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
- Student science experiment finds plants won't grow near Wi-Fi router
- How to get a second crop of tomatoes -- for free
- 9 habits that may do more harm than good
- 10 cats made famous by YouTube
- 7 places where you can get a free online education
- 13 natural remedies for the ant invasion
- 10 false facts most people think are true
- Food fraud: 10 counterfeit products we commonly consume
- Stone Age people may have battled against a zombie apocalypse
- Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old 'third-gender' caveman
From our sponsor
NEWSLETTER
Advertisement
where did you get the RC Syrup?
True. The syrups are vile. We make our own, now.
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!!
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.
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?
You should only put in the juice or syrup AFTER you have carbonate the bottle. Dont put the flavors in before carbonating.
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 :)
You can add it, but it has to be after the carbonation.
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.
My guess is that there is no good way to clean the machine.
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.
Unfortunately not all people can drink sugar so we use the substitutes. Apparently your bees don't like sugar- free as they need the nutrients from sugar. While it proves nothing to humans who eat other foods beside sugar, don't feed your bees unnatural substances. ( My insects love it !)
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.
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.
Why don't you just make your own syrups? It's really easy and fun to do.
Why would you trust ANYTHING said by the FDA? They also claim MSG and Aspartame are safe, despite MANY studies to the contrary.
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!
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?
We took the bag out of the box, cut a corner and funneled it into a 1 gallon milk container.
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
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.
Pages