coffee, made at home instead, saving around CHF 15 a month.

That is on the order of CHF 90–100 a month, or CHF 270–300 across June to August, for a household that keeps drinking exactly as much as before. It is one of the least painful cuts on the whole grocery bill, because nobody has to drink less, only differently. Add it to store choice, seasonal buying and less waste, and drinks become a quiet, permanent line in a family's CHF 200–350 of monthly savings.