Last step in the project of building a home soda machine for flavoring cola

[dennisgauge]

The selling point is that it's an overpriced "boutique" GADGET for rich peo= ple to waste their money on. It's something fun to do for the first few tim= es, then you get bored with it, then you get sick of it taking up space on = the kitchen counter, then you throw it away or donate it to the local churc= h rummage sale.

It has nothing to do with taste, price, or convenience. The Sodastream flav= or doesn't taste like either major cola brand. The Sodastream machine is st= upidly expensive for what you get. Then, what is more convenient than twist= ing the cap off a 2-liter bottle and pouring?

Frankly, if you go through enough cola to justify a carbonation machine and= formulating your own syrup on a purely FINANCIAL basis, you really need to= revisit how much cola you drink.=20

Keep in mind you're paying RETAIL for small quantities of ingredients not c= ommonly found on the consumer market, while a bottler is purchasing them on= an industrial level at wholesale.

As an academic exercise it might be a worthy challenge to see if it's possi= ble, but you're not going to exact any real monetary gain unless your famil= y goes through thousands of liters of cola a year. If they do, God help the= m... Diabetes, tooth decay, digestive problems, caffeine addiction, pulmona= ry problems, etc. etc..

You may just have to punt this one and be content that your MacGuyver skill= s have produced a contraption that makes soda.

[trader4]

The thread has gotten quite confusing. There was discussion about using denatured alcohol. My point was that I would not be using that in anything I was going to drink, whether you drink enough to get drunk or not.

Even an 80 proof alcohol is 40% pure. That should be enough to extract flavor from the lemon or any other spices.

[trader4]

eople to waste their money on. It's something fun to do for the first few t= imes, then you get bored with it, then you get sick of it taking up space o= n the kitchen counter, then you throw it away or donate it to the local chu= rch rummage sale.

avor doesn't taste like either major cola brand. The Sodastream machine is = stupidly expensive for what you get. Then, what is more convenient than twi= sting the cap off a 2-liter bottle and pouring?

That about sums it up..... Exactly the conclusion I came to after looking into it a bit. It was interesting though. I kept hearing all those SodaStream commercials on the radio and they sounded dubious to me.

nd formulating your own syrup on a purely FINANCIAL basis, you really need = to revisit how much cola you drink.

commonly found on the consumer market, while a bottler is purchasing them = on an industrial level at wholesale.

+1 I was wondering the same thing. After you buy all the extracts, etc, I wonder how much cola you can make versus how much it all costs. Also, I would think that getting the cola to taste like it should is no trivial task. You mix a bunch of expensive oil flavor extracts together and it doesn't taste right. Now what? There are a dozen ingredients in small quantities in the syrup, who knows which one to adjust to make it right? Maybe it can be done, but I suspect a lot of syrup might go down the drain before the correct formula is right.

I keep thinking about Coke. They've kept the exact formula and taste secret for 100 years. I don't know of a single cola out there that tastes exactly like it, despite many trying. And surely enough employees, suppliers, etc know what goes into it. I mean it's hard to hide trucks delivering barrels of orange oil, etc. So, there must be something unique about exactly what they do with those ingredients, ie how it's all brought together.

sible, but you're not going to exact any real monetary gain unless your fam= ily goes through thousands of liters of cola a year. If they do, God help t= hem... Diabetes, tooth decay, digestive problems, caffeine addiction, pulmo= nary problems, etc. etc..

Diet soda would avoid most of that.

lls have produced a contraption that makes soda.

Yeah, when you can regularly get major brand soda on sale at one supermarket or another for $1 or so for

2 liters I tend to agree.

[Mike Beede]

You might've missed where this was being used in a food product. Denatured alcohol is alcohol that has been poisoned to discourage citizens from evading the Federal tax on beverage alcohol--NOT good for consumption. Great for paint.

Mike Beede

[Stormin Mormon]

If you read the post I replied, there is no such mention.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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You might've missed where this was being used in a food product. Denatured alcohol is alcohol that has been poisoned to discourage citizens from evading the Federal tax on beverage alcohol--NOT good for consumption. Great for paint.

Mike Beede