Exploring the World One Drink at a Time since 2005
Every year as winter cedes into the past, the maple tree sap starts to run. A time-honoured tradition in the north is to tap a spile into these maples and siphon off a few buckets of sap, then boil it down into a syrupy brown liquid and drizzle it on everything. That is the taste of spring. Since I’m in […]
As ice cream became the mainstay of the soda fountain, malt milkshakes became so popular that they started to change the name of the establishments to Malt Shops.
The classic milkshake flavour is easy to make and anything but boring.
Cream soda has a long history and was the soda fountain drink that influenced the ice cream float and the milkshake.
A genuine cream soda requires cream, but that is not an option for all diets. This recipe from the 1800s is a substitute cream syrup used at soda fountains and it is tasty.
When flavoured soda water became a thing, lemon was the preferred choice. In fact, it was the most popular flavour for 30 years. Modern variations of this classic flavour include Sprite and 7-Up.
These old newspaper articles about soda fountain provide a glimpse into the period and city they were written. This article comes from the Rocky Mountain News in Denver circa 1886. Reporters would just report on the happening of the local soda fountain and the new drinks being served. Cocaine, again, makes an entrance to a new city via the soda fountain, […]
This is a great article from the June 7th, 1885 Atlanta Constitution detailed the state of affairs at the local soda fountains. The reporter interviews a local soda proprietor and gets all the goods. One of the great things about this article is that it mentions Coca-Cola for the first time, though the reporter spells it “coco cola”. If you […]
A few years ago I wrote a piece on the Secret of Cola and the ingredients used to make cola flavoured beverages. Obviously, Coca-Cola is the king, but Pepsi isn’t doing too bad. The fact is cola flavoured products are tremendously popular, but very few people know what makes that flavour so unique. I’m not going to rehash that part; […]
The Open Cola project started as a way to promote software but quickly took on a life of its own. This open-source recipe lets you make a Coca-Cola-like soda.
In the first article on energy drinks, I looked at the effects of sugar and caffeine when combined with alcohol. This time I’m going to take a look at the role of an amino acid called L-Carnitine, which is in many of the energy drinks. It is usually in the amount of 250 mg per serving. The reason this ingredient […]
Making soda from scratch is not as hard as you might think. Creating a flavourful soda syrup using a few simple techniques can open up a whole new world of culinary creativity.