Friday, December 9, 2016

Squid Mixes: Lime Sparkling Water

This recipe for lime sparkling water came from Homemade Soda by Andrew Schloss.  With the zest and juice of half a lime in each, it was quite limey indeed.  I was expecting it to be a bit sweeter but it was pleasant enough.  My daughter wasn't so impressed.  She didn't even finish hers.  I'm not sure it was worth the effort when when one can so easily pull a Poland Spring seltzer out of the fridge but this is the beginning of a process for me.

I have set a goal to brew my own root beer and ginger ale.  I have brewed alcoholic beer before.  I've managed to do it three times, in fact - successfully without poisoning anyone or even making a huge mess.  But it's a lot of work, especially for a beverage that can only be consumed by 2/3 of my household.  While I'd like to get back into brewing, I'd like to supplement it with beverages my daughter can enjoy, too.

Turns out, making soda's pretty easy.  The only tricky part - at least so far - is making the simple syrups.  The lime soda involved a basic sugar syrup combined with the limey stuff, then add seltzer.  My next project, orange honey ginger ale, is a little more involved.  The syrup itself is already done and sitting in the fridge.  It'll keep for a couple months.  I'll brew once we're through the holidays.

Has any of you tried to make your own soda before?

4 comments:

  1. When I was a teenager, we had a carbon dioxide tank we rented from a company for making soda at home. We would also buy syrup from them for making the soda. It was rather a lot of fun, though nothing like what you're talking about. I would make my own vanilla colas and cherry colas, both of which were much better than anything you could buy at the store.

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    1. I have done Italian sodas before, not so different from this recipe but with the syrup store bought. The book does explain all about siphons. While that would be kind of fun, it does seem to involve lots of cleaning of small parts. If I would need to go to all that trouble anyway, I would rather brew.

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  2. I wonder if this is suited to one of those personal carbonator devices you can buy. Like, you make the flavor and then add bubbles...
    My mom just bubbles regular tap water to make seltzer. I'm not a soda drinker, so I've never ventured to learn more about making it.
    V :)

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    1. The book does discuss siphons. We actually don't drink much sugary soda at all but we consume loads of seltzer so it might be fun to make our own.

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