I’ve made no secret of the fact that I drink a lot of seltzer—so much that building my own carbonation system was actually incredibly cost effective (not to mention shopping-labor saving!). So when a friend asked what other kinds of fun carbonated drinks I was DIY-ing at home, I was kind of embarrassed that I came up empty.
I mean, sure, there have been a few outings with tonic water for parties and maybe a squeeze of lemon and lime in the bottle from time to time, but here I was with my own fizzy drink maker and I was just choosing door #1 day after day after day.
Determined to break out of this sad state of affairs, I asked my pal what sort of drink she might like. (Confession: this was one part genuine love for her, one part because she drove me into the wilds to make my last CO2 cylinder exchange and she was owed.) She mentioned that she’d really like to break her Coke at work habit, so I started researching. When I was a kid I remember checking a book out of the library that had a fake cola recipe with cinnamon and vanilla, but I was sure the internet would have surely improved upon that recipe by now. For my first outting, I decided to go fancy since I just happened to have all the weird ingredients in my pantry and try out the recipe below (which appeared in the New York Times in 2011, adapted from the Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain).
In the end, I think I probably knew too much as far as tricking my taste buds. But this is a delicious concoction all the same. I’ll have to report back on whether or not my friend notices I’ve replaced what’s normally in her red can with my own special brew, but I’m happy to have broken the floodgates on my beverage rut.
Hmmm, what should I carbonate next?
Note: I skipped the coloring, ditched the extra two tablespoons of white sugar in the original recipe, and didn’t bother blitzing the sugar in a food processor before dissolving to save dishes and annoyance. It all worked out just fine.
Cola Syrup
From the New York Times, adapted from Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain, Brooklyn, with minor shortcuts by me
Grated zest of 2 medium oranges
Grated zest of 1 large lime
Grated zest of 1 large lemon
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 section of a star anise pod, crushed (note: section!)
1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 one-and-a-half-inch piece vanilla bean, split
1/4 teaspoon citric acid
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon caramel color powder, optional (I skipped this, but I am curious how that might change the overall experience/trickery)
In a heavy 2 quart sauce pan, bring two cups water and zests, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, lavender, ginger, vanilla, and citric acid to a simmer. Cover and reduce heat to low, simmering gently for 20 minutes or so.
Measure sugars into a bowl and place a sieve lined with two layers of butter muslin over top. As soon as infused water comes off the heat, pour through strainer, extracting as much liquid as possible. Discard solids and stir sugars into the hot liquid until completely dissolved.
Pour syrup into a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and store in the refrigerator until needed. Mix at a concentration to suit your tastes. A “four parts carbonated water to one part syrup” ratio seems a good place to start.
I will definitely be giving this a try. I would love to replace my soda with something more natural and love using the soda stream for carbonating things.
We only drink plain seltzer too, ain’t no shame girl. We’ve even taken to bringing our own bottle of seltzer to work every day bc plain water just doesn’t do it for us. Woodberry has great flavored stuff and here in Thailand Dw tried an herb mash up of lemongrass, mint, basil & kefir lime leaves that we’d like to recreate.
Oooh, nice. Perhaps something like this?
Safe travels!
Has anyone tried making this with ‘zero’ sugar.. and ‘no’ added sweeteners…?
Ie as above… and simply stop prior to the adding Sugar part of the instructions…?
Dean, (Or anyone else)…
I too am curious about making this without sugar or perhaps using alternative sweeteners like Agave syrup.
I’d be curious how much to use.
Yes, not this recipe, but I made a rootbeer syrup and used Garden of Health Xylitol(Amazon) and 1 part Pyure stevia, both all natural sweeteners. The only problem with xylitol is it tends to crystalize sometimes, but tastes much like sugar and will taste amazing! And, I used molasses instead of brown sugar, very small amount so it won’t add many sugar grams!
My only concern with this is that citrus fruits aren’t farmed with the intent of their peels being eaten — so they’re covered in pesticides, waxes, and who knows what else. With this recipe, you’re eating only that part of those fruits. Maybe (or maybe not) risky (who knows).
theres always at least one person who can find fault with anything. could be water flown in from a glacier thats been boiled for an hour and ran through a brita filter and someone would still find a way to say its dangerous.
Well, you’d be right that someone is usually looking for a problem, except that a lot of fruit peels contain pesticides, and a lot of people have a problem with that, whether it’s a real danger or not. I guess the solution would be to either wash the peels and then use them, or only buy organic, and pay way too much. I’ve never seen any studies done about the issue, so I don’t know if the belief is that the pesticides sink into the peels, or just appear on the surface. I don’t personally buy the whole GMO scare, either. So I chose to believe giving your orange a nice wash with dish soap before you use it is sufficient. The only way any of us could possibly live free from modernized dangers would be to go tribal.
Be nice, will you? Bugaroo is actually right. Citrus fruits are often heavily sprayed with harmful substances, and their peels often waxed to preserve their appearance and shelf life. Do a little research of your own. There is no problem with the recipe, this is just a word of caution.
Bugaroo,
As Vincent suggested below for the organic stuff. When I can’t get organic I scrub wash everything. (Also most of the time with organics too).
My scrub is a very small amount of dish soap and a bleach spray that I make in a spray bottle mixing 1/3 bottle bleach to the remaining 2/3 bottle of water. I spray this on all berries and let it sit for about a minute.
Then I rinse with water thoroughly until I am sure the surface is squeaky clean.
I let all the berries dry and then later toss them in large bags to freeze for year round blended fruit drinks.
You might want to face the reality that worrying about stuff like this doesn’t help. You are now probably getting an unsafe level of radiation on a daily basis. Can’t worry about it and fixing it is nearly impossible in your life time. So as the song says: “Don’t worry, be happy.”
For anyone concerned with pesticides and waxes, just buy organic.
I just wanted to do without the caramel coloring. I also wish for a sugar replacement. Also, since the kola nut adds the cafein, my oldest son wishes to keep the cafein in the beverage. Is there a way to do that?