Creating Your Own Sparkle

TRENDSPOTTING | by MOLLY MARTIN

THE NEW HOME SELTZER-MAKER SAT ON OUR KITCHEN COUNTER for several weeks after we got it for Christmas before I opened the box. Maybe I truly was too busy (as I told myself). But maybe I was also a little pressured (sorry) by the prospect of dealing with the carbon-dioxide-filled cylinder.

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When I could procrastinate no longer, I opened the box and discovered how easy it was:

1. Screw the cylinder into the compartment head and press into place.
2. Fill the accompanying hard-plastic bottle with tap water and chill.
3. Screw the bottle into the machine.
4. Press the carbonating button in short bursts until I hear a buzz; after three buzzes, stop (about 11 short presses).

And with that, my days of buying and hauling home 2-liter bottles of sparking water were largely over. Oh, I might need to buy some to bring to potlucks, or if we have folks over and I need a lot at once. And I already miss some of my old favorite flavors of commercially produced flavored, unsweetened carbonated water, but I’m game to experiment with new homemade ones.

In return, in addition to lightening my shopping load, I’m:

• Using tap water (ours runs through a carbon filter)
• Making fresh fizzy water as I need it (one liter at a time)
• Controlling the amount of fizz
• Reducing our consumption of plastics
• Storing our seltzer short-term in hard-plastic bottles instead of long-term in (perhaps harmful) soft bottles
• Reducing the cost to about 18 cents a liter (compared with 50 cents or more before)
• Avoiding a possible impending tax on bottled waters.

My only regret: I see now that there are machines that use glass carafes. Maybe next Christmas…