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Shea Gunther

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 EST
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Sodastream maker 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.
 
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.
 
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Related Topics: Food, Green Living, Green Products, Health, High Fructose Corn Syrup

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anonymous
myrrisa 05/25/2012 18:49 PM

i agree with your review. the syrups that come with it are gross and unhealthy. i would much rather have had real sugar. we bought passion fruit in a jar with natural syrup and we added that and it was great. you can just get real fruit and cook it down with sugar and add that to your water. so you could use anything...cherries, peaches, plums. so far i love this thing, just minus the gross syrup they give with it.

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anonymous
Bouyah 05/11/2012 08:30 AM

Excellent review. I've been thinking about a Sodastream, but I can't get past the proprietary CO2 either. I feel shafted if it costs me more than $4 to fill a 20oz paintball tank. Let alone $25-30 for a 17oz SodaStream cylinder.
I'm a fan of natural, and I've found that homemadesodaexpert.blogspot.com has some good recipes from real fruits. There's a recipe for an attempt at homemade mountain dew, caffeine optional.

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anonymous
Shaneric 05/15/2012 14:27 PM

I too did not like the proprietary CO2 thing, but I found that you can buy an adapter to go on your paintball tanks and get them filled and the same place that the paintball tanks are filled. Better yet, I bought an adapter for the large 50lb CO2 tank and now I fill my own for almost free per serving.

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toben7l
toben7l 05/06/2012 09:54 AM

I got the SodaStream specifically because their mixes have WAY less sodium overall compared to normal and diet soda. The syrups themselves can be quite cloying, and even their "all naturals" line seems to miss. I use the "diet" syrups, and don't mind the taste of the artificial sweeteners. The "regular" ones, which have half sugar, half splenda, are way too sweet for my palate, and the "naturals" line is doubly so, even for my wife who drinks normal cherry Dr. Pepper.
My main negative with.... More

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Tarrant
Tarrant 05/07/2012 07:44 AM

I hadn't thought about the sodium content. Thanks for the information about the CO2  canister. I tend to go without using it much because I know I am toward the end of a canister and don't have interest in dealing with the lousy parking lot to get the refills at the store near us. How big is a 50lb canister?

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anonymous
Enter your name 04/19/2012 02:18 AM

The syrup alone costs more to make 2 liters than a two liter bottle (including deposit) sells for a Walmart! This is obviously aimed at the mathematically challenged!

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anonymous
Anonymous 05/06/2012 09:42 AM

The $5 bottle of syrup makes, for me, close to 40 of the half liter bottles. that's 10 2-liters. Show me where you can find a 2-liter of good soda for $0.50.

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anonymous
Anonymous 05/13/2012 02:29 AM

I have yet to make any "good" soda with this machine.
I HATE splenda, and it sucks they made all the "regular" sodas with this sweetener.

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anonymous
Mike Spicher 05/13/2012 12:13 PM

Do you like Coca Cola, Mtn. Dew, Pepsi, Sprite, A&W Root Beer, Sunkist orange, Nehi grape/orange or Dr. Pepper? The big beverage companies with hundreds of billions at their fingertips make it their business to know what tastes best to most people. When they find out, they put the stuff in a bottle and sell it. You can buy syrup for all those brands. Yes, "The Real Thing" too. If you only had a Fizz Giz, you could whip it up in a soda bottle that comes FREE with your drink. It's a handy and.... More

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anonymous
Anne 04/17/2012 14:03 PM

I love my Sodastream Fizz machine, but so far ANY syrup, even the ones with regular sugar, give me diarrhea, still trying to figure out why. I can't drink or eat anything with aspartame or Splenda, so I bought the regular Pink Grapefruit syrup.

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anonymous
WNCmountaingirl 03/12/2012 23:29 PM

I have a soda stream and I LOVE it !! I don't mind any of the syrups (not a fan of the red bull flavor but I don't like Red Bull anyway) however you can buy regular pepsi or coke syrup etc I believe Costco or even Sams may have them or even online.. just put some of the syrup from the box (it comes in like 3 gallon bags in a box with a screw type cap) into a pump style dispenser (like for ketchup lol) and you can either flavor it by the glass or by the bottle...OR you can make your flavors like.... More

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anonymous
Anonymous 05/17/2012 11:59 AM

pour a little bit of the orange in the "red bull" flavor...its awesome!

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anonymous
Amy Mancuso 03/05/2012 03:25 AM

My boyfriend got a SodaStream for his birthday and it's great for him because he's diabetic and drinks diet soda all the time. I just tried the regular lemon-lime and it's terrible! I HATE artificial sweeteners and I couldn't believe they did that! Thanks for the tips on soda syrup recipes and the fact that they plan on making regular syrups without Splenda!

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Tarrant
Tarrant 03/05/2012 08:45 AM

The non-Splenda syrups are available in my area. After writing off their syrups, I was pleased to see them, tried them, and they're very comparable in my opinion to traditional sodas.

