Well I think it worked quite well.
I couldn't get fresh strawberries of course so I started with 1 package of frozen strawberries which I macerated with about a cup of evaporated cane juice (raw sugar) I added a handful of fresh mint leaves as well. I left that for about 4 or 5 hours to thaw. I gave it a good stir to break up all the berries added about 1.5 liters of water (maybe a bit less) and then brought it up to a boil (I meant only to bring it to 180 but I forgot).
The result was a lovely pink syrup with ugly whitish gunk floating around in it. I strained it through a ss mesh strainer.
Into two empty plastic 1 liter former sparkly water bottles with a sprinkle of us-05 in each. I squeezed out all the air from the bottle just for fun. By morning they were swelled and hard so I popped them in the fridge and had some with dinner tonight.
My son didn't like it because it was sparkly (he doesn't actually like soda
) but it's pretty good. decent fresh strawberry aroma and flavor. mint is there but is a supporting role. no boozy note although one person who tasted it detected a slight kombucha-y flavor but I don't get that.
I don't think this will become a regular occurrence at chez mort but it was a fun experiment. and dead simple.
I do want to make some flavour syrups and just mix them with the soda water I make by the keg load though.