I just received a SodaStream as a birthday gift and I’m anxious to start using it. The person who gave it to me also has one and she said that she didn’t really like the flavors that were provided and that she’s been enjoying making her own.
Sounded like a good topic for the Dope. So if anyone here has experience making their own sodas, please chime in with recipes and any interesting flavor combinations you really enjoyed.
I **LOVE **my soda machine (it was still called sodaclub when I got it). My family all agrees that the provided flavors are not too good, and the artificial sweetener in it is especially bad.
I mix sparkling water with frozen fruit juice concentrate to make pop/sparklers. Grape, cranberry, mixed fruits, limeade, mango-orange, etc, are all great. Orange juice concentrate is the only one that doesn’t come out very well, in my opinion. Just add the concentrate to taste, usually less than 1/4 concentrate to water. Regular strength fruit juice off the shelves such as black currant is also great diluted with the sparkling water. You don’t seem to need too much juice when it’s sparkling, so even mixed half and half with regular fruit juice, it’s not too diluted.
Out here there’s a brand of adult pop that isn’t very sweet. I don’t remember the name. They serve it at snooty restaurants. Some of their flavors have a mild lemonade flavor with lavender or rosemary added. I’ve made those, and also added mint leaves. Other fresh herbs would be interesting, too.
For a time I made a lot of NY Egg Creams. Sparkling water, chocolate syrup and milk. Those are fun if you can keep the foam from overflowing onto the floor. I found some no-sugar Hershey’s syrup which made it lower calorie.
When I get lemons from Costco, I end up with many more than I can use, so I squeeze them and add some sugar and use it as concentrate for lemon sparklers. The lemon juice is really good with honey instead of sugar, too.
It’s possible to make sparklers out of coffee-flavoring syrups, but I think they taste pretty awful. But if you have any lying around, you could try it.
Seriously, I don’t know why more people don’t get these. They are incredibly economical if you ordinarily buy pop. I don’t, and my kids felt very deprived until I got this. Now they love it.
I should get something like that to carbonate Kool-Aid type drinks. I love adding club soda to fruit punch or ruby red (I truly love adding tonic water, but I’ve been told it’s not really something I should drink all that much of. Shucks.)
I’ll be following this thread avidly.
I don’t use a machine, but here’s my old-fangled handmade concoction. Squeeze a half a lemon (or lime) over ice, fill the glass half way with Trader Joe’s Pomegranate Limeade and fill the rest with club soda. Tart, light and bubbly. Love it.
I don’t have a machine either, but I like a 50/50 mix of Dr. Pepper and Root Beer. Tastes kinda like Moxie.
I want one of those! YUM! I love carbonated juice, so I often take club soda and mix it with frozen juice concentrate. I have a bottle with an air-tight stopper that I put it in when I mix it. Citrus juices work well for that (lemonade, grapefruit juice work the best).
But this… yummy!
One of my favorites is black currrant concentrate with sparking water.
I don’t have a soda maker, but I’ve occasionally made real ginger ale. Cut up a ton of ginger into coins (don’t bother to peel), and boil it in sugar syrup for 15 minutes. Use about a quarter pound of ginger per cup of sugar syrup. (1 cup water + one cup sugar; cook, stirring, until sugar is fully dissolved.) Strain out the ginger (cover it in a ton of granulated sugar for candied ginger) and add the liquid to seltzer, a few tablespoons per glass. It’s powerful stuff. I’d think you could use the syrup in place of a juice concentrate, although you might need to play around with it to find the right dilution.
I’ve made hot ginger tea this way, but it never occurred to me to use it to make soda. It sounds delicious!