Does anyone know of a place that sells their own beverage syrups to flavour carbonated water?
Not looking for brand names, so knock off cola and or root beer is totally fine.
A&W in Canada is Canadian (They split from the American company in the 70s) so A&W Root beer is safe although I don’t know about any kind of syrup.
No idea about an alternative to cola although I’ve found some videos of a guy making home made syrups/soda
Coke: https://youtu.be/KWaNiwcQK2M
1886 coke (for fun): https://youtu.be/IWYuPE8rkeE
A&W in Canada is Canadian (They split from the American company in the 70s) so A&W Root beer is safe although I don’t know about any kind of syrup.
You certainly pointed me in the right direction! As I was looking for A&W syrup, I came across “Fizzy-pop”, and their house brand syrup is made in Canada from the look of it.
Even their Cola syrup label says “Made in Canada”, so I think I found a source!! Thanks!!
Glen and Friends is Canadian, too, so if you can’t kick YouTube, at least support Canadian content!
Small disclaimer: their restaurants are, their store products are done by Coke
There’s a shop in my town that refills the canisters for $6, so I just go there for that. Also, I’ve found a number of websites that ship large amounts of syrup (2 or 4 liters at a time) from Canada with an easy web search. I couldn’t see where the syrup was actually produced, however.
Yes, I found a few places. Strangely enough, they seem to be the “same” place, operating under two different companies. Their website has a similar interface, product descriptions are the same, etc.
But their house brands of syrup are made in Canada, so I’ll be going with one of them. And yeah, you have to get larger sized bottles, but I think the price works out to be similar to Sodastream syrup.
I’ve seen other refill places for the CO2, so that’s a non-issue for me. Mostly the syrup that I was worried about.
Just ditch Sodastream if you can. They’re an Israeli company that fires Palestinian workers over their religious beliefs and have production facilities on illegal settlements:
I’m not ditching a perfectly good device, but I might get an alternative gas source
Where i live, one of the local fire extinguisher companies refills them for cheaper than the “official” refills.
Oh nice! I’ll have to look into that! But I think I’m going to go with an adapter and a 10kg canister
For sure. Get one used (super inexpensive on kijiji) and buy third party co2. No issues there, and no reason to give them money.
Can also, if you’re careful about it and weigh things out correctly, open the CO2 cannisters and put dry ice in. There’s loads of videos on how to do this “safely”… I.E. - not turning it into a bomb, or giving yourself frostbite
Just go to a welding gas store or resto supply store and get ‘beer gas’. CO2 is CO2.
You can buy an adapter to connect the big cylinder directly to the sodastream. I have been using mine this way for 3 years. I pay about 40 bucks for a tank of CO2 that lasts ~5 months.
This is what I did for years. It’s a great system!
Be interesting to see what the price difference is. I mean, surely buying a bulk cylinder is cheaper…
I used to be a HEAVY pepsi drinker but as I got older thew sugar didn’t agree with me so I replaced it with sparkling water. I was going through a sodastream cylinder every 3 to 4 days. Whereas this bad boy costs me 40 bucks, and I have a 40 dollar deposit that I’ll probably never get back because I will always have a cylinder.
The savings are huge.
I mostly drink still water and black coffee. I’m not drinking right now, so whenever I get the hankering for a beer I have a sparkling water, that’s very rarely. My wife and I buy 2 or 3 different flavours and brands, a flat each. And between us those 60ish cans last well over 3 month.
I’m not sure what a sodastream cylinder costs. But at $40 for a tank for beer gas, I’m positive that the savings are insanely steep!
The co2 in those bulk cylinders would be very inexpensive vs. what you get in the smaller bottles. But there’s usually a deposit of $100+ for the cylinder. It only makes sense if you’re going through a LOT of co2, and we really aren’t. Maybe a small bottle every 2-3 months.
Then it might make more sense to grab a small bit of dry ice every time you’re needing to top up your bottles.
Nah, it’s just super easy for me to head over to my local Home Hardware, drop off a cylinder (or two, or three), and pay the $12 or whatever it is now to exchange them.
The last time I got CO2 was last summer. Four in total, and we still haven’t finished the first one. We really don’t drink enough to justify any extra effort, but will need to replace that syrup soon! LOL
Monsieur Cocktail syrups are really good. I’m a big fan of their raspberry and ginger ones.
https://www.monsieur-cocktail.com/en/collections/sirops-et-tonics-a-cocktails-naturels-quebec
Interesting selection of flavours! Thank you for sharing 👍
have you tried just fruit juice, like apple and blackberry makes a nice drink with carbonated water?
Yeah, I’m a fan. My wife, however, likes traditional soda flavours. 🤫
Tacking on to this, what options are there for SodaStream-like systems that avoid US companies?
I’ve only come across a couple of European ones but they’re prohibitively expensive.
Buy the sodastream used, since the co2 bottles are more compatible that with other brands.
For co2, you can get the Canadian replacements: https://www.indigosoda.ca/en/
But some DIY brewery shops will also offer co2 refills (or you can do it yourself with a larger initial investment).
There’s no reason to actually give the sodastream company money 😁
Get and adapter/conversion kit and attach a generic CO2 canister.
Maple syrup I’m kidding, but tbh it could be good
I use Crystal Lite packets. But I have a DrinkMate which you can put your flavours in before carbonating.
It’s for my wife, who likes soft drink flavours. But I’m personally fine with all kinds of flavours, natural or otherwise 😂
I don’t know any that are Canadian, but I use 0 sugar flavoured root beer packets to make homemeade “rootbeer”.
Works well enough.
Isn’t it just flavored simple syrup? Just make it. Boil X liters water, Dump X liters of sugar, add some lavender, or cinnamon, or whatever is in root beer and let it boil a minute.
You should meet my wife. LOL
No, it’s impossible for me to home cook a receipe that tastes enough like cola, root beer, ginger ale, and whatever else she’s in the mood for. I’m looking for a Canadian alternative to something so easily available as it is.
