sodastream advice?

Sodastream directions are brief to the point of being ambigious... does anyone have further guidelines on it? Like after you inject carb, would it help to let the bottle sit there a while before unscrewing and breaking the seal?

How strict should you follow the rule of only carbing water, then flavor? Is the issue not to gunk up the injector (maybe attracting insects later) or avoiding a reaction shooting pressures up?

Any principles in maintaining tart plus sweet? I get good tartness from the lime syrup made by the grenadine syrup maker, but it doesnt always fit. A coffee mocha drink was bad... i guess the bitterness of coffee doesnt work for tart.

We have one and don't wait between carbing the water and removing the bottle. As for the coffee drink you add the bite of carbonic acid to the bitterness of the coffee.

To your second question...I once added the flavor first then carbed - the thing overflowed and gushed water everywhere. No idea if it was the flavoring or I didn't screw it on right, but it's the only time it happened so I have heeded the instructions ever since.

With the coffee, it didn't help to resweeten with red grenadine syrup... i guess coffee and chocolate must need special handling, and thats why they invented cola and root beer as dark alternatives.

Btw, i looked for extra bottles, esp half size plastic ones, but they cost the earth. Probably they must for insurance purposes if someone abusively blows one up. But on ebay there are modestly priced ones. After my order, the tracking number gives no progress past israel... i hope they make it.

The smaller sizes should proportionatly give me more headroom for syrup, i figure. And give more variety of ready drinks. I like the wider mouth of the official sodastream bottles, but maybe an adaptor could be made to carb small conventional bottles.

Wow, i got much better carbonation by letting the water first sit in the fridge for 8 rather than 4 hours. I guess we have pretty warm tap water, because the 4 hour stuff would cause the co2 to shoot to the surface in one big bubble on the third or fourth squirt and i guess would leak out when unscrewing from my fizz rig, leaving weak bubbles.

My charge gauge doesn't seem to work... i get max bars for co2 bottle, but the output gauge sticks on the lowest setting regardless of how many squirts of carb. I forgot to try leaving it hooked up to the fizz rig for a while to see if the carb would drive into the water better.

Wow again, i got the spare half liter bottles from haim goldberg's store on ebay, and they work great. Better for experimenting with than the big bottles, which can sit around going flat. Very inexpensive, maybe due to being mailed from israel where i think sodastream is based.

It's starting to look like even unflavored syrups are expensive... i hate to use sugar made into syrup because it could granulate in the fridge (or attract ants outside fridge). Saw an ad for capella flavorings in this site, and ordered enough to get their discount.

daft said:

i hate to use sugar made into syrup because it could granulate in the fridge (or attract ants outside fridge).

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Prevent sugar syrup from granulating by making an invert syrup, it keeps for six months in refrig or if you add k-meta/campden along with sorbate it is shelf stable. Great thing to have in the kitchen anyway.
Here is my recipe:
* 2lb 3oz sugar
* 16 oz water
* 1/4 tsp citric acid or cream of tartar
1. In a non reactive saucepan stir to a boil the sugar, water and cream of tartar (Or citric acid).
2. Once the mixture boils wash away any sugar crystals stuck to the side of the pan with pastry brush dipped in water. Any additional water added to the pan from this process, has no effect on the final outcome.
3. On medium heat without stirring boil the mixture to 236°F (114°C). Remove from heat and cover the pan. Let cool at room temperature. Store in a refrigerator. Invert sugar will last at least 6 months.

I have a sodastream, and IMO the "carb only water" thing is to prevent gushing. I've noticed if I properly carb cold tap water, and add the syrup really fast, it'll gush. Adding it slowly does not cause this.

I've never used refrigerated water. Just cold tap water.

Here's what the lady that was demonstrating the machine told me: Fill it to the water fill-line, hit the carb button (short presses, a little less than 1sec each) until it makes that loud buzzy noise. Make it buzz 3 times (approx 1/2 second to 1sec each).

