I hate carrying home pop because its so heavy. Can scientists make instant pop, like they do koolaid?
Hmm. That could be interesting.
I’ve solved that problem by not drinking the stuff at home.
I’d get on my high horse about KoolAid, but I add sugar to my tea and figure that’s just as bad.
You mean like Fizzies?
http://www.candycrate.com/ficadr8ac.html
They first came out in the 50’s. I hear they’re not very good. Diet only, sugar would make them huge. But if you like flavored Alka-seltzer, go to town.
Fizzies were an absolute abomination, which meant that when we were kids we couldn’t get enough of it.
Or you could just keep a block of dry ice in the freezer and chip some off into kool-aid or fruit juice any time you want a little fizz.
Fizzies were terrible. They looked cool as they fizzed, but what you usually ended up was water with a vague artificial fruit flavor.
There are machines that can be used to make your own soda, but they aren’t cheap.
I think there was a thread recently where someone linked to a video showing an adapter that screws onto a standard plastic soda bottle that would allow you to just fill it from a CO2 tank. I don’t think that would be very expensive.
So what do Alka- and Bromo-Seltzer tablets do?
Lordy, I remember Fizzies, they were awful. We just used them as entertainment.
I’ve been thinking about this for a few months. Not “instant soda,” but home soda machines. Why don’t Coke and Pepsi make home versions of the soda fountains you find at convenience stores and restaurants?
Imagine a small fountain next to your sink, with 3 lines discreetly disappearing under the counter through a small hole that any handy do-it-yourselfer could drill. One is a water line that branches off your cold water pipe, the next connects to a small CO[sub]2[/sub] tank that lives behind the stuff you keep under the sink, and finally, a power cord plugs into the same outlet that your garbage disposal uses (without the switch, of course). In the back of the fountain unit, 2 or more one-liter sized plastic bottles hold the syrups for your favorite Coke or Pepsi products. They install by simply removing an outer seal, turning them upside down, and screwing them into a small receptacle. The one-liter syrup bottles would be available at major supermarkets, and would make about the same amount of soda as a one and a half twelve-packs of 12 oz cans or 3 two-liter bottles. When ever you want a soda, you grab a glass, get a few ice cubes from the freezer, and dispense as much or as little soda as you wish. Free refills to boot!
Of course, there are problems with this concept becoming main-stream, which most likely keep the big beverage producers from releasing such products. First, the machine itself would be expensive, because it would need a compressor to keep the lines cold (warm fountain sodas go flat quickly), and using an ice-plate (like most fountain machines do) would add the need for a drain, a large ice bin, and the constant need to restock ice. Second, the CO[sub]2[/sub] tanks come with safety issues, expense, and availability problems. Plus, you would ALWAYS be out of gas when you you are thirsty. Finally, I wonder if the price of the syrup bottles could be competitive with two-liters and 12 packs, which are on sale at the grocery stores 50% of the time. All these concerns force the concept into a niche market, where small existing soda fountains from beverage supply companies already fill the need.
A home soda fountain sounds like a great concept, but isn’t practical, or economical. At least from the likes of Pepsi or Coke. Products like the SodaStream machine that RealityChuck linked to are probably as close as we will ever get.
You guys don’t know WTF you’re talking about.
What is this “were” stuff you’re talking about?!? They still make them (I just bought a box at the Woodmans back in July).
Who says Fizzies were terrible?
They don’t do what they say they’ll do, they don’t dissolve all the way, one disc only makes 6 lousy ounces, and they taste like shit.
Fizzies were terrible? No, fizzies** are** terrible. Blech!
They do. My cousin works for Pepsi and he used to bring home a small portable soda machine for family picnics. It was great.
I just poked around on the net and there are plenty of folks selling home soda machines. $900 for a 2 flavor model seems a bit steep to me, but they go up to about 2 or 3 grand for a more deluxe model. According to one web site, you buy “bag in box” syrup in 3 gal. or 5 gal. containers, and the cost per 12 oz. glass of soda will run you about 6 to 14 cents. I don’t know if that is just the syrup cost or if that adds in the cost of the CO2 and soda water as well.
God, I remember Fizzies!
We could never decide on which flavor we wanted but whichever one we tried, they all tasted like they had been filtered through a horse.
Actually, that would have been a more appropriate name; Horse Piss!
You mean, why do they bubble? Mixture of sodium hydrogen carbonate and citric acid, or similar - on dissolving in water they react to make sodium citrate (harmless, soluble) and carbon dioxide. Helps to fragment the tablet so it dissolves faster, I guess.
This, by the way, is my guess as to why this concept has never taken off. Why would the soda companies be interested in selling you a week’s worth of syrup for a few bucks, when they could be selling you the same stuff, diluted with fizzy water, for a much larger profit margin?
Kool-aid is now selling Fun Fizz tablets.
Mostly to do with profit margins. But, you can build a home soda fountain extra-officially, but with all of the research I’ve done, the only real return on investment is the “wow factor.”