Make your own soda/cola/pop at home...

[lildreamer316]

I know soda isn't a healthy thing to be consuming in the first place (and I don't,but husband does);but the main problem with it has always been the HCFS and/or the sugar content. Well, I just saw a new at-home machine to make your own carbonated beverages, and you can make them w/o the HCFS. Maybe this will be a step in the right direction for everyone? Of course it's not cheap (machine is $99 and the C02 cartridges are initially $29; turn in and replace for $14.99) but I still think it heralds a general turn in the right direction of health and self-sufficency.
Baby steps, people..baby steps. LOL.

[elleng]

1. Heck, I just add seltzer to juice!

(Not sanctimonious, just never liked soda.)

[NuttyFluffers]

9. i've done seltzer and kool-aid! delish!

i can make it as sweet as i want then (which usually is less sweet than usual).

i adore soda, though. if it wasn't for the HFCS that make my system go bonkers (and most mineral waters give me migraines), i'd drink that stuff all day. i'm like the world's fattest hummingbird.

trying to learn kefir, so i can carbonate just about everything in the pantry. who needs to chew when you can turn your nutrients into bubbly! :evilgrin:

[Kind of Blue]

2. What a good idea.

When my dad first came to the U.S. in '64, he couldn't get a job - long story. But a pair of brothers in New Jersey at the time had a soda making business and they hired him. Before hi-fructose corn syrup, my dad used to mix the flavor syrup for the sodas that they'd add carbonation. He'd come home once a month with some of the overstock syrup of all flavors including cola. What a treat, especially during the summertime! We'd either add soda water or just plain water.

I love Pepsi but don't drink it much at all because of the HFCS. Now, I know they make it without the HFCS across the border in Mexico, but have to go out of the way to get it because the local supermarkets refuse to carry it.

[BanzaiBonnie]

3. And for a lovely, light festive (alchoholic) beverage...

Kahlua and club soda. I don't like too sweet, but love the soda part of this.

[MorningGlow]

4. You know, this is intriguing

I love vanilla soda; I wonder if you could just put vanilla extract and liquid sugar in...or at the very least buy the Torani syrups they have at coffee shops and use less of it.

I like that they don't use HFCS but I'm a little disappointed that the diet flavors use sucralose (Splenda--ewww) instead of something like agave or Stevia. Oh well, can't have everything, I guess. I still think there are a lot more pluses than minuses to this.

Thinking...thinking...

[get the red out]

5. I heard that on Thom Hartman

I heard an ad for that on Thom Hartman. I would love to have one of those! That would be so cool. Unfortunately my car's check engine light came on and what it said to the mechanic was "get her to write a big check" :(

Maybe later I can get this. It is on my list of "I want it's" right below the Doggie DNA test to see what pooch is made of.

[WhiteTara]

6. we have a seltzer bottle and

I love it and hate it. It's so convenient because there are no bottles, but the fizzies are a little lacking. Sometimes I put the juice in the seltzer bottle and "soda-rize" it and other times, just water. BTW, I got 100 boxes of CO2 w/3 pieces for $38.00 on ebay. My seltzer bottle was about $70.00, very sexy looking with chain mail (sp?) I leave on the counter.

[Brewman_Jax]

7. I make my own soda

the flavor concentrates with instructions are available at most any homebrew shop. Each small bottle makes approx. 4 gallons of soda and costs $5.99. All you need is water, sugar (I use raw cane), yeast, and plastic bottles. The process (without a carbonation system) takes about three weeks. The yeast is the carbonation source. Flavors include cola, root beer, birch beer, cream soda, cherry, orange, and ginger beer.

[NuttyFluffers]

10. can i ferment kool-aid? & how sterile do my plastic bottles have to be?

can i slice fruit and add honey to create my own mead? i want a fermented orange, celery, ginger drink *lathed* in sugar and with crisp, tiny bubbles so good they cause 1st degree burns...

i simple must learn this magic called fermentation!

[Brewman_Jax]

11. Those are good questions

The procedure to ferment wine and beer is different from carbonating sodas. Short answer, the carbon dioxide gas is released for alcohol fermentation, while it is captured and put under pressure for carbonation.

Can you add fruit and honey to make mead (which has alcohol)? Absolutely, there are different categories of mead.

Can you ferment kool-aid? Don't know, give a try. That orange, celery, and ginger drink sounds pretty good. Give that a try, too.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Who's for cornering the market with bacon-flavored cola?

(I'm sure a Google will reveal it as already having been done, snicker).

This is a good idea, when you consider the money you'd save and how much healthier it is...pray the fizzy cola companies don't get wind of it. Frank Zappa surmised that they were actively seeking to replace water as our "go to" beverage of choice.