Sure I can do it but will it taste bad?

May 8, 2015 7:19 AM

My quest to sate my wife's appetite for carbonated water, along with a scene in a BBC documentary about pharmacies, has led me to the idea of using citric acid and baking soda to carbonate our own. Setting aside the risk of bottle bombs, I'm curious as to if the quantities needed to make a fizzy beverage will impart a strong or unpleasant taste, or any taste at all for that matter. Any first hand experience with this sort of thing?

First and foremost let me reiterate that I'm not here to talk about the safety risk associated with carbonation in improper containers or via careless measures. I've brewed my own beer, alcoholic and root, and I've both bottle carbonated wine and beer as well as kegs for that matter. The words chemistry, stoichiometry, and partial pressure are not unfamiliar to me.

That's not to say that I don't welcome some casual discussion about levels of carbonation as it regards to taste as well as some math gut-checks (not unlike this one) but once I get my hands on the materials (mostly the food grade, no additives citric acid as I already have plenty of baking soda) I'll both do the proper due diligence on the math side as well as on the common sense verification side by using smaller amounts and working my way up.

Gut checks regarding the recomended daily allowance of the trisodium citrate in the output is also welcome as I'm not completely sure that it's a non-issue at the moment.

But, back to the point, the main question is about taste. That link I posted mentions that the resultant trisodium citrate has a, expectedly, "tart, slightly salty taste" and if this method is only going to be useful in making lemonade tasting water then it may not be worth the effort to begin with.

Thanks,
RoE

ps - One of the main draws to this method is the simplicity and low cost. We're not looking to buy any extra countertop devices, setup my CO2 tank and regulator, nor make a plastic bottle powered device. One bottle, one beverage is part of the appeal here.

posted by RolandOfEld to Grab Bag (17 answers total)

Response by poster: I wouldn't worry about the bottle bomb issue.

Yea, I'm really, really not.

You might also consider a CO2 charger in a siphon

Nah, I hate the idea of wasting those little things, and if the chemical route turns out to be a non-starter then I'll just wait until our next move is complete then setup my beer carbonation (read: CO2 tank and regulator) kit and use that rather than purchase widgets in the meantime. Money's tight.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:31 AM on May 8, 2015

To my tastes, citric acid is just a tart flavor, and baking soda is slightly soapy. Any imbalance in your recipe will probably tilt the flavor towards one of the two. But it doesn't sound like you'd have any problems with the chemistry.

The baking soda will increase your wife's dietary sodium intake. You didn't mention it as a concern, but she may want to take it into account in planning her diet.
posted by Wilbefort at 7:51 AM on May 8, 2015

I don't see why you wouldn't try it! The ingredients don't seem difficult to find or expensive. It probably won't taste like "plain" carbonated water.

So, I'm also a cost-conscious bubbly-water addict. From my casual math, the CHEAPEST overall way is the CO2 tank route. After that, maybe store-brand seltzer bottles. The siphon and cartridges doesn't work out to a whole lot cheaper than buying bottles. Neither does a SodaStream, but I'll admit that I eventually went with that and it's totally convenient.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 7:55 AM on May 8, 2015

If you ever get sick of all the damned simplicity and low cost, you can carbonate individual beverages with dry ice. Fun for special occasions, what with the chill mists pouring over the cuplip and all. And the drinks get cold.
posted by Don Pepino at 8:06 AM on May 8, 2015

Sounds like Fizzies tablets
posted by Sophont at 8:24 AM on May 8, 2015

Carbonated water already tastes slightly acidic, but I don't think most people even detect that as a flavor. Adding another acidic salt won't likely change the overall flavor for most people, but it may taste more sour. Some people may also taste the salt.

I'd worry less about the RDA of sodium citrate than the plain sodium content and the effect of lots of soda water on tooth enamel.
posted by zennie at 8:34 AM on May 8, 2015

Response by poster: I have citric acid and baking soda. Want me to try it out?

Sure, that'd be awesome. This isn't really about my taste buds either. My wife's are quite a bit different than mine so any report from yours regarding, for lack of a better word, intensity of any flavors would be quite useful. Many thanks.

I swore I had some citric acid sitting around as well, from a cheese making kit, but I think said wife admitted to throwing it out.

Carbonated water already tastes slightly acidic, but I don't think most people even detect that as a flavor.

Yea, she does. Double blind mini-studies (she's a scientist-statistician after all) have proven she can, I can't.

