Do you remember enjoying an orange cream soda or orange creamsicle when you were a kid? Today we’re showing you how to make orange cream soda using a ginger bug starter culture! It’s super easy and within days you’ll have a sweet creamy drink that you can drop a ball of vanilla ice cream in to make an orange cream float!
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How to Make Orange Cream Soda Using a Ginger Bug
To make orange cream soda, the first thing we need is our ginger bug starter culture. We went over exactly how to make a ginger bug from scratch in a previous video and once you have it, you can make all kinds of sodas like the one we’re making today!
From here all you have to do is make up your orange soda syrup, cool it to room temperature, and your start culture will do the rest. So simple!
Homemade Orange Cream Soda Recipe
Makes ~ 1/2 gallon
This delicious homemade orange cream soda is heavenly on its own or you can turn it into an incredible dessert by dropping a few balls of vanilla ice cream in along with a straw. This is one of our new favorite desserts!
Equipment:
- 1/2 gallon jar
- Cloth to cover or Fermentation lid <– These silicone lids work well for us
- (3-4) 16 oz. glass flip-top beer bottles <– We love these
- (1) 16 oz. heavy duty plastic bottle (such as Perrier or a soda bottle, or skip & burp your bottles)
Ingredients:
- Zest of (2) oranges
- 6 cups non-chlorinated water (chill in the fridge for later)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 T vanilla extract
- 1 T lemon or lime juice
- 1/2 cup Ginger Bug Starter Culture
First we get together all of our favorite Fermentation Gear beforehand to make sure we have everything we need.
To get the orange flavor we’re looking for we can either squeeze the juice of an orange which will make the soda a little tangier, or to get a cleaner orange flavor we can zest the flavor from the peel of an orange. So in this recipe we’re zesting the orange peels from two oranges.
Add two cups of your water in a small pot along with the orange zest and bring it to a boil for five minutes. Stir in sugar and remove from heat. You can strain off the orange zest out of your orange soda syrup but we like to leave it in for the bold flavor and fun color.
Add the cool water to your mason jar first and then the orange soda syrup along with vanilla extra and lemon juice. Chilling the cold water beforehand in the fridge speeds the cooling process by a lot! Stir to combine. The jar should be cool to the touch if you had chilled the water. If not, allow to cool to room temperature before the next step or you will kill your starter!
Now that your soda syrup has cooled, add your ginger bug start culture and stir to combine.
If you still have remaining space in your jar, feel free to add just a little more non-chlorinated water to bring the level up to the neck of the mason jar.
Cover your jar with a cloth or a silicone fermentation lid and ferment at room temperature until the jar begins bubbling. We like to shake the jar every day to discourage mold since the citrus pulp likes to float to the top. Our house was cold so this process took 9 days until we saw bubbles! We then let it ferment another couple of days until the flavor was just right.
From here your soda is ready! You can either enjoy it now or move it to the fridge to slow down the fermentation process and enjoy it later. Or if you like fizzy soda, move on to the next step.
For carbonation, transfer your orange cream soda to flip-top style beer bottles along with one plastic bottle for carbonation. Be careful with pressure building in glass bottles! These can be dangerous if they explode! Either “burp” your bottles every 12 to 24 hours or fill one plastic bottle to see how much pressure is building in our glass bottles by testing the pressure, or hardness, of the plastic bottle. Once it’s carbonated to your liking, enjoy or move it to the fridge for later. Keep in mind these will continue to ferment and build pressure in the fridge so you might need to “burp” them every so often.
Orange Cream Soda Primary Fermentation – What to Expect
On the first day of making our orange cream soda, the liquid was clear, fresh-looking and we didn’t see any action. Some of the citrus pulp was floating at the top which made us think shaking the jar would be a good idea to discourage mold. As the days went on we were slightly surprised that we hadn’t gotten any bubbles at all and then, surprise! By the ninth day we finally got our first bubbles! We’re pretty sure our primary fermentation took so long for three reasons:
- We’re fermenting something with a little more citrus, which is oranges.
- We added lemon juice.
- Our house was a little cold in the mid 60 degree F for most of the fermentation process.
After we finally got bubbles, we let it ferment a few days longer and once it tasted good to us, we moved on to the bottling stage!
Orange Cream Soda Secondary Fermentation – Fizzy Carbonation!
Now you have delicious homemade orange cream soda! But why stop there? Moving on to secondary fermentation will give your orange soda the pop and fizz that makes soda so much fun.
Once we bottled our soda, we left it to ferment at room temperature. Every day we felt how much give the plastic bottle had by giving it a squeeze ,and once it was solid and firm, we considered it done after two full days. When we opened the bottles, we got a lovely pop sound and were excited to see the fizz once we poured it into our glasses.
Heavenly Orange Cream Soda Float
You can definitely just enjoy your orange cream soda as it is, but if you want a killer dessert, pour some of your soda into a glass and then drop a couple balls of vanilla ice cream on top! Pop a straw in and enjoy one of the best dessert you’ve ever had! Sweet, slightly citrus, slightly vanilla, and oh so creamy!
It’s So Easy to Make Orange Cream Soda!
After you go through the process of making orange cream soda once, you’ll be amazed at how simple it is! Feel free to change up the recipe and replace some of the water with orange juice and adjust the sugar and fermentation time to your liking.
If you make ginger bug sodas at home, do you have any favorite recipes? Let us know! We’d also love for you to leave a comment below and to subscribe to our YouTube channel!
