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DIY Soft Drinks

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191–200 of 253 posts

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#191
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

A lot of small co-op groceries and even food co-ops that are more like ordering clubs used to use a company called UNFI to put in their orders but I think they focused more on organic and other high end items but they were willing to service smaller stores so yeah it's probable. There was also IGA (independent grocers association) but I think most of the stores associated with that brand/network locally have closed d…

I lived in a town with only IGA and Piggly-Wiggly. (And Dollar General, of course). IGA was the best. I really appreciate what they were doing. It appears to still exist.

https://www.iga.com/about

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#192

I'd be interested in soft drinks that were unsweetened altogether and not just sugar free. Sometimes I have sparkling water + apple cider vinegar + lemon/lime juice and it's wonderful when well mixed.

I've got a couple of sweetener-free recipes I use with my soda maker, though I should warn you nobody else I've given them to likes them. But I like them well enough.

One is a couple of squirts of vanilla, a couple of squirts of lemon juice, and a bit of salt. Salt is probably an underappreciated drink ingredient for this sort of thing. It turns out it isn't in your soft drinks just to make you want to drink more. This makes something that is related to cream soda, except for the aspects of cream soda that come from being crammed full of sugar, which I can't do much about.

I also have a mix I keep around made out of 3 tablespoons salt, 1 cup vanilla, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup lime juice, and about 1/3rd cup almond extract. I measure it all (except the salt which I just put in directly) into a single 2 cup Pyrex dish and just sort of eyeball the last 1/3rd cup of almond extract, then funnel it in to a holder. I use McCormick 32 oz vanilla and almond extract for this and order bulk RealLemon and RealLime juice for this from Amazon, and mix it into one of the leftover bottles and keep it around refrigerated. 3 squirts and "whatever dribbles in" as I'm removing the bottle is what I used for one DrinkMate bottle. To taste, as all of this is, of course. If nothing else this is pretty cheap per drink.

You can also mix unsweetened electrolytes in, but you have to wait until after you dilute the mixture with water or it'll react with the lemon & lime juice. Salt you can keep in the mix but not electrolytes in general. It adds a certain body to the mix even if you're not interested in the electrolytes per se, and a single packet of them lasts a long time.

You're not going to go into business selling this stuff, but if you're already drinking unsweetened apple cider vinegar & lemon/lime juice as a beverage flavoring we might just have some compatible tastes here. Carbonation is required, though, otherwise the vanilla and the almond extract don't come through at all.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an emulsifier, allowing the fats and the water to mix better. I _think_ it also might help to trap air bubbles. It helps you turn on the creaminess-knob

Egg yolk is the usual emulsifier, in the UK at least - ice cream is essentially a frozen whipped custard.

That’s also an option. I usually make mine without due to friends with egg allergies and vegan friends

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#194
post #24

I recently started getting into homemade ClubMate production. The goal was to create a drink that has caffeine, less sugar than regular mate and is still tasty. It took me 4-5 tries to get to a recipe that tastes good. Earlier tries involved cooking the mate, which led to a bitter taste. Cold brewing led to way better results. Here is my current recipe for 5 bottles (á 0,5l): - 60g mate tea leaves (coarse) [1] - 500m…

To be honest, I don't have that much fun in playing around with the recipe, but I found this one and it just works for me: https://github.com/xil-se/FreeMate But nowadays I just drink plain yerba mate with a splash of lemon juice, no added sugar. I do the FreeMate in summer a bit. Edit: Btw, if anyone of you bought yerba mate before and thought it didn't taste great, for me personally there are huge differences betwe…

You can also buy mate with mint mixed in. I accidentally bought a kilo of it a while ago and I've been working through it slowly.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#195
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!

[deleted]

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#196
Shout out to those who love manga/anime: there's an anime called "Dr Stone" that's quite appealing to us nerds as it showcases real life chemistry and physics. In one episode, the protagonist shares the recipe for making natural "cola" (called "Senku Cola" if you want to look it up) and it's actually apparently very close to the real thing

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#197

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?

Ochre is from a type of clay

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#198
post #179
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 guess the definition of "overpriced" varies, but I pay 7 or 8 EUR for one bottle of CO2 and it lasts like 3-4 weeks for 2 people, just to put it into perspective.

I paid about 20-25 USD for my last 5 lb refill. That was a few years ago, and it's still providing. My prior fill lasted more than 5 years (maybe 6 or 7) serving one fizzy water fan and occasional guests.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#200

I went down this rabbit hole last year after buying a carbonator. Rather than mixing a bunch of oils together, I bought my flavors from Bakto Flavors (based in NJ, USA) which is founded by Dr. Daphna Havkin Frenkel who did her research in food sciences and biotechnology, focusing on vanilla. The cola flavor is really good, and I add acetic acid (Vitamin C) + electrolytes to it. If I'm feeling it, I'll add in vanilla,…

Are there any reasonably priced water carbonation systems that aren't sodastream adjacent?

I know there are hacks for the older sodastreams where you can buy a large tank from a foodgas company, but what I really want is a machine in my house that I can bring a cup to and fill with soda without it costing me ~$1,000.

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