Vent bottle using pivot mechanism on machine, detach, addy syrup (SLOWLY), and gently rotate the bottle end-over-end to disperse. Dont shake it.

Works like a charm for me.

naga77777 said:

I have a sodastream, and IMO the "carb only water" thing is to prevent gushing. I've noticed if I properly carb cold tap water, and add the syrup really fast, it'll gush. Adding it slowly does not cause this.

I've never used refrigerated water. Just cold tap water.

Here's what the lady that was demonstrating the machine told me: Fill it to the water fill-line, hit the carb button (short presses, a little less than 1sec each) until it makes that loud buzzy noise. Make it buzz 3 times (approx 1/2 second to 1sec each).

Vent bottle using pivot mechanism on machine, detach, addy syrup (SLOWLY), and gently rock end-over-end to disperse. Dont shake it.

Works like a charm for me.

Click to expand...

+1 to all of the above.

Thanks everyone. The instructions said to fridge the water first, and in hawaii my cold tap water is even warmer than the initial hot water flow... warm to the touch. I think a rooftop tank to maintain the cold pressure acts like a solar heater. I started putting the water bottles in the freezer until accidental skim of ice, and they get very fizzy with just 3 micro squirts. I want to conserve co2 which probably costs a lot here.

I had a nice bottle of sour cherry syrup from slovenia that got all granular, but not sure if i am up to cooking invert. Might first try a lazy approach of just shaking up powdered sugar in water. I've owned 2 new stoves in my life without using them... one turned out defective when i turned it on years later. I'm a microwave guy, but that might cause the sugar invert to splatter.

Well, i found the ultimate lazy man shortcut that may shut me up for a while... conventional frozen juice concentrate. The obvious approach seems much better than those sodastream flavors. I thaw in the fridge and put two short slits on opposite sides of the can top for slow accurate pouring. Filling the remaining space of a carbonated sodastream bottle gives the right sweetness, tartness, and real fruit flavor. The bubbles elevate it over over the flat version of the mix.

naga77777 said:

I've never used refrigerated water. Just cold tap water.

Here's what the lady that was demonstrating the machine told me: Fill it to the water fill-line, hit the carb button (short presses, a little less than 1sec each) until it makes that loud buzzy noise. Make it buzz 3 times (approx 1/2 second to 1sec each).

Vent bottle using pivot mechanism on machine, detach, addy syrup (SLOWLY), and gently rotate the bottle end-over-end to disperse. Dont shake it.

Click to expand...

Some observations on that... wow, it takes many, many presses for my refrigerated water to reach that buzzing stage. I stop at the first buzz and it gets hyper bubblified even after blowing out half the co2 when i unscrew bottle. I like the results, but fear the co2 costs will be punishing.

By the way, i started sweetening some drinks with cold corn syrup, and it takes more than a tumble to mix. You can see the blob first glue itself to the sides. After much rolling of the bottle, it then detaches to a heavy blob which crashes from end to end when you turn end over end. Leave it at room temp to disapate for half an hour, then refridge. Wow, a huge amount of syrup is needed to sweeten to even half the commercial levels... but tastes less grassy than sugar.

But what i focus on most is frozen juice concentrate. Man, the various brands act differently. Minute maid pink lemonade is sublime. Cut slits on either side of the top, defrost, and fill the whole top of your sodastream bottle with it... perfect and dreamy... nothing like the uncarbonated kind.

Old orchard brand has no sweeteners or additives, but kind of foams up when added... i will have to try smaller pouring holes. Welches grape came out bad for unknown reason... seems to kill the bubbles. Some generic brands taste ok. I want to try mixing lemon and orange like they do fresh in italy. Or use a weak lemonade as a base to add flavor drops like blueberry.

After this zippy taste of natural pulpy fruit, commercial sodas taste like its all a load of corn syrup to cover up mediocre artificial taste.

^that's cool. It never occurred to me to use juices/concentrates in the sodastream.

the pink lemonade one sounds great.

