A Taste of Summer

Strawberry Cream Soda

  Remembering back one or two years ago or (ahem) a few more, my favorite memory of soda (or pop as I normally refer to it) was as a child. My parents threw us birthday parties, inviting our whole class and any other girls that happened to be near our age living in our neighborhood. We had an entire basement full of little girls with an endless supply of energy. Our energy was gently harnessed into games and screams and a few sprints and giggles. Back then I swayed between being a little lady and being a tomboy, playing with the boys in the neighborhood. More often than not, the tomboy in me won out. What's funny is as an adult I tend to be the same way and go through phases of "tomboy-ishness" to later transform into a lady once again. But, I'm getting off the topic here a little..
   Every party my parents threw for us involved soda. I'm not sure where they'd find it but they'd bring home what seemed at the time like a giant wood crate filled with every flavor of Cotton Club soda pop you could imagine. Our biggest concern was to get to our favorite flavor before someone else did. Mine? Cream soda, without a doubt.
So recently, I just happened to be reading a few articles online and came across one about making your own soda without any fancy machinery. It was the true homemade kind that was made long before I was a child. The bubbles and "fizzy-ness" come from CO2 produced by yeast. The excerpt came from a book titled, True Brews by Emma Christensen. It explains how to make homemade soda, kefir, beer, hard cider....so many things in one little book. I had to buy it instantly.
As I devoured the book, making mental notes of what I was able and not able to achieve in our tiny home, I came across the secret of cream soda. I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep it a secret. It's vanilla.  Shhhh  At the same time I was reading the book, strawberry season just happened to be in bloom. Luckily, there was a recipe for strawberry soda too! I was excited. There is nothing more flavorful than tasting a just ripened strawberry in all of it's juicy sweet 'summeriness'. If I was able to contain myself and not eat all of the berries, I could make a strawberry cream soda and put that same flavor of summer into bubbly beverage. The plans were made and I went to the nearest farmer's market to acquire strawberries. Luckily, I only had to make one return trip to get more berries. What can I say? They were good.
With homemade soda, you don't get the luxury of instant gratification. It takes a day or two but as it turned out, the timing was beautiful. I made the soda Saturday and enjoyed it Sunday afternoon after spending the day gardening. It's fresh strawberries and cream in a bottle; no, it summer in a bottle. It's worth the wait. So, after you get everything put together and are waiting for the yeast to do it's thing, channel your inner tomboy. Play in the dirt. Run around the block a few times. Then, go get cleaned up and enjoy your first taste of summer.
The recipe below is adapted from True Brews by Emma Christensen.

The Recipe

 2 lbs Fresh Strawberries

1/4 Cup Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed

1 Cup Water

4.4 Ounces of Organic Cane Sugar

1 Vanilla Bean, split

A pinch of Salt

1/8 tsp Champagne Yeast

 

 

1 Empty 2 liter plastic soda bottle

Cheesecloth and strainer

Funnel

 Remove stems from strawberries and rinse clean.

 Chop your berries.

 Measure out your sugar.

 

Place the strawberries in a bowl. Pour lemon juice over the berries.

Heat the sugar, one cup of water and the vanilla bean over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved into the water.

 Pour the vanilla syrup over the berries and let macerate for 10-15 minutes.

 Place everything in a blender and puree.

 

 

 This is a tricky part. (especially if you are doing this alone while trying to take pictures at the same time.) Slowly pour the strawberry syrup through the strainer and cheesecloth.

You really only need one or two layers of the cheesecloth. If you fold it over too many times, you will be waiting an eternity for it to strain.

The strainer needed to be rinsed several times during the process to be cleared of all of the strawberry seeds.

 Good job!

Now fill the rest of the bottle with water and leaving a couple inches of space at the top.

 Measure out 1/8 tsp of Champagne yeast. It can be found online and at any beer and wine making supply store.

Taste the soda-to-be. If it needs any more sugar or more tartness, now is the time to adjust by adding small amounts of sugar or lemon juice.

 

 

Place yeast in bottle, put the cap on and shake a little.

Now, we wait.

It takes anywhere from 24-48 hours for the soda to be ready.

Mine actually was ready in less than 24 hours, catching me a little off guard.

We are using a plastic soda bottle because it is made to keep in a certain amount of pressure (and it's a lot easier when it comes time to release it).

It also makes for an easy gauge so we can tell when it's time to quickly stick it in the fridge so the yeast slow down.

After you have screwed the cap on, squeeze the bottle.

See how there is a little give?

When the soda it ready, there won't be much give to it at all.

The bottle will firm because of the pressure building up.

The minute it gets to that point, where you feel very little give and the bottle is hard, immediately put it in the fridge.

 So now, your soda is cold and it's time to uncap.  I have to admit, I left mine slightly longer than I should have but I kept the pictures so you could see the uncapping.
This is a slow process, releasing all of the built up gas. Be patient, go slowly, you'll get there.

 Now, for parties and outings, you can transfer the soda to a pretty bottle.

I used a chopstick when pouring the soda into a swing-cap bottle.

BUT! KEEP THE GLASS BOTTLES COLD.

The yeast is still very much alive and when warm, they start doing their thing again, which can lead to not only a mess but with a glass bottle, can lead to harm.

 With the pictures taken below, they bottle came straight out of the fridge to my backyard and after 5 minutes of picture taking (and a few stares from the neighbors), the soda amazingly disappeared faster than the yeast could work.

 I love summer. I love strawberries and now, strawberry soda. It's going to be a strawberry season tradition for years to come.

A perfect reward for a day in the garden. Ahhh

Now, I wonder what lavender soda would taste like?

maybe a funky basil type soda? one with mint?

I just so happen to have planted some..hmmm

Until next time,

Drink well, my friends

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