summer in a glass AKA the dirty coke

While cleaning and organizing our kitchen last year when we moved in, one of the many gadgets we found was a Soda Stream. It's probably not something I would have ever bothered to buy myself, but since we already had it and all the necessary supplies, we gave it a try. It's so awesome! Seriously, I'm not a soda person. I don't really like it. I don't really drink it. But this thing is cool. The girls get a big kick out of it, and we just pull it out for something fun to do in the kitchen, not on a regular lets-have-soda-with-dinner kind of basis. Last summer we were obsessed with making our own root beer floats, and since the soda is made in small batches it never goes flat (not to mention cheaper than buying soda all the time). This summer we were in search of a new drink to add to our soda-making-repertoire and I stumbled on this recipe for dirty coke. I was so excited to try it. The girls' faces got all scrunched up in confusion when I said we were having dirty coke with dinner, but I persevered.

First we gathered all our supplies: coconut syrup (from a local coffee shop), lime juice, half & half, and our soda-making supplies. This is enough to keep us stocked with dirty cokes for quite a while!

The fun part- adding the bubbles!

Adding the syrup. (Technically this recipe is for diet coke. But diet soda, I mean yuck. So we bought the regular cola syrup)

Then just add some of the coconut syrup, lime juice, and a splash of half & half to finish it off. We found we liked them more with a little less coconut and a little more lime. They went perfect with our back patio dinner: Janelle's homemade sloppy joes, Nebraska corn right off the husk, and cheesy potatoes (a Meyers classic).

And then Janelle got creative with the extreme bendy straws. BTW, If you don't know Janelle, she's awesome. And she's our assistant, which means that she gets paid to hang out at my house 5 days a week :).

Cheers to our new favorite summer drink!