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anonymous
Burpy 01/25/2012 23:33 PM

I got a Soda Stream for Xmas along with sample packs. I tried a couple of them and thought, "euuw artificial sweetener"! So I looked on the ingredients and sure enough, there was artificial sweetener. Not enough to be a low calorie beverage, yet without the taste of the full-sugar equivalent. Why do they do this?? I have it without any syrups now, just plain. I know they do a 'natural' range but it's hard to find the full range in my country.

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anonymous
Warren 01/20/2012 12:14 PM

My wife is addicted to Diet Coke...we bought a Soda Stream a year or two ago and love it. We don't buy the syrups - the point for us was to save money and to find something healthier to drink. We use a ratio of about a 1/4 glass of juice and the rest fizzy water - quite a tasty and healthful drink. Freshly squeezed lime or lemon as a garnish is great! Certainly a lot better than Diet Coke...

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anonymous
KNolan 01/16/2012 12:50 PM

My family agrees that the syrups are no good. But a few other complaints about the SodaStream system: the bottles can't be sterilized properly, You can't put them in a dishwasher, or use in hot water, and regular bottle mouths don't fit in the system. The proper measurements for the syrups can't be easily located, or are specified in the manual to make sure you use the correct amount of syrup with the carbonated water.

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anonymous
Gregg 01/13/2012 20:46 PM

I can't tell the taste between the syrups and their brand-name counterparts. The only one that has be way off is the Cream Soda (way too caramel-flavored), but if you just use less of this flavor, then you get a once-again accurate taste. I've tried the natural line and it just doesn't have enough flavor. It don't take like the "throwback" flavors you've seen popping up. It taste more like diet flavors. I found with the natural flavors I had to use nearly twice as much syrup than recommended.... More

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anonymous
Ruth Margeson 01/12/2012 21:23 PM

I use mio to make flavored water with my soda stream.

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anonymous
Ashley 01/11/2012 16:11 PM

Instead of the Soda Stream, I got the Isi Twist and Sparkle, it carbonates any beverage except dairy and is only around 50 dollars. You can choose any beverage and not just aspartame sweetened ones :)

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anonymous
Randy 01/05/2012 19:31 PM

We also could not stand Soda Streams syrups. Absolutely horrible tasting. We have bought a gallon of RC Cola syrup and a Mt Dew knock off and are mixing our own now. Took us a couple of times to get the mix down correctly but wow what a different taste. As good as what you can buy in the store

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anonymous
Randy 02/20/2012 15:27 PM

http://www.athomesoda.com/syrup.htm

Try these guys. This is where we got the syrup at. They sell name brands and generic brands. We bought the 1 gallon containers and then transfered them to 1 gallon milk jugs

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anonymous
Anonymous 02/19/2012 23:02 PM

where did you get the RC Syrup?

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anonymous
Delia 01/05/2012 17:25 PM

True. The syrups are vile. We make our own, now.

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anonymous
Lana 01/04/2012 20:26 PM

I had read other reviews that raved about the machine. I agree that the machine and convenience of it are great, BUT the syrups are making me sick. I have tried the cola and lemon-lime. Beyond the fact that they don't taste like the originals, I am physically ill for 8-10 hours after 1/2 a liter. I don't know if it is the Sucralose or the Acesulfame Potassium but something is not right with these concoctions!!! Buyer beware!!

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Tarrant
Tarrant 01/05/2012 19:21 PM

Have you tried the new SodaStream naturals (I think that is what they call it) line with cane sugar instead? I found them to be much better and no nasty side effects.

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anonymous
Aeriel 01/04/2012 16:06 PM

They say not to use fruit juice before you mix it up in the machine, and to say put it in a glass and pour the sparkling water over it. But, they never say why. Does anyone know why? Does it hurt the machine? Or does the machine just not work great with it? If you can make your own syrup and put it in, why can't you add fruit juice?

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anonymous
Anonymous 03/05/2012 14:33 PM

Because it will fizz like crazy the moment you unseal the bottle from the machine. I tried it. One-third of the soda quickly foamed out all over the kitchen counter. Cursed myself while I cleaned up the mess. No harm done, just messy and a waste of good soda. So now you know :)

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anonymous
Amy Mancuso 03/05/2012 03:40 AM

You can add it, but it has to be after the carbonation.

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Tarrant
Tarrant 01/05/2012 10:10 AM

If you put syrups--theirs, your own, or juice in the bottle before you add the carbonation, it "explodes" out of the bottle when you remove the bottle. It makes a huge mess. I tried it early on ignoring the instruction.

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anonymous
Lana 01/04/2012 20:27 PM

My guess is that there is no good way to clean the machine.

