Something Besides Tea

I'm getting tired of drinking water and iced tea.  And so, last night, I perused my homemade soda books, from when Mama got the Soda Stream last year.  I found a few sodas, not super sugary, that I can make to vary things a bit.  I'm thinking of it as flavored seltzer.  And since it's homemade syrup, I can vary the strength.  Yum, not sure which one to make first, Dried Cherry Soda or Almond Honey Cream Soda.  And there's still my old London Fog soda.


Dried Cherry Soda
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup dried sweet cherries

In medium saucepan over medium heat, bring water, sugar, and cherries to a boil.  Remove from heat and steep for two hours.

Using a stick blender, fork, or potato masher, break up cherries til mixture is chunky (do not blend smooth.)  Strain, discard cherries, and let cool.  Store syrup for up to 14 days.

To serve:  fill class with ice.  Add 3 tablespoons syrup and a few dashes of citric acid or acid phosphate (I'm using lemon juice).  Top with seltzer and mix gently.

Anton Nocito, Make Your Own Soda


Almond Honey Cream Soda
Honey Milk
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Combine the honey, milk, and extracts, stir until smooth.  This syrup will keep in fridge for 3 days.

To serve:  1/3 cup honey milk and 1 cup seltzer.  Pour syrup in glass and add seltzer.  Mix until just blended.

Andrew Schloss, Homemade Soda



London Fog on Ice

Makes 1 1/2 cups of syrup

1 vanilla bean, halved and split

1 cup sugar

3-4 bags of Earl Grey tea

1 cup water

Soda water

Half-and-half or whole milk

To make the simple syrup, combine the vanilla bean and sugar in a small saucepan. Rub the vanilla bean into the sugar with the back of a spoon until the mixture is fragrant. Add the tea bags and water. Cook over medium-low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Turn off the heat, and use tongs to remove the tea bags right away to avoid bitterness. Allow syrup to cool before using.
To make the soda, fill an 8-ounce glass with ice. Fill three-quarters full with soda water. Add 1/8 to 1/4 cup syrup, depending on desired sweetness. Top with half-and-half and more soda, if desired.

from NPR piece

Summer Fun: Soda Spree

We got an early start on celebrating Mama's birthday today, when we bought the SodaStream that Sis decided Mama should have.  With Goo here for the birthday party weekend, we thought making sodas would be great fun.  So, after a delicious brunch and some exploring of a small stream, and after a swimathon at the Y where we played water basketball, we picked up some ice cream and other supplies and headed home.

We made glass-sized tastings of several flavors, using SodaStream concentrate, including half and half Lemonade and Ice Tea, cream soda, orange soda, and grape soda (all of which were brightly colored and overly sweet).  Then we raided our fridge and combined several of our syrups--strawberry shrub, blackberry syrup, and Ribena black currant syrup (alas our elderflower had turned)--to carbonated water.  In all cases, we probably under-measured the syrup and made rather weak drinks.  But when we added vanilla ice cream to the grape soda ("a purple cow") and to the orange soda ("creamsicle"), we were quite pleased.  Mama even likes it straight, as seltzer (which is how Sis's teacher, from whom Sis got the idea, uses her machine), while I find it "salty."

Later, as we watched The Lego Movie (one of their birthday presents--it's visually amazing and quite humorous), I made a soda I came across when researching SodaStreams:  Vanilla Earl Grey, or what I should call, London Fog on Ice.  It reminds me of the hot London Fog I make in the winter.  It also reminded me of the wonderful sodas we had in Philly at Franklin Fountain and the ones in the cookbook Soda Fountain, from the Brooklyn Farmacy, that was recommended by NPR.

Clearly, homemade syrups are the way to go.  They would make for once fancy lemonade stand.


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London Fog on Ice

Makes 1 1/2 cups of syrup

1 vanilla bean, halved and split

1 cup sugar

3-4 bags of Earl Grey tea

1 cup water

Soda water

Half-and-half or whole milk

To make the simple syrup, combine the vanilla bean and sugar in a small saucepan. Rub the vanilla bean into the sugar with the back of a spoon until the mixture is fragrant. Add the tea bags and water. Cook over medium-low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Turn off the heat, and use tongs to remove the tea bags right away to avoid bitterness. Allow syrup to cool before using.
To make the soda, fill an 8-ounce glass with ice. Fill three-quarters full with soda water. Add 1/8 to 1/4 cup syrup, depending on desired sweetness. Top with half-and-half and more soda, if desired.

from NPR piece