Italian Soda

Italian soda is an easy, fun, and awesome drink! Mix together the syrup, club soda, and heavy cream for a classic Italian cream soda.

Here’s a celebratory and just plain fun drink: the Italian soda, also known as Italian Cream Soda! This American drink has inspired drinkers for decades, and with good reason. The combination of fizzy club soda, fruity syrup and silky cream is easy heavenly. These sweet drinks are impressive: especially if you serve them with colorful straws and a cocktail cherry.

What’s in an Italian Lemonade?

An Italian soda is a drink made with club soda and flavored syrup, often served with cream (aka cream Italian soda). This delicious concoction was invented by an Italian-American family in San Francisco in the 1920s. Rinaldo and Ezilda Torre, founders of the company that makes the Torani syrup brand, brought syrup recipes from Lucca, Italy and introduced Italian lemonade in 1925. She started and has been popular ever since.

At its core, an Italian soda is just soda water and syrup. Popular flavors range from fruits like strawberry and raspberry to chocolate, amaretto, hazelnut and more. What you need for an Italian lemonade:

• Carbonated wateraka club soda or sparkling water
• flavored syrup of any kind, such as the Torani brand (see below)
• cream Make a Cream Soda (recommended)
• cocktail cherryServe
• whipped creamOptional

Would you like a dairy-free version? Try without the cream or substitute with 30ml coconut milk.

Types of sparkling water

You can use any type of soda water or sparkling water in an Italian soda. There are many different names for this type of water, so here’s a breakdown:

• Sparkling water, also known as seltzer water, fizzy water or carbonated water is a water without additives, which is carbonated by injecting carbon dioxide (CO2). It’s the basis of brands like La Croix or what comes out of a SodaStream.
• Sparkling mineral water is water from a natural mineral spring that has been carbonated. Examples of brands are Perrier or Topo Chico.
• Soda is a sparkling water enriched with added minerals that give it a salty or slightly sweet taste. Club soda is often used in cocktails and soda fountain drinks.

What should you avoid in an Italian lemonade? Don’t use tonic water (that has added quinine and sugar flavoring) or waters with added flavorings or sugar.

Flavored Syrups: Use Torani or others

The Italian couple who started the company that makes Torani syrups invented Italian soda, so it’s only natural to use that brand in this drink recipe! Of course, you can use any brand that makes flavored syrups. We’ve used this Torani Raspberry Syrup, and there are many more flavors to choose from: coconut, peach, cherry, orange, blackberry, hazelnut, vanilla: even chocolate chip cookie dough!

You can also use homemade syrups if you wish! Try these raspberry syrup, strawberry syrup or grenadine syrup (pomegranate).

How to make an Italian soda: some tips

How do you make an Italian lemonade? You can jump straight to the recipe below, or here’s our take on some general principles:

• Mix the syrup and sparkling water. Start with 1 ½ tablespoons of syrup if you want to serve without cream. Taste and add more as you like. The syrup is very mild, so we like to start low and adjust to taste.
• We recommend serving with cream. The cream really adds richness and complements the flavor of an Italian cream soda, making it utterly irresistible. If you’re serving with cream, you can get away with 1 ounce of syrup since the cream weakens it. Customize it back to your liking!
• In our opinion, whipped cream is unnecessary. Italian Cream Soda tastes amazing even without whipped cream. Just add it if you’re looking for an impressive presentation (in this case, go for it!).
• Garnish with a cocktail cherry and a fun straw. Because that’s half the fun!

And there you have it: How to Make an Italian Lemonade! Let us know if you try this recipe in the comments below: and we’d love to know what flavors you serve!

More sodas

want more ideas Here are some other non-alcoholic fizzy drinks that are similar to Italian soda:

This Italian Cream Soda Recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten free. For vegans, plant-based and dairy-free, serve without cream or add 30ml coconut milk.