If the only thing soda was good for was being a sugar delivery system, we wouldn’t have so many types of it, nor would we have such strong allegiances to particular brands. Sure, the bottled stuff might be a mess of artificial flavourings and high-fructose corn syrup, but homemade soda is a different beast altogether.

Its brilliance is in its simplicity; at its core, it’s just sweetened carbonated water – a bubbly infrastructure supporting singular flavours. And what flavour is more deserving of that treatment than vanilla?