Moving this to a different thread for @Pandy so I don’t derail poor @Aziz. I have a Sparkel carbonator system:
It’s different than SodaStream because there is no carbon tank and you can carbonate more than just straight water. It uses sachets of citric acid and baking soda mixed in a separate water catchall to produce the CO2, which a small piston pump pushes into your beverage. You can either buy pre-measured sachets or mix your own from bulk ingredients:
Sparkel hates this as they make good money from selling the sachets so there are red hot warnings all over their site about doing it. I’ve not noticed an issue in the function of the system and it REALLY changes the economics of using it.
Here’s the recipe I’m trying today:
I’m not using ground allspice. I use the ripe, dried berries. Next up I need to nail down root bear. My wife and I love the Boyland root beer, but it’s $2.50/bottle. Trying to see how close we can come to their taste.
This is awesome – the tanks are the big pain in the butt for the SodaStream. I used to have one (but left it behind when I moved from LA to South FL), and I - technically - loved it. My sister and I were just talking last night about getting one, but how we didn’t want to deal with the tanks… I’ve never heard of this brand – thanks!! Gonna pass on the info to her.
Let me know how the ginger ale turns out.
Edit: There was a SodaStream flavor I loved, that I would have to search around for a recipe to try and mimic – it was a grapefruit flavor. Remember Fresca???
I use fresh squeezed pink grapefruit juice in water with a 1:1 ratio. Add juice from half a lime and a teaspoon of fresh zest from each the grapefruit and the lime. Let the bottle of juices and zest chill overnight, strain out the zest, and then carbonate while still very cold (the colder the more carbon it holds). I sweeten with aspartame to taste.
I hate to be negative but I priced a Soda stream and did the math and it basically breaks out even between buying it in stores and making it yourself. Maybe yours is more economical.
I will have to look up that machine. My daughter was just talking about how we should get a soda stream. I said it cost too much. But the one you suggest looks cheaper. Which for me, cheap is important.
Buying bulk citric acid and baking soda to make your own carbonating agent is the cheapest route and really drops the cost. Just be aware that it voids the warranty and may gum up the machine (according to Sparkel).
