SPECIAL FEATURES:
Email
Sodastream: Fantastic soda maker, terrible syrups
The Sodastream home soda maker will save you money and help keep plastic bottles out of the waste stream — just stay away from the company's Splenda-infused syrups.
Tue, Jun 22 2010 at 11:45 PM
Related Topics:
Photo: Sodastream USA
I admit to drinking a lot of soda in my younger days. I never really picked up the coffee-drinking habit in college, so I would rely on the enamel-eating scourge of Appalachia Mountain Dew for my late-night caffeine fixes. Thankfully my mainstream soda days are mostly over, though I still enjoy a Reed's Ginger Beer or a local Maine Root soda every now and then.
A friend turned me on to the Sodastream home soda machine, and I sent them an e-mail asking for a review unit. My biggest gripe with the soda most of us drink is the high-fructose corn syrups and other preservatives they contain, so I thought a Sodastream might be a good way to get my occasional soda fix without having to spend $2 on a natural soda at Whole Foods or having to ingest a bunch of yellow #5 or sodium benzoate.
The Sodastream PR people got back to me quickly and arranged for a review unit to be shipped to me along with a full selection of their soda syrups. I received the package last week and have been having a blast (of CO2) making my own fizzy sugar waters.
Carbon dioxide is amazingly tasty stuff.
Unfortunately, the Sodastream soda syrups are not. In fact I have a hard time even drinking a soda made with the official Sodastream syrups. Why? Blame Splenda, or to be more specific, blame the Sodastream taste engineers who decided to use the artificial sweetener in the entire line of syrups. This obviously comes down to personal preferences, but I find that Splenda, along with all the other artificial sweeteners, taste terrible. There's just something wrong about how they taste.
Look, soda is not healthy and never will be. It's just fizzy sugar water. Even the most all-natural soda found in the crunchiest natural foods store is a big bottle of empty calories. Yeah, it tastes great, but it will never be anything other than a diversion from the Healthy Eating Express. I really wish Sodastream would just embrace that fact and cut out the Splenda. Give us real soda syrups made with real sugar. Maybe keep the Splenda line for the people who don't mind its chemically cloying flavor, but give the rest of us some good old-fashioned sugared syrup.
Luckily, it's really easy to make your own syrups. You can follow any number of recipes for old-fashioned soda syrups or just simply mix lemon or lime juice with some maple syrup right before adding the freshly carbonated water. Orange juice is a nice additive, too; the right ratio of water to juice will make you swear that you're drinking an Orangina.
The Penguin soda machine itself is a beautifully engineered piece of kitchenware. It's easy to use, requires no cleanup, and looks stylish on the countertop. It's fun to operate and gives you store-quality soda in well under a minute. The Penguin is Sodastream's only model with glass carafes; the others use BPA-free plastic. Some of the company's other models allow you to see the CO2 being injected into the water, but the Penguin, by dint of its design, keeps that process hidden away.
All Sodastream makers use a standard CO2 bottle that's available online and at select kitchen stores. (10/28/12 Update: Read about how to save money refilling your CO2 tanks using the SodaMod).
If you drink soda, you should look into getting a Penguin. Sodastream says it costs about $.20 to gas up a liter of water, the same bottle bought at the store can costs five to 10 times that much. The cost of buying those bottles of soda adds up over the course of a year, and for some soda drinkers it wouldn't take terribly long for their savings to offset the ~$200 price for a Penguin Starter Kit. When you factor in all the plastic bottles you'd be saving, you start to see how, if you do drink soda, a Sodastream is the greenest choice available. It's not green, but it definitely is greener.
If you don't want to drop $200 on a soda maker, you can find other Sodastream models for less than half that price. They also make a version designed specifically for the green market — their Eco model is made using recycled plastic and packaged with greener packaging.
Which just makes me wonder: why don't they do the same with all their models? Why not package everything they sell in more eco-friendly packaging? Why not use recycled plastic whenever possible in all their products?
You can follow Sodastream USA on Twitter and read the corporate blog, Ms. Fizz.
UPDATE: I've been told by Sodastream that they have an "all-natural" line of syrups coming out that will be sweetened with simple sugar (no high-fructose corn syrup). I'm looking forward to trying them.
Again, in full disclosure, Sodastream sent me a free Penguin and a collection of flavors for review.
Are you on Twitter? Follow me (@sheagunther) there, I give good tweets.
And if you really like my writing, you can join my Facebook page.
The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.
You might also like:
Sign in with one of these accounts to add your comment.
