Sparkling Shiraz, Anyone?

by Annie Scott (RSS feed)
Jun 13th 2009 at 11:01AM

Nothing says summer like a nice cool glass of something sparkly. Well, now you can make anything bubbly!

The SodaStream is a DIY home carbonating machine with no electrical parts, nothing too tricky or messy, and a small splurge price of around $100. The Fountain Jet Start-Up Kit, with which I had the pleasure of experimenting, is currently on sale for $89.99 (normally $139.99) -- and it's perfect for both you and your dad for Father's Day.

How it works: You get the lightweight Fountain Jet, two BPA-free bottles, and a 110-liter Carbonator which makes approximately 110 liters of seltzer. You can select from a number of flavors for sparkling water, or buy their syrups in all kinds of varieties: cola, diet cola, root beer, orange soda, diet grapefruit, tonic, and more.

You put cold water in the bottle, then the bottle and the Carbonator in the Fountain Jet, and press the button on the top to infuse the water with seltzer. Like sparkling water? You're done. If you want soda pop, you add syrup -- which I can honestly recommend; it truly tastes like root beer, cola, or whatever it says -- and you have soda pop!

Not only is it fun to make yourself, but their syrups have no high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame, and you're also doing the planet a favor by not adding cans and bottles to landfills -- and the servings come out to pennies-per-glass.

So what's luxurious about this? You can use it on anything -- turn your whites and even reds to sparkling cocktails or make the most alcoholic gin and tonic ever (by mixing a little tonic syrup into sparkling gin). Look through the gallery to see, and click here to shop for a SodaStream.

Gallery: Carbonating Alcohol with the SodaStream

The first of the non-traditional fixings

Tags: alcohol, booze, carbonated, carbonation, cool summer, CoolSummer, fathers day, FathersDay, sparkling, wine

Filed under: Gadgets, Spirits, Wine

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

carnagex2000 Jun 13th 2009 11:32PM

Even better is the Soda Shaker as it allows you to carbonate anything, even milk!
http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~hillyer/SodaShaker/homepage.htm

Audrae Erickson Jun 25th 2009 10:56PM

High fructose corn syrup may have a complicated-sounding name, but it’s essentially a corn sugar that is nutritionally the same as table sugar.

High fructose corn syrup is not sweeter than sugar; and high fructose corn syrup, sugar and honey all contain the same number of calories (four calories per gram).

Like table sugar and honey, high fructose corn syrup contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives.

Consumers can see the latest research and learn more about high fructose corn syrup at www.SweetSurprise.com.

Audrae Erickson
President
Corn Refiners Association

Kirk Jul 22nd 2009 8:22PM

Did you attempt the diet soda versions? I saw this in an airlines in-flight magazine but was hesitant. Would definitely save me a lot of money on my soda expenditure...

Annie Scott Jul 22nd 2009 10:00PM

Go for it, Kirk. Really! The diet stuff tastes great -- and with no aspartame. They are not paying me to say that; it's just a really great product.

Annie
http://anniescottexperience.blogspot.com