Bringing Seltzer Back

Anyone who knows me knows that I am pretty obsessed with recycling. I can pinpoint exactly where this obsession came from. When I was in 7th grade, my friends and I were part of the Environmental club and the club made a school initiative to put out paper recycling bins in every classroom and we would collect the bins after school once a week for recycling. At the end of the year, we had collected thousands of pounds of paper. What would normally be in the dumpster, was now collected by a recycling facility. That club really made me value how important it is for every one of us to do our part as little as it may seem, to help the environment. Because every little bit helps.

One of my other obsessions in life is making the best Egg Cream. If you've never had an egg cream, you must try one. It's like a chocolate milk soda. The name is pretty strange because there are no eggs or cream in the drink at all. Egg creams are made with just 3 ingredients. Chocolate syrup (preferably U-Bet, made in Brooklyn), milk (preferably whole milk), and seltzer. I've discovered however that I had many issues with bottled seltzer that you buy from the supermarket. Like any carbonated drink, once you open the bottle, it starts to lose it's carbonated bubbles. So even though you can make an excellent egg cream the first time you use the seltzer bottle, the next drink you make with the same bottle falls flat. Literally.

For many years, I've had one of these old vintage glass seltzer bottles, so one day we thought, what if we could refill one of these?

That led us to search online for those old time glass seltzer bottles. The ones that keep the carbonation because there is a lever you press to let out just the exact amount of seltzer that you need for your drinks.  Since you don't open the bottle, it never loses it's carbonation.  To our surprise and luck, we found a local family run company that delivers seltzer in those vintage seltzer bottles called the Brooklyn Seltzer Boys. The fact that there is a company that reuses these bottles and puts them back in use, and is right here in Brooklyn, NY is outstanding! On their website, they don't actually call it recycling, they calling it "reusing" because the same bottle gets reused over and over again. Even better than recycling!!

The way it works is that you order by the case. A delivery comes with 10 seltzer bottles and costs only $35. That's just $3.50 for each bottle of seltzer. Which for us, is about the cost of a seltzer from the supermarket here.  Two years ago on this blog, I challenged myself to live a little "greener" and this definitely falls into that category. There is no wasted plastic bottle, and we put these beautiful "antiques" back in use!  I love supporting local environmentally conscious businesses. Total win!

U-bet syrup, cold milk, and this seltzer. BEST EGG CREAM EVER!! Next time, I'll have to buy the milk from Ronnybrook farms, which will make this entire drink all locally sourced ingredients within 100 miles. Pretty sweet!