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anonymous
Bob 01/02/2012 13:39 PM

All artificial sweetners are crap, and taste like crap....try pouring any soda on the ground with an artificial sweetner...and nearby also pour a bottle of real soda and see which one the insects/bees will go to....there's your proof.

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anonymous
A Today 16:53 PM

I just received this for Christmas.I have to say I am not a soda drinker and never have it in the house, however if someone drops by I can now offer them soda and make iit fresh. They can also have their favorite flavor.

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anonymous
Love the syrups Today 13:54 PM

Wow. I'm surprised so many people disliked the Sodastream syrups. I love them. So much better than commercial sodas. Commercial energy drinks are gagsome, but the sodastream version is great--more like a cream soda. And of course, I won't blow my blood-sugar with sugary sodas, and I prefer the taste of Splenda anyway.

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anonymous
Daniel Beedle 12/22/2011 15:02 PM

Why don't you just make your own syrups? It's really easy and fun to do.

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anonymous
Bob 01/22/2012 17:16 PM

Why would you trust ANYTHING said by the FDA? They also claim MSG and Aspartame are safe, despite MANY studies to the contrary.

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anonymous
Chandler 12/21/2011 18:54 PM

My wife and I have owned a Sodastream for a while now and love it! The sucralose (Splenda) is a fantastic sweetener, and allows us guilt-free sodas all day. I just wanted to put this out there, because this board is overwhelmed by nay-sayers who just don't like the sucralose.

However, the FDA analyzed data from all 110 studies on both humans and animals and concluded no sucralose toxicity for humans. If you don't like the taste, then I guess it's not for you. There are plenty of.... More

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anonymous
Donna 12/21/2011 00:48 AM

We gave up on the syrups a looong time ago. I use the fizzy water with orange juice and love it. Another nice alternative is the fruit flavored syrups (that use sugar) like Torani or Monin. A splash of vanilla and you have a cream soda. I've also done peach and orange sparklie over ice with the syrups and they were dang tasty!

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anonymous
mikey 12/02/2011 19:29 PM

for those of you that use the bag n box syrups from sams or cos co how do you get the syrup out of the bag?

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anonymous
Randy 01/06/2012 12:46 PM

We took the bag out of the box, cut a corner and funneled it into a 1 gallon milk container.

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anonymous
Anonymous 04/06/2012 19:04 PM

can you just put the syrup from the box in with the carbonated water and thats it ? or do you have to add anything else cause i was gunna buy a cola syrup and i was just woundering

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anonymous
Mom of 07 01/06/2012 10:47 AM

Did you ever find out how to get it out of the bag? I'm looking into this system and buying from a dist. in my area but also need to find out how to get out of the bag.

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anonymous
Jim Madsen 12/01/2011 22:06 PM

Have had the cheap 100 buck SodaStream for awhile now, and the syrups made us put this away. My wife and I cannot stand the taste of Splenda. We tried to make some syrups from concentrate from Prairie Moon, but that is a pain in the butt.
Tonight I bought a bottle of the new Root Beer with real sugar. It tastes pretty good. One downfall though, at ten bucks for 6 liters worth, you can buy 10 store brand 2 liter bottles of soda for the same price! Yeah this is healthier, but the.... More

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Tarrant
Tarrant 12/02/2011 07:39 AM

I was thinking the same thing about the new syrups--good but not really less expensive. Then I realized a couple of things: I use less than the label amount and there is still the possible environmental benefit of the reusable bottles/co2 canisters.

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anonymous
Kimberly McBride 11/28/2011 16:17 PM

Just bought it on the advice of my doctor to cut sugar. He advised mixing the water with juice, which I love. I took one sip and wanted to through up. It's going back to the store!!! I think I'd rather just drink water and have coke less often than drink this crap.

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anonymous
Azra Today 12:19 PM

Love the Sodastream and the syrups that they create. Of course I've been a life long diet soda drinker and can't stand the taste of a real soda for anything. I can't even stand the taste of regular sugar in foods. I must be the odd one here =D...but give me artificial sugar any day over regular.

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anonymous
Steve 10/06/2011 15:53 PM

I totally agree. The syrups are terrible. I got the machine at a fundraiser and love making soda but they have got to do a better job with the flavored syrups. Failure. Where were the tasters when they made that. The only flavor that I can stand is the lemon lime.

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Tarrant
Tarrant 11/29/2011 09:31 AM

I happened to get some of their new syrups this weekend--the ones with no artificial sweeteners and with cane sugar. Much, much, better than the originals.

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anonymous
Eric 08/15/2011 22:06 PM

Update: Sodastream now offers a line of "Sparkling Naturals" syrups that have cane sugar instead of those artificial sweeteners. That's the good news.
The bad news is they COST TWICE AS MUCH! So thanks for nothing, Sodastream!

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anonymous
Anonymous 01/06/2012 22:55 PM

Check the label, twice the price an half the servings. That's 4x the cost.

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