Apple sparkling water, three ways

Apple is the weakest cold infusion of any fruit on this page. Sliced apple in cold water smells faintly of apple and tastes of almost nothing, and the slices brown inside an hour.

For apple water without sugar, skip the slices and use unfiltered cider: 1 part cider to 2 parts sparkling water over ice, and it takes ten seconds. If you want a jar going in the fridge, use 1 sliced apple with a cinnamon stick and 3 slices of fresh ginger per 1 litre, and know that the cinnamon and ginger are carrying it.

8 hours minimum and it is still faint. Apple is the one fruit here where overnight is not too long.

Still water for the infusion. The flavour is thin to begin with, so finish half and half with sparkling instead of 1 to 4.

2 days refrigerated. Pull the slices at 12 hours, once they have gone brown and soft and started tasting of cardboard.

3 cups chopped apple with skins : 1 cup sugar : 1.5 cups water

Use a tart apple, Granny Smith or Bramley or Northern Spy. Simmer 20 minutes with the skins on until the fruit is falling apart, steep 30 minutes off the heat, strain through a sieve and let it drip without pressing. Apple takes longer in the pan than anything else on this page.

About 2 cups

3 weeks refrigerated, 6 months frozen. Apple syrup keeps well because the fruit brings its own acid.

Red skins give a pink syrup and green skins give amber. Leaving them in is worth about half the flavour and all of the colour.

Cider vinegar and apple are the same fruit, so this one is easy. 2 cups chopped apple and 1 cup sugar, covered in the fridge 3 days because apple is slow to give up juice, strain, stir in 1 cup cider vinegar, rest 1 week.