Soda Frequently Asked Questions

[@McRootbeer]

Cool 👍 can't wait to learn how the old soda fountains made their seltzer.

[@chillmegachill]

Thank you for all your amazing content, I am well on my way to adding inhouse soda program to my restaurant in the philippines

[@wa7john]

Hey just wondering how it went? Sounds fun! I have been hoping to take a trip to the Philippines when I retire in a couple years. Kinda want to check out that whole area.

[@chillmegachill]

​@@wa7john How to say in a succinct manner? I am no longer interested in restaurants after learning more about soda business. At least at this current time period, with the current economic state, with the current social state... Soda business is very good. Restaurant business is fine, but more work than it is worth and headache. I think there will come a time where standalone soda business is ubiquitous. Until then, it is a huge winner. It is applicable to all strata of society. Simply change flavor, ingredients, pricing, and packaging. But all social classes enjoy delicious fizzy drink.

[@wa7john]

@@chillmegachill right! I love the idea of a restaurant and then reality sets in. After watching some of these vids, all kinds of ideas are popping into my head, from food trucks (drink) to a corner kiosk in my local deli . Lol

[@chillmegachill]

@@wa7john At least the benefit is that when you formulate a nice recipe, you have that forever. and scaling is easy. many drawbacks to restaurant compared to drinks as a business.

[@clarencehowaboutski3153]

One of my favorite sodas was Clearly Canadian Mountain Blackberry Sparkling Water, if I could recreate this at home I'd be in high heaven. Keep the great video's coming, I'm picking up so much useful knowledge here. Thanks...

[@McRootbeer]

Got another video idea for you, diy LMNT (element) electrolyte powder. They cost over a dollar a packet, so it would be a great addition to the save $$ DIY your own drink playlist 😁.

[@oparreoparre]

Hi Darcy! In this video you briefly touched two subjects that actually sparked my interest (I am trying to make tonic water). Sanitation and homogenization. While sanitation is on the simple side, homogenization is a bit tricky to be done at home level. Before I go and purchase a high shear mixer (high cost), I wanted to check if an ultrasonic one would give similar results, or in any case acceptable ones. Thanks for what you do!!!

[@Artofdrink]

Ultrasonic emulsifiers do work, but I don't have any experience with them. I've only ever used rotor/stator emulsifiers.

[@praveenisalone]

Good one sir

[@StevenJones-vt1gq]

Great content.

[@krobane0162]

Could you maybe make a video on how to make protein powder?

[@jejewoyoy]

This is amazing. Thank you for this! I learned soo muchh

[@user-oq1ku4wq7s]

Very informative. thanks for the video

[@OrochiOkan]

Thank you for the all the amazing knowledge you shared with us. I have a question. Most of the flavor essences need alcohol to work. In what dilution level they are considered as non-alcoholic?

[@SirFluffyBeans]

FDA considers non-alcoholic less than 0.5% alcohol by volume

[@OrochiOkan]

@@SirFluffyBeans thanks

[@mohdabrar2839]

THANKS

[@maplenutbutter4336]

I actually do usually add essence with simply syrup and an acid to my glass when making a soda at home. It's probably suboptimal, but I only drink a soda once every few days and like variety. Having all the different syrups ready to go in my fridge would not be that practical. The essences take up a lot less space and are more shelf stable. I agree that it is better to make a syrup, and if I owned a bar and going through a high volume of soda I would. But because it's just me, I feel adding essences directly to the glass works well enough in a pinch.

[@Artofdrink]

I'm sure that is fine for home use and yes, nobody wants a fridge full of syrups they use infrequently. But in an effort to ensure people are making the best sodas possible, especially bars and restaurants, I whole heartedly recommend proper emulsification.

[@tularjaggs334]

Love your content, thank you. On the topic of solvents, I'm interested in water/alcohol ratios and optimizing for specific ingredients. We know some compounds are water soluble and others not, would it be possible to tune our solvent to extract what we want and leave what we don't want behind? Like we'd use a 90% Everclear where we specifically want to NOT extract a certain undesirable water soluble molecule? And vice versa with a much lower proof? I did assume the highest ABV would be best across the board, I could be wrong. This might be a future episode...

[@Artofdrink]

Thanks. You probably couldn’t be that exacting with a solvent, though the best general purpose strength is about 60%. And obviously water or anything less than 20% alcohol won’t extract many terpenes. Though actually controlling it can be difficult.

[@royalecrafts6252]

would I be able to put my essence into sugarcane juice since it already has high sugar content?

[@praveenisalone]

Sir how can we preserve the soda for 5 to 6 months without spoiling

[@maisound1444]

Hello Darcy, I have a question fo you: how can you achieve a persistent foamy head in a glass of soda? The other day I made my first soda foam with gum arabic and added to a simple lemon syrup (both recipes found in your book), and I understand the feature the foam adds: when pouring "solid" the foam is thicker and nicer opposed to a syrup without the foam solution in it. After the drink settles though, the foam vanishes. How can I get it to stay there? As in a well poured glass of beer or silver fizz?

[@unclesasquatch5736]

Can you do a rootbeer / sassafras extract i am very interested in upping my game on a rootbeer ?

[@Artofdrink]

Soon

[@timGawarecki]

I am curious why an extract will dilute into an essence but the essence won’t further dilute a glass of soda. If I added a drop or two of the extract to a glass of soda, would that dilute better? Like the hop water?

[@Artofdrink]

Most essences are at least 40% alcohol so the oils in an extract will dissolve. A glass of soda is 100% water so the oils will not dissolve. Emulsification is also an issue and something I will be make a video explaining shortly.

[@timGawarecki]

Thank you! I love your content! Dropping funnel is on back order, but hopefully coming soon!:D

[@bardeide8894]

Could you use gum arabic to stabilize the essence for dsipersion in plain soda water? The industry obviously has solutions for it, but googling has given me a propper asnwer.

[@Artofdrink]

Gum arabic doesn't really work unless you emulsify it, and that requires mixing the oils with an emulsifier (like gum arabic, but there are much better ones than that) and then mixing that mixture with water and breaking down the droplet size to less than 10 micros, preferably less than 2 microns for stability. It is difficult to do with kitchen equipment, hence why the magnesium carbonate method works from the video on How to Make a Soda Flavour Essence, because the particles of magnesium carbonate ate about 10 microns in size.