I did forget to mention in my first post that all the syrups I use are the sodastream concentrates, and are @ room temp. I could see how a cold blob of syrup would take a while to mix

The pink lemonade may have been a lucky find. Many other flavors foam a lot or taste strange with carbolic acid. I think lemon or lime makes a great compatible base to work with. Then, other flavors can be added afterwards in moderation to donate some sweetness and variety without creating a volcano.

Grape makes a good add on, and of course is the pink on lemonade. My minute maid limeade was too acidic, and I had to add a ton of grape to form a balanced ruby limeade. Orange is so disappointing... it foams horribly and tastes strange, so will have to stay as an add on. Some of these foamers, like the old orchard line may work if I can stick in as a long narrow popsicle then recap fast.

I like a generic brand of berry punch, although they simulate the blueberry with grape plus pear. And also most cheap brands have an off taste like the pasteurization cooked it too long. By the way, there is a new but expensive way to pasteurize cold with high pressure.

Next I want to resume on a non foaming coffee mocha, with maybe the powder wrapped in corn syrup.

Mmmmm, i seemed to have achieved an even higher level of nirvana with the lemonade plus flavor drops approach. I started with pure minute maid lemonade, cutting the pour slits on the bottom of frozen concentrate can as usual. Last into the sodastream bottle, i added about six drops of ameretto flavor drops from capella flavorings... zowie! http://capellaflavordrops.com/flavordrops.aspx

The highly concentrated flavor drops don't work well alone, but really shine against a lemonade base. I've got a bunch of flavors from them using the 10℅ discount code on their web site. I also have some bakto flavorings coming in from amazon, but its only affordable to get their variety packs including somewhat dull flavors with the good.

naga77777 said:

^that's cool. It never occurred to me to use juices/concentrates in the sodastream.

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Me too!

I love my sodastream

I should note a few pitfalls i found. Like i said earlier, lemonade or especially limeade can get a bit acid when carbolic acid is added from bubbles. Maybe some calcium powder or something could be added to reduce tooth erosion, since i am so addicted to it?

Also you can go weak on the frozen concentrate and add flavor drops, but not too much. If you accidentally quadruple the dose for instance, it tastes very weird, not more intense. I mention this after trying the bakto line of flavorings, which are easy to overdose because they don't come with a dropper top.

I tried frozen concentrate of pina colada mix which turned out all foamy and lumpy but delicious. Such a mess that i will only do it occasionally for novelty.

I tried using smuckers boysenberry syrup, i guess made for waffles... it didnt come out well for reasons i dont understand. The syrup itself is incredibly delicious... that berry hybrid has an interesting history found on wikipedia. Maybe because i didnt completely chill the syrup, it foamed a lot. But i capped it with bubbles left and rolled it a lot to let its corn syrup reluctantly mix. It had to warm a bit in order to mix, so i cooled it again before opening to allow the co2 to redissolve. The sweet to tart ratio was about right with carbolic acid, but it just tasted bland or fighting the acid instead of complimenting it. Really disappointing because there are so many fruit syrups that sound good.

I have some juice concentrates that I bought for wine making at www.homewinery.com and out if curiosity used some in carbonated water and it worked well. You can buy pint sized ones or 64 oz containers, wide variety of fruit flavors like watermelon, pineapple, passionfruit, etc. Something to consider.

I'm now making real diet coke with my soda stream!

I got a FreedomOne+ adapter from CO2Doctor.com. That allowed me to connect my sodastream to a 5lb bottle I got at my LHBS. Saves me a ton of money. I also found a local source of supply for diet real coke syrup (Restaurant Depot - business license required). I know they say to charge only water and add the syrup later. But I charge it after I've mixed the syrup in. The trick is to not overcharge it, and to release the pressure slowly. I had to fiddle around with it until I got the proportions right, and figure out how to get the carbonation right. I use very cold water and very cold diet coke syrup (the diet coke syrup is a lot thinner than the soda stream syrup). The colder the solution the better it absorbes the CO2 (in my experience). I always wipe it down after I charge it to get the solution off the injector. So happy!