Homemade Sodas

Grapefruit Soda, Black Currant Soda and Lychee/Strawberry Soda

It struck me as kind of strange that Hanson's soda marked their soda as gluten free until a few weeks ago when I was planning on buying a grape soda at Walgreens and discovered it had "modified food starch" as an ingredient. What the heck is that even doing in there?

I talk a lot about my gluten sensitivity but I'll explain a bit here too about what led me to a gluten free lifestyle. I suffer from, aside from the typical digestive issues associated with gluten sensitivity and celiacs, extreme dysphagia. Dysphagia basically means the sensation of choking. My diet has become slightly more limited in terms of texture because of this condition. Going gluten free dramatically reduced my symptoms but one of the interesting things that really helps is carbonated beverages. It's much easier to swallow with the sensation of the bubbles... I've also heard this technique is used with the elderly who have swallowing limitations.

So back to soda... we certainly would all like to avoid high fructose corn syrups and all the other preservatives that are unavoidable in store purchased pop. If your looking to create your own soda beverages at home but would rather not invest in one of the latest forced carbonation devices now available at Bed, Bath and Beyond and other such home gadget stores, I have the solution for you.

Champagne yeast.

I recently started ordering the stuff online, Red Star Champagne yeast. It's the yeast used to make mead
style alcoholic beverages.  However in shortened fermentation periods you can make a fabulously carbonated beverage from just a few simple ingredients.

For simple sodas with juice bases, think peach, grape, black current, grapefruit and orange you can follow these instructions.

1 liter swing top glass bottle, thoroughly cleaned, these can be found at most home brew supply stores.

1/3 cup cane sugar, you can use organic or the cheaper "non-GMO certified" cane sugar available at most markets.

Carbonation in Grapefruit Soda

1/8 teaspoon champagne yeast

12 fluid oz juice of choice

filtered water

Use a funnel to pour sugar into bottle, then add yeast, juice and then fill water up to neck line. Close bottle and shake. Set in a warm place for 24 hours. At the 12 hour market slowly rotate bottle to mix sugar.

Once appropriate fizz level has been reached refrigerate. Serve cold.

You can make your own variations on this by essentially using other juices or creating other "flavored" waters by adding homemade syrups such as ginger syrup with lemon juice for ginger ale or other varieties to create custom homemade sodas.

I swear you will NEVER want to drink store bought soda ever again... I mean EVER again! I tried to drink some Canada Dry a few weeks ago and I was like "what is this watery week flavorless stuff?!"

This is a summer MUST have! Enjoy and feel free to share whatever awesome flavor combos you come up with.

xoxo- Iris