The Age of Man

I need a drink 2 January 2010

…in general that is true, but specifically I need recipes for syrups that will make soda when mixed with carbonated water.

You see, my wife gave me a sodamaker as a gift; in my excitement to use it I quickly discovered that the prepackaged soda flavors are not so great. Determined to make my own tonic and root beer, I ran immediately into obstacles. Tonic’s essential ingredient–powdered quinine–is needed in teaspoons but can be purchased only by the pound from some crunchy-granola-looking natural herb specialists. Another ingredient, citric acid, is common in foods but, well, I’ve never noticed it on the shelves at a grocery store.

Ever since my days at summercamp I’ve believed that root beer came from sassafras root. Today I learned that sassafras has been a known carcinogen for decades. (That detail hasn’t stopped some folks from continuing to include it in “old fashioned” recipes.) Contemporary rootbeer relies on saspirilla, but much more commonly it’s based on some processed-sounding thing called “root beer extract.” Well, here I’ve embarked on a path towards natural foods (albeit those which will release 33 ounces of compressed carbon dioxide out of a tabletop gas tank) and I’d like to decide for myself which nonpoisonous chemicals belong in my homemade root beer.

Anyway, dear multitudes of this blog’s loyal readers, I beseech you to send all your syrup recipes posthaste. Thank you very much. Please try to post them in the comments in an orderly fashion.