Soda Making Flavors

So you got a water carbonating machine or want one? Here are some tried flavorings that you may like too. As with any recipe, adjust to your liking if it didn’t work for you the first time.

These recipes will be based on using the SodaStream ‘Fountain’ model that I (got as a review me [free] product) use. They use one as well as half liter bottles, the recipes below will be for the 1 liter or 34 (33.67) ounce bottles.

The amount of sweetener that you use, will be (to taste) what you would normally use to sweeten 1 liter (about 34 ounces) of water with a flavoring. 1 1/4 to 2 tsp of Sweet & Low does this very well for me.
Personally, I adjust the sweetness of it, to the flavor I am having. I’m old school orange soda, so like my orange soda to be very sweet, bordering on sickly. Where I like my ginger ale to be only slightly sweet. So adjust as you like. I (too) need to cut out the white sugar, & replaced it with a sub (sweet & low).

As an extra note, the carbonated water doesn’t like sugar being put into it. Even mixed into the flavoring, it will bubble, which will kill your bubbles.
The base flavor recipe will be this:

1 1/4 tsp powdered flavoring (along the lines of those water bottle packets
2 ounces water (just shy of 60 cc’s)
1 1/4 to 2 tsp sweet n low
add to “1 liter bottle” carbonated water

Tap water is fine, but I like using very cold, filtered water. This is the same stuff that I carbonate (FYI).
Add all ingredients to a spouted or easy to pour from, container & stir to blend.

You can add the above (flavoring) directly to your carbonated water, or wait.

I found that letting the bottle of carbonated water sit while I mix the flavor then put them in the fridge together in separate containers to chill for 30 minutes to make the best soda.
You can just pour it in after carbonating, it was fine this way too.

Whichever way you choose, when you’re ready; tip the bottle & slowly pour the flavor in. If you pour it in fast or with out tipping it will overflow. Cap the bottle. Slowly turn the bottle over about three times to mix it. Don’t shake.

I chose powdered flavors as a base, because they are the most handy everywhere. Those little tear open packets that you pour into a bottle of water, yeah, those. Don’t pour them directly into the bottle of carbonated water or it’ll go all over the place (see above)!

How you carbonate your water is between you & the machine. I found that 3 to 7 slow pumps on my Fountain, produces soft to heavy carbonation. I also found that letting it sit for about half an hour makes a better drink, but you don’t have to. You don’t wait at the soda fountain, but I guess you could.

You can also pour your flavoring into a glass, then pour the soda water into the glass. I tried that with some cut strawberries. It was pretty nice.

So here are some easy to make flavors, in the way that I found to work great, & easy.

Licorice soda

11 drops of liquid anise extract
2 tsp Sweet n Low

Adding to 24 oz water there is a mild licorice flavor. Mix in the bottle.

Looks like soda water.

 

Oranged Cream

5 tsp orange Tang (brand) drink mix
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp Sweet n Low
2 oz water
1 liter carbonated water

When using Tang be sure the sugar is well dissolved or it will foam up & kill your bubbles very quickly!
I found that using tepid water helped this to dissolve, then put it in the fridge.

Candied ginger ale

Not to be confused with ginger ale, ginger beer, nor ginger ale soda flavor. If you’ve ever had candied ginger, this is what it tastes like. I find it super yummy.

I took the skins from 12 oz of (washed) ginger, & a couple end pieces that I chopped up
2 Tbsp dried ginger
5 Tbsp of white sugar
with enough water in a sauce pan to cover the ginger about 5 or 6 ounces

Stir in the sugar.
Cook on high till the water reduces to half or around 3 ounces. Let it set to cool.

Strain

Be very careful transferring it to the soda bottle, as the sugar will make it bubble like mad. I started adding two extra pumps on the carbon to compensate for this, for a total of 9 pumps.

Those those looking for some “bloody” Halloween soda

Try my Cherry 2019

2 tsp cherry flavor mix (tastes better than blood orange)
1 1/4 tsp Sweet n Low
2 oz water

Stir & set aside till chilled. You can go as high as 4 tsp of the flavor mix, which comes out to 4 packets!

Strong

Orange Fountain Soda

This one is for those who remember that “sickly sweet” orange soda we used to get at the fountain.

I caution using sugar & orange flavoring, as it really does a number on the carbonation.

2 16-20 oz (water bottle) flavor packets of orange
5 1/2 tsp Sweet n Low
2 oz water

Stir & mix. Let sit for about an hour in the fridge, to get super cold. Pour into the bottle & turn over three times to mix. Same taste, high carbonizing with 7 pumps.

Experiment with some creations of your own. I sugared some strawberries & scooped some into an old fashioned glass & poured the soda water over the top. Very refreshing I will say. On the next glass, I added a squirt of lemon juice. Not bad, but it kinda killed the bubbles a bit.

Of course 1 squirt of lemon juice
1 squirt of lime juice
with 1-2 tsp Sweet n Low stirred makes a great lemon-lime soda base for your boiler maker (just add 1-2 shots of whisky or whiskey). Good night Irene.

I cheated & used root beer packets for the root beer, following the above base. Not bad.

This is a light (3 pumps) carbonation

 

If you’re interested, here is a cute bit of information on soda fountains
soda fountain wiki
https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/Soda_fountain

If you’re interested in picking up a Sodastream unit yourself
https://www.walmart.com/ip/SodaStream-Fountain-Home-Soda-Maker-Kit/209932236

 

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