Homemade Syrups, Sodas and Other Fizzy Concoctions Blog Hop

Photo courtesy: the kitchn

I have been interested in the herbal community and herbs for natural healing and health for ages now. My favorite book on the subject, Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, is dogeared and worn as I have used it many times as a reference. I have many, many herbal friends on Facebook and Twitter. These are my kindred spirits, some with knowledge beyond my years and some just learning like I.

My herbal friend, Kiva Rose, is well known in the wildcrafting and herbal community. She is the Co-Editor at Plant Healer: A Journal of Traditional Western Herbalism, the director and organizer of the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference and the director and instructor of the Anima Lifeways & Herbal School.

So the other day Kiva posted on her Facebook wall that she loves lavender Italian soda with whipped cream. She had made this unique and wonderful sounding drink herself. She has a way of coming up with the most divine sounding recipes and commenting about them on Facebook making us all wish we were at her place for dinner. I love reading her posts on her Facebook wall and on her blog. She is a great inspiration for those of us who have her as a friend. When she posts it is hard not to comment :)

The comments were inspiring too, as one pointed out that the Sodastream that I have in my home and have reviewed here on my blog in the past could be used as the means to carbonate these delicious fizzy drinks. I had thought of making my own syrups, sodas and fizzy concoctions myself but never to the extent of using my Sodastream to carbonate them. Now I was hearing of yummy things like using rose syrup, cream from fresh goats milk, jasmine, elderberry, pomegranate, basil-mint, lemon balm, raspberry, elderflower, prickly pear, mulberry etc. to flavor fizzy water with! These natural sodas/syrups just are better for you and also tastier than their regular counterparts.

I have made my own awesome ginger ale before with the use of an already carbonated lemon/lime soda. I use my Hurricane Stainless Steel Manual Wheatgrass Juicer to juice the ginger root and squeeze out all the precious juice from it. Then we add as much of the ginger juice as we like to the lemon/lime soda and there you go...a yummy ginger ale how ever strong you like it. However, my version doesn't use my Sodastream and usually has high fructose corn syrup in it. I was looking on the web for something that might be better and came across this great post too about some homemade ginger syrup you could use with your Sodastream or carbonation machine.

Kiva's post also inspired me to create a blog hop to show a bit of our creative side. What is a blog hop? Well...A blog hop is a list of blogs or specific posts related to a similar topic. A blog “host” (that would be me) lists a Linky (list of links to other blogs or posts) on their page, along with the Blog Hop rules. There are 2 parts to a blog hop: 1) Each participant adds their info to the Linky so others can see it. 2) Each participant re-posts the Linky on their blog to promote the blog hop (not mandatory, but I hope you will do this part so others may also know about this).

Let's see how many recipes we can come up with for Homemade Syrups, Sodas and Other Fizzy Concoctions. I am intrigued by this concept and would love to connect with other blogs that want to participate in this too. Besides a recipe, pictures of your drink that you have created would be awesome! Add your link with the button below the rules.

Sodastream Review and Giveaway

I am here to tell you about a great product that I love having in my home. Sodastream is a soda maker for the home or office. This wonderful device not only makes soda, but it also makes sparkling ciders and carbonated waters. I love how easy it is to make them! All you do is fill the bottle that comes with the unit to the fill line with cold tap water, screw into soda maker, and push down the button on top until you hear a buzzing sound 3 times to carbonate. It doesn't take any electricity or batteries. If you want flavoring just add a cap full of the SodaMix flavors or a few drops of the MyWater Essence.

Also, you can do what I tried and found very tasty! I make my own sparkling juices... Pick out desired can of juice concentrate (my favorite we tried is 100% apple juice) chilled but completely thawed. Make 1 L bottle of carbonated water up to fill line. Pour 1/4 juice and 1/4 carbonated water in a cup or glass. Stir and drink. Pour remainder of juice concentrate into the bottle, cap and swirl gently. Store in fridge or drink right away.

I received the Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker in black and silver from Sodastream along with 1 60 liter Carbonator, 2 Carbonating Bottles, 9 SodaMix flavors - each bottle makes 12 liters of soda and 1 MyWater Essence Variety 3 Pack for free from Sodastream to try out, keep and review.

This soda maker can also fit the extra large 110 liter carbonators and has an easy to clean drip tray. I didn't pick the soda I received and got a lot of diet sodas. They were alright tasting though and my absolute favorite of the ones I tried was the diet grapefruit. In my opinion Sodastream's syrups could have been better tasting, but the carbonation at home did make them taste fresher and more refreshing. When my oldest son, Delbin, took his first taste of the energy soda we made with the Sodastream he exclaimed, "First of all, it makes my mouth come alive and also it clears out my nose!"...bubbles up the nose does feel funny, LOL!

The calories, carbs, sugar, sodium and caffeine in the SodaMix flavors rank less than regular sodas you would find in the stores. I love that I can control the amount of fizz that goes in to the water if I want and that I am saving the environment by not having to throw away empty cans or bottles. All I have to do is make a bottle of sparkling water to flavor as I please and then once it is all gone to rinse the bottle and air dry. Cleaning is that simple and I don't have trash to throw away because the bottles are reusable. Also, once the carbonator is empty Sodastream will refill it for you for less than the price to buy a new one.

Besides that I am not a real big fan of diet soda and that is primarily what I was given to try out, here are my only real dislikes about the Jet: once when I was pressing down the button my finger got caught in between it and the device...it left a small gash on my finger, my dog doesn't like the sound it makes while carbonating...he barks loudly at it like it hurts his ears and lastly the tilt to screw on the bottle is a bit awkward.

BUY IT:
This unit starts at $89.95 on up depending upon the kit you get with it and comes in red, black, or white. It will end up paying for itself if you drink a lot of soda or sparkling drinks. It is just 25 cents per the equivalent of a can of soda and 25 cents per liter of sparkling water. You also won't be paying anymore bottle deposits if you live in a bottle bill state. Just think of the all the money you'll be saving. You will also save on lugging, storing and disposing of cases of soda and / or sparkling water.

WIN IT:
Rob at Sodastream is letting one of my readers win a Fountain Jet starter kit with 4 SodaMix flavors.

Mandatory:
1. Leave a comment on this post of which 4 SodaMix syrups you would love to try out.

Additional entries:
1. Subscribe to my blog by email and let me know. (2 extra entries)

2. Become my fan on facebook. (1 extra entry)

3. Blog about this giveaway on your blog and provide me with the link. Make sure you have the link to this post and Sodastream in your blog entry or it won't count. (2 extra entries)

4. Grab My Button (see sidebar to the left) AND/OR Put My Blog URL in Your Blogroll - Leave Your Link. (1 extra entry)

5. Technorati my blog and let me know your link. (1 extra entry)

6. List this giveaway on any giveaway listing website or blog and tell me where you listed it. (2 extra)

7. Add me on twitter and retweet this: @finamoon: @sodastreamusa WIN Sodastream Kit #giveaway http://bit.ly/d4ngtP (Daily Extras are Available)

8. Fan Sodastream on Facebook. (1 extra entry)

9. Follow Sodastream on Twitter. (1 extra entry)

Make sure you leave me your email in all posts so that I can contact you. This contest ends on Friday February 19, 2010 at midnight (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada). This Giveaway is open Worldwide if listed on their website!!

DISCLAIMER: I received the Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker in black and silver from Sodastream along with 1 60 liter Carbonator, 2 Carbonating Bottles, 9 SodaMix flavors - each bottle makes 12 liters of soda and 1 MyWater Essence Variety 3 Pack for free from Sodastream to try out, keep and review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.