EDITORS' PICKS
Advertisement
TODAY'S MOST POPULAR ON
- 15 famous people who mysteriously disappeared
- 10 false facts most people think are true
- 9 habits that may do more harm than good
- 13 natural remedies for the ant invasion
- 7 recipes featuring fresh fava beans
- Jon Stewart explains the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’
- How much money do you save when baking your own bread?
- Best air-filtering houseplants, according to NASA
- Stone Age people may have battled against a zombie apocalypse
- 15 houseplants for improving indoor air quality - A breath of fresh air
From our sponsor
NEWSLETTER
Advertisement
whats the best flavor ?
how many one liter bottles can you get from one c02 can?
One co2 bottle will do 60 liters or more depending on how much fizz you want. You swap the bottle at your nearest retailer for a full one and you can also buy spares to use.
I purchased a sodamaker, too. The taste of those "sweeteners" sticked to my mouth and maked me thirsty. I had to drink water to get rid of the thirst. The next day I felt like in a mild hangover. I had to drink a lot of SUGAR to cure the hangover.
I would have to agree with what he said about the syrup I just got a soda stream I am a MT. Dew drinker and there Mt Dew substitute would be good if it didnt have the nasty spenda it leaves a taste in your mouth that you cant get rid of all they need is to get rid of the splenda and add real sugar and there syrup would be good....
I tried something new the other day. I placed a Celestial Seasonings wild berry tea bag in a charged bottle, left it overnight. Tasted pretty good. I do use Stevia since those artificial sweetners aggrevate my joints.
Hmm. I actually like all the flavors I've tried so far. Especially the Diet Orange and the Diet Cranberry, both with Splenda. No complaints here.
hate the syrups. they taste horrible. Ive never liked splenda .
Get the Wal Mart brand, Mio brand, or Dasani brand Liquid Enhancers. Sparkling lemonade, orange, mango, strawberry lemonade. Or go to CostPlus and get the Torrino's syrups. Make FUN sodas. Enjoy life and stop thinking in the box.
Mio contains a whole lot of chemicals - 2 artificial sweeteners, and 3 dyes. Pretty much, you're making a healthy glass of water into something toxic.
(I know, I was disappointed too - I used to be a big fan of Mio, til I read what was in it.)
Ok, I can't even begin to explain properly just how disappointing this product is. To make it simple, they should have sweetened with corn syrup to keep costs low. The product will likely never take off like it should. Would have liked to see national drink vendors release authentic flavors, but that seems unlikely now.
Unless your willing to pay 3 times as much for terrible tasting substitutes avoid buying this product.
i just go directly to my local Pepsi co distributor and buy a 3 gallon bag in a box of my favorite products. works great in my soda stream. defiantly need to buy the 3rd party adapter to be able to use non proprietary co2 bottles 3 usd fills beats 20 dollar exchanges hands down.
Please , give us more info on this adapter that you mention, Thanks
desigh more flavors, this thing could end up in every kithen in America..
I've mixed it 50/50 w/ whiskey and it STILL tastes bad.
I suppose, if one lowered their standards, it might be a placebo, but NO MATTER WHAT you do, it DOES NOT mix well with Jack!
I am a diabetic so sugared soda is a no-no. I think the Soda Stream Diet Root Beer, Cream Soda, and tonic are great. Lime juice with 2-3 crushed mint leaves and no sweetner at all is good too. Carbonated coffee is simply awful. I live in NM on my own water system, very, very hard. Makes great soda water straight out of the tap.
I get diarreha with all products that use splenda, I was given the soda stream as a gift from my roommate she didn't know I can't have anytihng with splenda, WOOPS. So now I am having to look every where for something to use with my soda stream that doesn't have splenda.
Has anyone tried the Sonoma Syrup company Cola Soda Syrup? I bought a bottle at Williams-Sonoma. It's not cheap, but it is really good. It is all-natural with nothing artificial and no sodium.
A couple of things:
1. These things taste nasty, they taste too sweet for me.
2. Wasn't carbon dioxide bad for you anyway?
3. The design is terrible.
I love the new flavours from Kraft. they taste great. and Carbon Dioxide is not poison. it occurs naturally in nature.Carbon Monoxide is poison and a by-product of combustion.
Don't have to use the proprietary refills for CO2. Can get filled for $4. Only downside is my model has 16.9oz bottles. Newer model has 1 liter bottles, but not compatible with the old model...bad biz.
Their diet cola flavor is pretty good and cheaper than Sodastreams. About $4 for 24 12oz servings. Diet Dew flavor is decent and tonic is pretty good. Not exactly the real deal, but close enough and no sodium I think.
Pages