The device produces instant bubbly water that’s crisp, cool and nose-tickling effervescent
Joanne Sasvari
Sun
The soda siphon, big in the heavy-drinking 1950s, makes a comeback. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
I recently bought a handy bar tool that’s so practical I use it every day, but so exotic even the people who sell it don’t necessarily know what it is.
It’s the soda siphon, a gadget that only a few decades ago was essential to any home or bar where drinks were served. These days, sadly, it’s about as common as a hand-cranked ice crusher.
It’s about time for a comeback.
A soda siphon (also known as a seltzer or soda water bottle) is a metal canister with a spigot that allows you to make carbonated water at home by injecting carbon dioxide into it from a small metal cartridge.
That’s right: No lugging boxes of Pellegrino in from the garage. No drinking flat club soda from a two-litre plastic bottle. And best of all, no suffering guilt pangs about the carbon imprint left by shipping heavy glass bottles all the way from France or Italy.
Instead, the siphon produces instant bubbly water that’s crisp, cool and nose-ticklingly effervescent — and it’s a neat toy that’s fun to play with, to boot.
The soda siphon is said to have been invented in 1829 by a Hungarian Benedictine teacher named Anyos Jedlik who never got around to patenting his many inventions.
Soon, soda water was all the rage in Eastern Europe, where beautifully decorated collectable siphons were ultra-fashionable, especially in the 1920s and ’30s.
In Hungary, for instance, seltzer was especially popular taken in a glass of white or red wine. In fact, Hungarians have at least eight “official” variations on the spritzer, such as the “big step” (one part wine, two parts soda), the “janitor” (three parts wine, two parts soda) or the “lodger’s spritzer” (one part wine, four parts soda).
Right up through the heavy-drinking heyday of the late 1950s, bartenders from Vienna to Vancouver would use a siphon to add a splash of effervescence to brandy, whisky or fruit syrup.
Unfortunately, many of the soda siphon factories were either destroyed during the Second World War or lost behind the Iron Curtain that was raised after it.
Scarcity, naturally, led to other options.
Bars replaced their siphons with more efficient soda on the gun, powered by industrial-sized tanks of carbon dioxide. The public developed a taste for bottled bubbles from France or Italy.
And soon the soda siphon was but a quaint piece of memorabilia.
Now with the fad for molecular gastronomy, it’s making a comeback of sorts as chefs use it to foam everything from soup to nuts.
It might be time for it to make a comeback in home bars, too.
After all, when’s the last time you had a gadget that made life this delicious, fun and easy — and was kind to the planet, too?
– You can buy soda siphons at select gourmet stores such as Williams-Sonoma or Bella Vita in Park Royal. The most popular brand that’s locally available is Mosa of Taiwan, www.twmosa.com, which costs $80 to $120. Mosa carbon cartridges are also available at Ming Wo, $8 for a box of 10.
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SODA SO GOOD
Here are three easy ways to enjoy soda from a siphon, aside from straight up with ice:
– In a Sauvignon Blanc spritzer with a lemon twist.
– In a homemade soda made with fruit syrup or, for a more exotic flavour, rosewater or lavender syrup.
– In a tall drink made with brandy, vodka, whisky or (for teetotalers) cranberry or orange juice.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
