SodaStream

This morning I saw an article on TreeHugger about the SodaStream, it was asking if home carbonation is the next big green thing? Of course I instantly thought about just how much we love the SodaStream that we bought at the beginning of the year and prompted me to look through my list of blog posts to see what I had written previously about our own SodaStream. I was a little surprised when I didn't find a post about our soda stream, I'm not 100% convinced that I just didn't notice it but it made me realize that even if I had posted about the SodaStream maybe I should post again now that we have had it for a while and have really had time to use it.

There are several things that I really love about our SodaStream. First of all is that I don't have to buy bottles of carbonated water and bring them home and find a place to keep them and biggest of all is the guilt that I feel when I throw those plastic bottles into the recycle bin after we are done with them, granted due to the guilt of throwing the bottles in the bin we hardly ever purchased carbonated water. Second, we can now make our own Italian sodas instead of spend a few dollars a bottle on them. I do still occasionally purchase Italian sodas from the store, but I keep the glass bottles from them and reuse them to make my own sodas in. Making our own Italian sodas has been a lot of fun. My husband and I have grown very fond of adding soda water to our morning glass of orange juice, it makes an Orangina style beverage. Another juice we have tried adding carbonated water to is apple juice, it is really tasty this way and makes apple juice a bit more of an adult beverage. Of course my favorite thing to make with the SodaStream is homemade lemon soda.

We have our own lemon tree so this is a good way to put some of those lemons to use, I just make a simple syrup (boil enough water to dissolve the sugar in) and then add the lemon juice and carbonated water. I usually use 1/2 a cup of sugar and 8 ounces of water to make the simple syrup, then while that is cooling off in the soda bottle (I reuse the glass Italian soda bottles from Trader Joe's) I juice 3 lemons and then add the juice to the soda bottle. When the contents are close to room temperature you can fill the bottle the rest of the way with carbonated water. I use a funnel to get all the ingredients into the bottle and of course once the soda is made you will want to put it in the fridge to cool or if you want to drink it right away add some ice to a glass and then pour your soda in.