Home Soda Fountain
For a while, it's bothered me how much soda I drink. I've always been a fan of the fizzy drinks. Pretty much all of my waking hours, I've got a beverage at hand. I can easily go through 12 cans a day.
When I was younger, it was the regular stuff: Coke, Mountain Dew and company. I also drink coffee and tea, but drink nearly all of it sweetened in some way.
For a long time, that sweetener was sugar. However, when I ended up tipping the scales at 300 pounds, I gave up drinking any of my calories. All of the experts say that you should drink plain water. The problem is that I can't stand drinking plain water. I've tried all of the things recommended in every article, book, from every expert, etc.
So, I've been drinking diet soda in one form or another for years and I managed to lose a lot of weight. Now, some of the other things associated with soda have been bugging me. For one, I hate dragging home case after case of the stuff every week to feed my habit. Then there's the cost. Even buying it by the case, I'm still spending more than I like.
The artificial sweeteners, while show in many studies to be totally safe unless you're eating the stuff by the pound, keep coming up as correlated elements in more and more metabolic studies. No one has yet proven causation (that Nutrasweet directly contributes to weight gain, etc.), I wondered if I might be able to better solve some of these problems more rationally.
I wondered if it was the flavor or the carbonation that made me like the stuff. So, a couple of weeks ago I tried a a full day with just sparkling water and discovered that I didn't really miss the soda. That's in stark contrast to the days where I tried plain water (bottled or not) and ran around desperately trying to find a can of Coke.
It was clear that what I was after was carbonation, not necessarily the flavor of a given kind of soda (though I still do like Coke Zero). However, the thought of buying sparkling water seemed even less sane than buying cases of soda.
And so it was that I consulted the oracle at Google, which resulted in my purchase of a home soda fountain, which arrived yesterday.
Now, instead of dragging a pickup bed full of cases of cans, I can just take filtered water from the tap, fill the 1 liter bottles and press the button a few times and I've got sparkling water. The gas canisters exchange for about $20 and they claim 100+ bottles per canister.
It comes with some flavored diet syrups as well, but the couple I've tried aren't terribly good. However, the sparkling water *is*. It's about noon, but I've already gone through 3 liters of water today and none of the other stuff.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Coke Zero, man is that stuff good. I got the cherry kind the other week and I love it, I want to try the vanilla. But I too am trying to kick the diet soda habit, because I have this feeling in a few years we're going to find out it's even more terrible than we think. I had caffeine knocked out altogether until I started working at a place providing us with all the free soda we want. I'm down to one Diet Coke a day.
Incidentally, have you ever thought about trying those no or low calorie water flavorings, like the Crystal Lite stuff? I don't know how good that is but it might be worth a try.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I don't like the vanilla, though the cherry is good. Coke's vanilla and lime flavorings are nasty. The vanilla just seems to have that "car air freshener" version of vanilla as an overtone and the lime tastes like the lime in antacids. The few times I've had their Diet Coke with Lime I feel like someone crushed up some Tums and shoved them in the can. Bleh.
I'll have to see about the Crystal Lite with the seltzer. I know I don't like those with flat water though.
Of course, those bring the aspartame, sucralose and saccharin problems back into the equation as well since most of those use one of the artificial sweeteners to make things palletable.
I'm also going to give the syrups for Italian sodas a try. A long time ago, I used to get a vanilla soda from one of the coffee shops and remember liking that, so it's worth a shot for variety's sake. I know Torani has diet syrups (though again with the artificial sweeteners).
August 1st, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Agreed on the lime being totally nasty and acidic. Haven't tried the vanilla though.
Does Splenda contain any of those nasty ingredients? I know it comes from sugar, but god only knows what they add to it to make it edible. If Splenda is an option you could try using it to make a simple syrup like bartenders use, and then adding natural flavors, like a little bit of vanilla bean or a twist of actual lime.
When you find something you like you'll have to post how it works out!
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:33 am
Splenda is sugar that's somehow "neutered" into not having calories. It does taste much better than the others, and is my preference for alternative sweeteners (other than natural stevia, which isn't allowed to be sold as a sweetener in the US).
I tried the sugar-free vanilla syrup last night and it made for a nice italian soda. I think I'm going to pick up a bunch of the sugar-free soda syrups tonight and give them a shot.
There's a whole pile of soda recipes that effectively disappeared when the neighborhood soda fountains went away and all of those used to be made with selzer.
I'm also thinking of going through a bunch of the ideas behind cocktails and making non-alcoholic versions (since I don't drink alcohol) of things like a mojito as well.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:50 am
Wow, a subject I think about often.
I drink one diet coke (caffeinated) every morning and the diet/caffeine free version of the drinks for the rest of the day.
I love that minor jolt of caffeine, but can't do with more than 1. Lately, I'm finding that the caffeinefree/diet drinks just do wierd things to me. Wierd taste in my mouth, plus the need to take a piss almost immediately. Contrast that with water which doesn't seem to feel wierd.
I read somewhere that the artificial sugar taste is actually counterproductive in the long run because it accustomizes the taste buds to sweetness. As a result, it's hard to go back to plain water. (I'm trying now though).
One Coke exec said that his company's main competition was not Pepsi but water. While I lived in East Europe, many found the practice of drinking colas during the day (especially for breakfast) absolutely bizzare.