Make the Best Homemade Orange Soda

Homemade Orange Soda

Ingredients
Oranges, peeled and juiced
Sugar
Citric Acid
Hydrated gum acacia gel

Directions
1. Hydrate your gum acacia gel by combining equal parts by volume of gum acacia powder and boiling water. Whisk together and let sit for several hours, up to overnight.
2. Weigh the orange peels. This forms the base ratio for your recipe. Measure out 3.5 parts sugar and 0.2 parts citric acid. Stir together with the peels in a medium saucepan and let sit for 2-3 hours to extract the oils.
3. Measure out 2 parts orange juice, straining the pulp. Adding water if needed to make weight. Once the oils have been extracted from the peels, add the juice to the saucepan and set it to medium heat. Cook just until all the sugar and acid have dissolved and you have a rich syrup.
4. Strain and weigh the syrup. Add one-quarter of the syrup’s weight in hydrated gum acacia gel. Whisk together. Adjust coloration with food dye if desired. This soda syrup will keep in the fridge for several weeks.
5. To serve, dilute 1 part syrup with 5 parts water and carbonate using the Drinkmate OmniFizz. Pour over ice.
00:00 - Intro
01:09 - Prep
03:32 - Relative Recipe

[alainadacosta]

Looks good and probably tastes a lot fresher than the store bought soda

[luciusdraculea]

I have several questions, as I'm trying to make a healthier alternative to Orange Crush. It's a childhood favorite but I really gotta watch my sodium levels. lol

• My go-to juicing orange is Cara Cara. It's sweeter than Valencia, so I'm not sure if I should use it. Should I try a 50/50 mix (by weight) of both? I feel like Valencia is more tart and would give more "zing" if you know what I mean. Or should I skip on Cara Cara altogether?

• Could I use a microplane/zester instead? Mine works wonderfully at zesting fruits without catching any pith.

• Not so much a question as it is a suggestion: For your dyes, it might be worthwhile to use saffron or turmeric for your yellow (careful, these are powerful and will stain counters and dishes!) and annatto for a reddish-orange color. From what I know, they're virtually tasteless, but I haven't worked with annatto yet so I can't attest to its taste (but I will soon, just for this soda).

Great video by the way, will be testing this out soon! i have a Sodastream but you got me wanting to convert to your machine setup, I'd love to be able to carbonate WITH the syrup in it safely. Please give affiliate links so I can support your work! 💖