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DIY Soft Drinks

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Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#121

Post by krisoft »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #106
user070223 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another fun use for gum arabic is making watercolor paints, you can do it with your kids sourcing the pigment from different soils. pour water and let the heavy big particle fall to the bottom and source the small ones from the top and mix some ingredients

Pigment from soils?

Not sure what you are asking. The stone age way of making paint is to find some place where the ground has a weird colour, dig it up, clean it and you have a pigment.

Even to this day many of our paint pigments are mined this way. Red/yellow ochre, umber, sienna.

If what you are asking is the dirt in question geologically speaking a soil? Sometimes, sometimes not. It can be a sediment or a regolith too. But in the more general laymen sense callig any dirt from the ground a soil is not too mistaken.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#122

Post by gorgonical »

collin128 wrote: post #52
foresto wrote: post #41

If you want to carbonate water but don't want to buy a countertop carbonator or its overpriced CO2 refills, you can get a ball lock valve cap that screws onto 1L or 2L soda bottles for around $8-16. That valve will attach to a standard female fitting, which you can put on the end of a hose coming from a pressure regulator, which will attach to a full-size CO2 cylinder available from a brewing or gas supply shop. CO2…

I bought an Aarke (soda stream comp) and a CO2 hose. Now I use one of the 5lb tanks. It's great.

What do you mean? You use the 5lb tank via the Aarke instead of the CO2 cylinders? Or you refill somehow the CO2 cylinders? If it's the first one this sounds like the best of both worlds with the convenience of the countertop device and the cost-efficiency of the bulk CO2. It would be great if you elaborated some more!

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#123

Post by LightBug1 »

whackernews wrote: post #107
nulld3v wrote: post #21

I've also been dabbling in this recently in an attempt to avoid buying SodaStream syrups (which are on the BDS boycott list). Tips for working on sugar-free recipes: In some countries (like Canada), soft-drink manufacturers are required to disclose the exact amount of each artificial sweetener they use in the drink. So you can easily grab those numbers from Canadian product listings for use in your own recipes. E.g.…

People are always so laser focussed on the latest trendy thing, but why not just boycott all huge corporations/organisations? It’s a much simpler rule that achieves the same thing and you have the added benefit of boycotting companies that haven’t had their corruption uncovered… yet!

I find it more effective to say, I'm avoiding product X for Y reason.

This starts a conversation more effectively with contacts rather than go full large company avoidance which is difficult for people to imagine, let alone act on.

I sympathise with what you're saying though.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#124

Post by LightBug1 »

eek2121 wrote: post #43
nulld3v wrote: post #21

I've also been dabbling in this recently in an attempt to avoid buying SodaStream syrups (which are on the BDS boycott list). Tips for working on sugar-free recipes: In some countries (like Canada), soft-drink manufacturers are required to disclose the exact amount of each artificial sweetener they use in the drink. So you can easily grab those numbers from Canadian product listings for use in your own recipes. E.g.…

I Googled the BDS Boycott list at a glance...the top link ( https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott ) mentions a bunch of companies, including Sodastream. The immediate issue I see is that Sodastream is owned by PepsiCo, Inc. That immediately makes them complicit as well. PepsiCo was also facing a lawsuit regarding a partnership with Walmart for price fixing ( https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2026/01/08/walm…

We do what we can, where we can, when we can.

Personally, I find it's less about the act (although financially depriving companies of my cash does make me feel good), it's about the conversation the act starts.

And I've seen it work, or help. Some among us will remember the boycott of South African goods during Apartheid.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#125

Post by pseingatl »

hattmall wrote: post #89
mattmaroon wrote: post #22

One pro-tip as I now somehow have a commercial bottling license these days: get pre-hydrated gum Arabic. Much easier to work with. Almost everybody who messes this up will make the mistake at the hydrating the gum Arabic stage. Blend it with any dry ingredients like sugar before using. If you can’t source it, I’m not going to tell you that you SHOULD pretend to be a bottling company and ask a gum provider to send you…

What do you use to bottle things in, like what bottles?

Perrier bottles can be emptied and resealed. I didn't see anything in the article about carbonation.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#126

Post by pseingatl »

joshmn wrote: post #37
mattmaroon wrote: post #22

One pro-tip as I now somehow have a commercial bottling license these days: get pre-hydrated gum Arabic. Much easier to work with. Almost everybody who messes this up will make the mistake at the hydrating the gum Arabic stage. Blend it with any dry ingredients like sugar before using. If you can’t source it, I’m not going to tell you that you SHOULD pretend to be a bottling company and ask a gum provider to send you…

What are your, um, favorite gum providers?

All gum arabica comes from Sudan. When the US imposed sanctions on Sudan, this product was exempted.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#128

Post by wongarsu »

foresto wrote: post #75
dlcarrier wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it cheaper and much, much more convenient to get an adapter to refill the countertop carbonator's CO2 cylinders from a standard 20 lb CO2 cylendar. That way, you can carbonate from the much smaller and easier to use countertop unit, you can service multiple countertop carbonators from a single larger tank, and you can leave the larger tank shut off and away from living areas so that a leak doesn't pose a haza…

> I found it cheaper and much, much more convenient Cheaper? I don't see how. We're filling from the same CO2 cylinders, and my total hardware cost was less than that of a midrange SodaStream without the adapter you describe. More convenient? Maybe, depending on environment and use. But mine has advantages, too: More fizz, no counter space required, fewer fragile plastic parts, standard components that are easily ser…

One advantage of standard tabletop carbonators is that you can get versions with glass bottles. I quite like the 0.7l glass sodastream bottles.

You could probably get them to work on a DIY setup with the right pressure regulator settings and the right adapter. But I'd like to avoid the flying glass shards if I get it wrong

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#129

Post by frereubu »

xarope wrote: post #116
cogman10 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK if it'd apply here, but there are technically laws on the books in the US against price and purchase discrimination for grocers. It was specifically one of the things Lina Khan was investigating on the way out of office and something I believe she's going to be using for the NYC grocery stores. A food seller isn't allowed to cut out a grocer because they are too small. However, I believe they get around this toda…

can't several small hometown grocers get together to be able to make that volume/quantity? Surely that would be better than just buying from costco?

Parent comment said their hometown had 300 people, which I can't imagine would support more than one or, at most, two grocery stores.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#130

Post by pseingatl »

foresto wrote: post #41

If you want to carbonate water but don't want to buy a countertop carbonator or its overpriced CO2 refills, you can get a ball lock valve cap that screws onto 1L or 2L soda bottles for around $8-16. That valve will attach to a standard female fitting, which you can put on the end of a hose coming from a pressure regulator, which will attach to a full-size CO2 cylinder available from a brewing or gas supply shop. CO2…

Use Perrier glass bottles. They're designed for low-level carbonation and can be resealed.
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