When Sara and I ate at Chez Panisse (in the cafe) two years ago, they brought sparking water to the table. Rather than serve it in glass bottles (i.e. Pellegrino) that would instantly become waste, they carbonated it themselves and served it in lovely glass carafes...
The pics above are actually from our Italy trip last June, where we found a restaurant that did the same thing. This was the most elegant presentation I've yet seen, and one that I wanted to try to recreate at home. Alas, I had no good home solution to do the carbonating.
BUT, today I want to share with you a new fave product, with which I believe I've finally found the answer (so far) to accommodating my love of fizzy water at home (and office), while keeping waste down to a minimum. I was over at Green Depot a few weeks ago and picked up this slim, Sodastream sparkling water maker. The intro pack comes with gas carbonator, two bottles and the thing that holds them all together ($99).
The carbonators last a long time (110 liters - we haven't gone through ours yet) and they are returnable for refills so that you can close the loop and minimize waste. I've been testing them in the office where all of us drink a lot of this stuff.
So far so good! I've finally got a solution that will allow us to replace all the glass sparkling water bottles we used to go through, which have since been replaced by plastic sparkling water bottles. Now all I have to do is find an elegant carafe.
>> SodaStreamUSA.com
>> Sodastream at GreenDepot
>> AT on: Letting Go of Bottled Imported Mineral Water
>> How To: Make Soda Water at Home
posted originally from: AT:New York
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for $20 my husband got the valves and tubing necessary to turn his CO2 tank for kegging beer into a sparkling water maker. Very handy, it works best with very cold water. It comes out to about 15 cents a bottle.
view slobound's profile
We used Sodastreams as kids, adding flavour to the water for fizzy drinks. Nice to see they're coming back into fashion.
view Very Miao's profile
This is a great idea; however, I don't really understand how replacing glass bottles with plastic bottles is a "green" solution...
view mrswhite's profile
When I was in Europe, I kept asking for Seltzer, but they're not familiar with that term. They say sparkling water
Those home soda makers are absolutely brilliant!
Got one last week and my family love it.
Saving money, saving the environment and so convenient having soda on demand!
Bought it thru http://makeyoursoda.com and got $10 off using a discount code MAKESODA
view nicksp's profile
Just out of college, the local bar got one of these. We had plenty of fun carbonating both the well booze and the wine list.
view johan's profile
This is an awsome product. Highly recommended. Get them on discount at http://www.seltzer-maker.com
view rkuramoto's profile