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Can I put my white wine in my Soda Stream and make sparkling wine?

It won’t really become the same thing. Sparkling wine is made via a secondary fermentation into a sealed tank or bottle. During fermentation, the byproduct of yeast-eating sugar is alcohol and CO2. When initial fermentation occurs in tanks, the CO2 has the ability to escape, but after the wine is vinified, if a bit more yeast and sugar are added to the party and that wine is placed in a sealed vessel, the CO2 has nowhere to escape to, so it absorbs back into the wine and you get carbonation.

Still, you can definitely get sparkles into your wine! While it’s not recommended by the manufacturer, you can absolutely carbonate still wine using your Soda Stream. It won’t be exactly the same thing, but there will be bubbles. And who doesn’t love bubbles? You can find a few of our Soda Stream experiments here. Just be careful!

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What tips do you have for throwing a party on a budget? I’d love to have friends over for a Super Bowl party, but I’m flat broke!

Throwing a party on a budget is definitely doable and can even be done without looking like you scrimped and saved. Abandon the individual bottles of wine, beer, and spirits for punches instead. A sangria is always a good call, and as long as you’re using a full-bodied red wine, that wine doesn’t have to be expensive. I’d also suggest making a beer punch, or putting together a batch of cocktails. Then, have your friends bring the snacks, and you’re ready to party!

You can find our favorite sangria recipes here, our favorite batch cocktail recipes here, and here’s a recipe for beer punch!

Is there a high-end rum?

Absolutely. While many might think of rum as a key ingredient for tropical drinks, it’s usually white rum that’s best used in that role. Dark rum, especially aged dark rum, is delicious to just sip straight or over ice. While you might think the best high-end rum comes from the Caribbean, in fact, my favorites come from Central and South America. Three rums I love are Ron Zacapa from Guatemala, Diplomatico from Venezuela, and Don Pancho from Panama.