gathering juice from simmered grapes

On Tuesday, I made the leap and purchased a Sodastream at home carbonator.  The cherry soda syrup worked out so well I figure this may be my ticket to never having to buy soda again.  No more lugging, no more expense of buying BPA-laden plastic-lined aluminum cans.  The canisters can be exchanged right at the Kitchen Kapers we bought it at in Princeton.  It’s 3 blocks from my husband’s work, so we can exchange them without having to mail them off.

I don’t see buying the sodastream as a frugal purchase.  At least, not in the beginning.  It was $99, plus $22 for a second CO2 canister.  The initial outlay for the syrups will probably be costly too, but they should last for quite a while (I hope).  Only when we’ve used it for a few months will I be able to gauge the rate we go through supplies and match that to the 3 twacks of soda I bought every month.

The syrups that come with the system are…diet.  Which neither my husband nor I will touch.  I figure I’ll keep the samples around for guests who like diet soda.   But that’s ok, I had read a review before purchasing the system that talked about the syrups being kind of gross, so I was planning on buying quality syrups anyway.  I’m hoping I can wean my hub off of super-sugary corn-syrup sodas.  Fingers crossed.  You can lead a horse to seltzer…

Tonight I made homemade grape syrup for my hubby, and tomorrow I’ll order some quality bottled syrups online.  I’m looking into Torani syrups.  In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying some homemade orangina: orange juice & seltzer!  And since I get to control the amount of OJ I can keep it low so as not to worry about the sugar.  Next I think will be orange/cranberry soda.  Which certainly won’t look good, but should taste yummy.