Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2023-01-06 04:56 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2023-01-06 04:56 pm
Redpop for the Homesick (rough copycat)
I must have never posted this here, so!
When I went with Belovedest to spend Christmas with their family back in Mitchigin we did a grocery store run prior to the big day. I grabbed a few flavors of that storied and somewhat niche beverage, Faygo. Like many of us in the wider fandom world, I'd run into it thanks to a certain grape-guzzling troll and his fuckin' miracles.
Having grown up there, Belovedest enjoys the occasional Redpop, but doesn't relish the idea of paying the shipping for something that's mostly water, and doesn't consider themselves in either of the main Faygo fandoms. "Strawberry," they said when trying to describe Redpop to me. "Mostly."
That was helpful, but I needed some personal tastebuds on the issue. So naturally that was what I tried first. Indeed, I found that it was mostly strawberry. It also had a wider spectrum of fruitiness, a more general berry, and that elusive edge that Belovedest couldn't define. "Bubblegum!" I shouted, or words to that effect.
Sometime after we got home I mixed up a batch of some definitely red pop. Mostly strawberry, some raspberry and maybe a little pomegranate. Not quite. I thought about mixing my own bubblegum accord. That sounded like a good idea until I started down that actual rabbit hole. Maybe a commercially made one, then? That was starting to sound impractical until our grocery trip took us down the soda and mixers aisle at one of the restaurant supply stores, and I saw it. A great huge jug of strawberry (and I'd floated this suggestion, as a cheaper alternative to the coffee syrups) and -- yes! -- bubblegum. Snowcone syrups, technically, but a syrup's sometimes just a syrup!
That batch went through taste-testing and Belovedest pronounced it almost there. "Stronger, somehow?" they hazarded. "The flavor's good, but there's ... something ... missing. Sweeter?"
I facepalmed. Of course.
So my finished recipe for our Sodastream efforts is:
Mostly strawberry snowcone syrup
A solid glug of other red fruits (raspberry, pomegranate, cherry -- but on the tart side)
Maybe a drizzle of rose
Bubblegum
... and ...
... corn syrup.
If I did it more often and had a more ready supply of reference beverage, I might even be able to give amounts or proportions. But we're making this about two stadium cups worth at a time, and I like varying the mix. (Often enough I go easy on the corn syrup.)
When I went with Belovedest to spend Christmas with their family back in Mitchigin we did a grocery store run prior to the big day. I grabbed a few flavors of that storied and somewhat niche beverage, Faygo. Like many of us in the wider fandom world, I'd run into it thanks to a certain grape-guzzling troll and his fuckin' miracles.
Having grown up there, Belovedest enjoys the occasional Redpop, but doesn't relish the idea of paying the shipping for something that's mostly water, and doesn't consider themselves in either of the main Faygo fandoms. "Strawberry," they said when trying to describe Redpop to me. "Mostly."
That was helpful, but I needed some personal tastebuds on the issue. So naturally that was what I tried first. Indeed, I found that it was mostly strawberry. It also had a wider spectrum of fruitiness, a more general berry, and that elusive edge that Belovedest couldn't define. "Bubblegum!" I shouted, or words to that effect.
Sometime after we got home I mixed up a batch of some definitely red pop. Mostly strawberry, some raspberry and maybe a little pomegranate. Not quite. I thought about mixing my own bubblegum accord. That sounded like a good idea until I started down that actual rabbit hole. Maybe a commercially made one, then? That was starting to sound impractical until our grocery trip took us down the soda and mixers aisle at one of the restaurant supply stores, and I saw it. A great huge jug of strawberry (and I'd floated this suggestion, as a cheaper alternative to the coffee syrups) and -- yes! -- bubblegum. Snowcone syrups, technically, but a syrup's sometimes just a syrup!
That batch went through taste-testing and Belovedest pronounced it almost there. "Stronger, somehow?" they hazarded. "The flavor's good, but there's ... something ... missing. Sweeter?"
I facepalmed. Of course.
So my finished recipe for our Sodastream efforts is:
Mostly strawberry snowcone syrup
A solid glug of other red fruits (raspberry, pomegranate, cherry -- but on the tart side)
Maybe a drizzle of rose
Bubblegum
... and ...
... corn syrup.
If I did it more often and had a more ready supply of reference beverage, I might even be able to give amounts or proportions. But we're making this about two stadium cups worth at a time, and I like varying the mix. (Often enough I go easy on the corn syrup.)
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Randomly, if you're in the mood to try other flavour syrup adventures: the barista at the fancy coffee shop of my youth used to make what he called SweeTart flavoured italian sodas. The requisite mix was (iirc) blueberry, raspberry, and grapefruit syrups in roughly equal proportions. Possibly a bit more of the berry syrups than grapefruit.
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(My sweetheart marvels at my love for all red beverages like fruit punch... childhood, man....)
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Reverse engineering flavours is a fun exercise... and leads you in some weird directions at times. There's a particular kind of creme du'methe snowcone I encountered in the south of France as a wee lad... and I've never been able to replicate it or find a source for the syrup. It's not peppermint or spearmint, or any other kind of mint i've found. It had an almost lemony after-taste with a kind of cool-mint up front.
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I know, I even tried growing some once and making a syrup.. unfortunately, it didn't taste anything like the plant. Fairly sure I probably screwed up the process, but I'm not sure how.
Ah well, one day..
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