I'd worry less about the RDA of sodium citrate

Right, I'm not so much worried about that except for completeness sake.

than the plain sodium content

Between us we drink about a 12 pack of cans of soda water a week, more or less. Combine that with alot of cooking at home and not being super heavy handed on the salt and I suppose we're in the 'lower than average' bracket but honestly this didn't even come into mind for me with regards to comparing the experimental self carbonated batch with commercial soda water from the store.

the effect of lots of soda water on tooth enamel.

Wat!? *goes off to internet to probably add one more thing to the list of things we're doing that are unhealthy*
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:03 AM on May 8, 2015

What I meant regarding tooth enamel was the relatively low pH of soda water. It can have an effect that may be significant in susceptible people. So if soda is largely replacing plain water, it's just something to consider.
posted by zennie at 10:46 AM on May 8, 2015

I know it isn't really carbonated water, but if flavoring is okay, you might consider brewing some traditional fizzy beverages instead, like water kefir or kombucha (I'm a big fan of mineral water myself and these sorts of beverages definitely scratch the same itch for me).
posted by veery at 12:38 PM on May 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I happened to have food grade citric acid and baking soda lying around, and hey, fizzy water! So I made up a glass using this recipe. Preliminary tasting is...it is just awful. Really awful, salty, baking sod-ey, unpleasant. So much so that I am no way inclined to bother tweaking the recipe for better results. YMMV.
posted by nanook at 1:37 PM on May 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

So even though that didn't give good results, people do get reasonably palatable lightly fizzy water through acid base reactions; that's what the "Emergen-C" products do. Their ingredient list has a variety of weak bases, and a few weak acids (citric acid, malic acid, and ascorbic acid). Dunno how it would taste without the additional flavoring, and it does only make water lightly fizzy, but it does show the concept is viable.
posted by aubilenon at 2:38 PM on May 8, 2015

I used to do this when I was a kid, from a recipe in one of my mother's cookbooks. I could always taste a bit of residue from the baking soda, and only found it pleasant when mixed with super sweet strong flavours, like berries and a ton of sugar.
posted by lollusc at 5:45 PM on May 8, 2015

Apologies if this counts as a failure to answer the question as specified, but if you're looking to generate carbonated water without extra flavors, there really is no alternative to getting a CO2 tank, regulator, and a 2L bottle-cap fitting. It's fairly cheap and easy, and the product is far more satisfying than any easy to come by CO2-generating chemical reaction.

For an initial outlay of approximately $150, a few minutes a week shaking bottles, and a trip to the CO2 supplier every year or two, you get nearly free and unlimited carbonated water with no extra flavors. What's more, you can pressurize your bottles at several times the pressure at which commercial seltzer is shipped. I'm not so spoiled by home-made water, store bought seltzer tastes like plain tap water. (Consumer counter-top and in-siphon seltzer makers and all the fizzy dissolvables I've tried don't even come close.)
posted by eotvos at 2:31 PM on May 9, 2015

I don't understand the question. Carbonated water costs about 10¢/litre from the supermarket. Surely that's the cheapest and simplest option?
posted by turkeyphant at 12:36 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Apologies if this counts as a failure to answer the question as specified,

Yea, it's a bit outside the bounds of the question to be honest. I mean, I already have a tank and regulator. I'd just have to setup the 2 liter bottle side of it or dedicate a keg to just water. However, I don't have that stuff with me as it's in storage 7 hours away, we're moving in 2 months, and we don't have room in the place we're living now anyway.

Trust me, I have zero arguments that a kegging or bottling setup is the *best* solution here. It's just not answering my question.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:38 PM on May 10, 2015

Response by poster: Carbonated water costs about 10¢/litre

Just did the math and it's about 6 times that here for store-brand carbonated water in a 12 pack of cans. Sure it's maybe a bit cheaper by the 2 liter but it goes flat before you can drink all of it.

And honestly the question isn't just based on cost or else, again, it's best to just spend the upfront investment to go home CO2 tap... it's just the idea in general.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:41 PM on May 10, 2015

My bad - I had focussed on your final statement that "One of the main draws to this method is the simplicity and low cost" and my answer seems unbeatable for that. I fully expect you'll encounter taste issues with your method, a SodaStream (or equivalent) doesn't meet the low cost criterion (as well as being morally unacceptable) while setting up a home CO₂ tap certainly isn't a simple solution...
posted by turkeyphant at 1:02 PM on May 10, 2015