Bringing the Soda Fountain Home with Sodastream

*I would like to preempt this hub by stating that I have been in no way compensated by Sodastream for this hub, and am speaking as a legitimate owner of a Sodastream Genesis unit.

I'll admit it: I'm a soda junkie. I LOVE my soda. When my wife and I were both drinking soda and buying it regularly from the store, we would easily - EASILY - go through 2-4 cases of soda per month, if not more on occasion (99% of the time, this was due to my personal soda drinking habits). In addition to the financial cost of buying this much name-brand soda getting out of hand, I wasn't keen on drinking that much high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame. There were also occasions where I would bring home a case of soda, only to find that all of the cans had gone flat due to how the case was stored or shipped. In the midst of all of this, I happened across an advertisement in a large home goods store for the Sodastream home soda maker. Initially, I was afraid that this would be another as-seen-on-TV rip-off or that Sodastream was a fly-by-night company, but I decided to give it a shot.

Simply put, Sodastream has been one of the best purchases I've ever made. I've easily made over 200 liters of soda since buying the unit, and plan to continue doing so long into the future. After owning the Sodastream for a couple of weeks, I did some research and was relieved to find out that Sodastream has been around for over 100 years in various forms and fashions.

This isn't to say that the Sodastream is without faults. For the Genesis unit, at least, carbonating water a LOUD process. Sodastream instructs you to carbonate the bottled water until the unit buzzes roughly 2-4 times; the first of these buzzes sent all of our cats hurtling downstairs as if the sky was falling. You may also find that you need to carbonate for more than 2-4 buzzes once the CO₂ carbonators begin to run low. One sign of this is less resistance when pushing the carbonation button on the unit. The bottles used to hold the water during carbonation are also NOT safe for dishwashers. Again: THE PLASTIC BOTTLES USED TO CARBONATE WATER ARE NOT dishwasher safe; in fact, they should not even be washed in hot water. Hot water weakens the plastic, which makes creating a pressurized bottle of carbonated water VERY unsafe. In my opinion, however, these are all very small downsides to the advantages of owning the unit.

Pros

• Make your own soda at home!
• Syrups are free from high-fructose corn syrup and aspartame.
• Fewer overall preservatives than traditional name-brand soda.
• One bottle of syrup makes 1.3 cases of soda while costing less than a case of soda.
• Syrups don't go flat when sitting over time.
• 65% fewer calories per 8oz. serving than name-brand soda like Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola. (35 calories per 8oz. versus 100 calories per 8oz.)
• In addition to soda syrups, Sodastream also sells unsweetened sparkling water flavors and sparkling tea mixes.

Cons

• Carbonation process is LOUD.
• Most flavors may not be acceptable for those who will accept nothing except name-brand taste.
• Some syrups must be kept in the refrigerator after opening.
• Plastic carbonation bottles cannot be washed in hot water, and are not dishwasher-safe.
• Sodastream is an investment: carbonators must be refilled periodically, plastic carbonation bottles need to be replaced periodically, and stocking up on a wide variety of flavors can be a little costly.

Cherry Cola - I'm sorry, but I found this syrup to be absolutely disgusting. I would rather drink a warm bottle of cherry NyQuil than the Cherry Cola flavor. However, your mileage may vary.

Cola - For many people, this will be the first Sodastream syrup flavor that they will try. Preemptively, I would like to say that if you are expecting this cola syrup to taste like Coca-Cola or Pepsi Cola, you will be disappointed. These are the "cash cow" flavors for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, so the odds of a cola flavor tasting just like these are slim-to-none. I had gradually begun moving away from drinking Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola by the time I bought the Sodastream, so I was already used to the flavor of Boylan's cola flavor and wasn't expecting that "Coke" or "Pepsi" flavor. Taken as it as - a cola-flavored syrup - it tastes FANTASTIC and I highly recommend it.

Energy Drink - Sodastream NAILED this one. In my opinion - and in the opinions of friends who are die-hard energy drink drinkers - this is almost indistinguishable from Red Bull GmbH's Red Bull energy drink. Following the "healthier" trend of other Sodastream syrups, the energy provided by this drink comes mainly from B vitamins, not sweeteners or caffeine. A word of warning, however: this syrup seems to react to carbonated water more than other syrups, sometimes resulting in carbonated water shooting out of the bottle, so under-carbonate water to be used for Energy Drink and be sure to add the syrup VERY slowly.

Pete's Choice/Dr. Pete - This syrup tastes most similar to PepsiCo's Dr. Pepper or Coca-Cola's Mr. Pibb, and is perhaps my favorite. Next to Energy Drink, this is probably the mixture which tastes the most like one of these proprietary soda flavors.