Sunday, August 5, 2012

Food and Hearts: Homemade Blueberry Soda





I came across this little gem the other day whilst I was perusing Pinterest a while back. My son loves soda. He can hear a can pop open from the other side of the house. He knows he can’t have any, but every time he asks, “coke?” No, no coke for you buddy! So I thought this might be a tasty alternative to try out. I got the inspiration from here. The only real difference is I used some awesome local honey I scored at our local flea market instead of the sugar. Basically, soda is a simple syrup combined with some carbonated water. So, here we go!

Homemade Blueberry Soda


What you need for the blueberry version (you can get creative and use any kind of fruit you want, I’m going to try strawberries next time!)

Ingredients:
 
  • 12oz bag of frozen blueberries (no sugar added) ; thawed
  •  ¼ c. honey
  •  seltzer water or club soda ( I used seltzer water and got the 6 pack of mini bottles)


And that’s it! Easy peasy.

Directions:

      1. First heat your pot to medium heat and add your thawed blueberries and their juices and stir in the honey. 



      2. Bring contents of pot to a boil, then reduce heat and let it do its thang! And by that, I mean reduce by half. 20-30 minutes. Just keep an eye on it, you do not want burnt blueberries! When it looks about done, get a potato masher and mash those bad boys to release more juices and simmer a few minutes more. 



      3. Next, strain the whole thing into a cup. I used my handy mesh strainer that came with my juicer. 



      4. You should probably wait for it to cool before using, but I couldn’t wait and had to try some J. Get a big ol' glass and put some ice in it. Add the syrup (I used about 2 tbsp, but I really think it needed more) and top with your seltzer! Now this part is all about personal preference. If you like more carbonation, then by all means add more! Just experiment with what tastes good to you!



And another plus, I finally found something to put in those coffee creamer containers I’ve been saving!



 Hope you enjoy this, I will definitely be experimenting more with some different flavors in the future. Cheers!

The little man casually enjoying his soda!

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