Homemade Fruit Flavored Water- Refined Sugar Free

I am not the biggest fan of drinking water, unfortunately. I mean, I will drink it, since it's good for you and cheap, especially important in hot weather like we're having now... but I get more motivated to drink when I have something other than water to drink.
My Laborade recipe is an awesome recipe for rehydration, but since it uses so much honey, it's hard for me to justify making on a regular basis, and I just keep it for emergencies...
Locally they sell something that is "fruit flavored water"- which isn't sweet like juice, but is flavored water with a mild sweetness to it.

I decided to try making my own fruit flavored water, by infusing water with fruit, with a touch of sweetener. I've made infused fruit flavored water with no sweetener in the past, but the small amount of sweetener added to it really makes a big difference, making it that much more enjoyable.

I love how it came out, and hopefully will be doing this more and more, now that I figured out how to make fruit flavored water.


So far I've tried it with nectarines and apples that I picked myself, so they were free, and it was really great. I've also tried it with lemon and mint, and it was good, but not perfect, as the lemon slices (even peeled) added a bitterness to the water, that got stronger the longer I let it infuse.
I plan on experimenting more and more, with any fruit I get, because I'm sure it'll be great. After it's finished infusing, I eat the fruit that is left, so it doesn't go to waste.

How do you do it?

Take a pitcher or a bottle and fill it most of the way with water.
For every 6-8 cups of water, add 1 cup of chopped fruit. You want to chop the fruit as thinly as possible, so you have a lot of surface area- the more surface area, the more flavor will transfer from the fruit into the water.
For those 6-8 cups of water, add 1-2 tablespoons of sweetener. I've tried white sugar and honey so far- honey water better, not to mention healthier- but I'll be experimenting with jaggery and coconut sugar soon.
You can leave out the sweetener completely, but as I said, the sweetener makes it more perfect, and without the sweetener, it's lacking a little.
I found that adding a teaspoon of lemon juice ended up making the flavor even better.

Once you combined all the ingredients, mix it well, and let it sit for at least 2-3 hours in the fridge. If you let it sit longer, it'll be even more strongly flavored, I just don't have the patience for that.

Strain. Serve chilled.

Enjoy!

Have you ever made infused water? What do you put in your water? Do you add any sweetener? What is your favorite flavor combination for infused water?