Carmy’s custom soda pop is just a few ingredients and a blast of CO2 away
Everybody in the food world is losing their collective mind over “The Bear” right now. The FX/Hulu series about a young chef in Chicago has been hailed both for its award-winning acting and realistic depictions of cooking and restaurants. (Stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri both attended culinary school to prepare for their roles, and there’s lots of onscreen food prep, shown in detail.)1
From Italian beef sandwiches to obsessively perfected doughnuts, the show has featured some incredible recipes that have all of us wanting to cook like its characters. But if you’re mostly caught up on Season 2 (don’t worry; only the minorest of spoilers ahead), you might find yourself with an odd craving right now: homemade Sprite.
During the unforgettable, guest star–packed episode “Fishes,” a…chaotic Berzatto family Christmas sees main character Carmy whip up a quick batch of from-scratch lemon-lime soda for a pregnant guest complaining of nausea. That’s a surprisingly easy thing to make a chef-y version of, but you need a soda maker to do it. Well, it’s a perfect coincidence that this episode came out just as we were testing devices for carbonating your own soda, and our very favorite model just so happens to be ideal for homemade Sprite.
Drinkmate Sparkling Water and Soda Maker
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Amazon
Here’s how to create homemade Sprite: Make a lemon-lime syrup by swapping in four limes for two of the lemons in our lemon simple syrup recipe. (You’ll need two lemons and four limes in total.) From there, you could simply stir a couple tablespoons of syrup into 12 ounces of club soda.
But the true homemade-Sprite experience calls for home carbonation, and the DrinkMate OmniFizz is our top choice. Where other models we tested limit their liquids to plain water, it can add bubbles to almost any combination of ingredients—and still keep its warranty intact. To make Sprite in the DrinkMate, you’ll want 5 to 6 tablespoons of syrup and enough water to fill its liter bottle.
The best part about jumping into the OmniFizz is that now you have complete control over your soda. Want a Sprite that’s less sweet and more lime-y? Use more lime juice and less sugar. Want to add some grapefruit juice for a little bitter complexity? Go for it! Want to throw some gin in the mix to create a carbonated cocktail? Sounds delicious.
So that’s one “The Bear” Season 2 cooking challenge down. Next up: a Parmesan cannoli with mostarda, onion jam, and pistachios.
Why Trust The Spruce Eats?
The Spruce Eats commerce writer Jason Horn has been writing about food and drinks for nearly 20 years and salivating over food on screens for nearly 40. He has strong opinions about his favorite and least-favorite food movies and TV, and “The Bear” has rapidly risen to near the top of the former category. If there’s any way this article leads to him getting to cook with anybody from the show, he will be thrilled beyond measure.
