For as long as SodaStream devices have been around, people have been trying to carbonate booze in them, to varying degrees of success. But it looks like SodaStream has heard your prayers, with the company’s newly announced 'Sparkling Gold' drink mix, an alcoholic concentrate that you can add to your freshly carbonated SodaStream bottles.
Turn your water into wine
Unlike SodaStream’s other mixes, which turn your seltzer into soda or lemonade, Sparkling Gold lets you turn your water into wine. (Riesling, specifically.)
It’s the first time SodaStream has sold an alcoholic mixer for sparkling water, and according to the company, “Sparkling Gold contains 10 percent alcohol by volume when prepared using the recommended mixing ratio of one part 'Sparkling Gold' concentrate to five parts sparkling water” — which is not to say that you couldn’t add more if you wanted to add a punch to your toasts.
Only available in Germany, for now
SodaStream claims to have conducted an independent taste test of 100 people in Germany, which found that 76 percent of people surveyed rated the resulting mixture on par with actual French champagnes like Moet & Chardon and Veuve Clicquot, for whatever you feel that that’s worth. (Apparently it’s not worth much; on May 21st, 2018, SodaStream contacted The Verge asking us to remove this claim and delete this entire article, stating that its taste test claim is “inadmissible.”)
Each bottle of Sparkling Gold mix is enough for 12 glasses of wine, but there is some bad news before you go off to save a wedding in Galilee with a SodaStream in hand: the Sparkling Gold mixture is set to be a limited edition product, and it’ll only be available on SodaStream’s online shop in Germany.
Update, May 21st, 2018: This article has been updated to reflect that SodaStream has retracted a claim about its independent taste test.