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DIY Soft Drinks

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Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#81

Post by com2kid »

mattmaroon wrote: post #45
atentaten wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you get a commercial bottling license?

Well after software I wanted a life that involved a lot less computer usage and a lot more being on my feet. So now I sell beverages via a few food trucks and also syrups people can use to make draft sodas/mocktails. We make everything ourselves because we’re all-natural everything, with the lone exception of Coke products because you just can’t get people to drink anything else. I basically went from no real knowled…

Seconded that I'd love to hear more.

A couple years back I bought a "cooking from your garden" book that introduced my family to shrubs, and since then we've been making a lot of home made drinks. We mostly do different types of shrubs and tepeches. I've found that doing better than store bought isn't very hard, but I have no desire to try and scale any of my recipes.

The other thing I used to do before I had a kid was make really fancy alcoholic snacks. Super labor intensive, but really good. For example I made a jello piña colada. I'd sweeten canned coconut cream with some white sugar on the stove, add gelatin, and some rum. let it cool a bit. Drain a can of pineapples and keep the juice, use the juice to make pineapple jello again mixed with rum, with a piece of pineapple in the middle. Join the two jellos when they are both half set. (I used silicone molds.)

Tada! Bougie piña colada jello shots.

With a kid now I am limiting my creativity to non-alcoholic drinks. 90% of the shrub recipes online are absurdly basic. Honestly doing "better than average" is easy because the bar is so damn low.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#82

Post by psalaun »

jamiek88 wrote: post #48
nchmy wrote: post #17

I bottled 20 litres of kombucha yesterday with ginger and lemongrass. It'll be very fizzy and ready to drink in 3-5 days. Costs next to nothing and quite healthy - water, black tea, sugar, (gifted and self-reproducing) scoby. The flavourings are what costs most, depending on what you use.

Oooh that sounds good! I’ve been meaning to add fermented stuff to my diet.

Maybe try water kefir first then. I've got mine for 5 years now at least, making 2 bottles every couple of weeks or so.

Kefir is easier and quicker to make than kombucha, there is no caffeine and maybe less sugar. Probably the best intro to fermented drinks!

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#83

Post by fakedang »

nulld3v wrote: post #58
eek2121 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Boycotts definitely have their limitations, but the Sodastream boycott seems to have had some sort of effect: https://www.timesofisrael.com/victory-for-bds-as-sodastreams... , though whether the intended effect was achieved is debatable...

"West Bank Industrial Zone" lol.

Call it for what it really is (not you, Times Of Israel). A factory inside an illegal West Bank settlement.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#84

Post by cogman10 »

fakedang wrote: post #80
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…

And I'm guessing, without a local grocery store at the very least, your hometown is also a dying entity?

It's mixed. Several people ended up moving back as some of the older population died off. One new resident retired there and is running a mini-grocery store now as both a hobby and for some of the hunters that come through the town.

But the town is dying/dead. There's really only 1 major business in town and the school. It's surrounded by farm land.

In my father's day, it had everything from a hardware store, full service garage, a bowling ally, movie theater, restaurant, and dance hall. All that is gone now.

In my youth the restaurant and grocery store were still around. You had to call ahead to the restaurant as they would only open in a call ahead fashion.

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#86

Post by manwe150 »

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…

Here you go: https://www.kegoutlet.com/carbonating-kits.html

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#87

Post by riffraff »

userbinator wrote: post #76
Scoundreller wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> acetic acid (Vitamin C) ascorbic acid!

Acetic acid is vinegar. Not something I'd like to taste in any soft drink.

I don't like vinegar much either, but vinegar in drinks does have a certain tradition e.g.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posca

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#88

Post by hattmall »

nchmy wrote: post #17

I bottled 20 litres of kombucha yesterday with ginger and lemongrass. It'll be very fizzy and ready to drink in 3-5 days. Costs next to nothing and quite healthy - water, black tea, sugar, (gifted and self-reproducing) scoby. The flavourings are what costs most, depending on what you use.

what did you bottle it in?

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#89

Post by hattmall »

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?

Re: DIY Soft Drinks

#90

Post by nchmy »

hattmall wrote: post #88
nchmy wrote: post #17

I bottled 20 litres of kombucha yesterday with ginger and lemongrass. It'll be very fizzy and ready to drink in 3-5 days. Costs next to nothing and quite healthy - water, black tea, sugar, (gifted and self-reproducing) scoby. The flavourings are what costs most, depending on what you use.

what did you bottle it in?

Bottles?
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