SodaStream Review & Giveaway

Brian and I are big fans of making things at home whenever possible – bread, pasta, ice cream, you name it. I never realized it was possible to make soda at home until discovering the SodaStream.

With the SodaStream you can turn tap water into sparkling water in under 30 seconds, and then can add flavors to make your own fresh soda to enjoy. There are a ton of flavors to pick from – the ones we were sent just represent a few of the options:

There are regular and diet flavors available:

I was pretty impressed with the nutritional information for both. The regular Cola mix, for example, has just 34 calories, 9 grams of carbs, and 9 grams of sugar. A leading name-brand cola has 100 calories, 27 grams of carbs, and 27 grams of sugar. That’s a big difference!

We decided to try making root beer first. The SodaStream is very easy to use. We just inserted the C02 cylinder in the back (the cylinder will make about 60 liters of soda each). Then we filled one of the accompanying bottles with water and screwed it in to the front of the machine.

To make the water carbonated we just pushed the button on the top several times until we heard a total of three buzzing sounds. J loved to help with this part! Once that was done we picked a flavor and added it – voila!

Fizzy and fresh:

We’ve tried a few more flavors since then and our favorite is the orange-mango. I like, too, that it’s a flavor you couldn’t find at the grocery store. When we make our next batch I think we’re going to try combining flavors to make something even more unique. That would be really fun to do at a party, too – your friends could make custom soda flavors.

The SodaStream is a fun item to have around, but it also reduces the amount of plastic bottles you use, since the containers with the machine are reusable (and BPA-free, by the way). That’s great for us, because we don’t have recycling pick-up so when we drink regular soda we end up with a huge pile of bottles out in our garage until we make it down to the recycling center.

I don’t know how the cost would break down over time, but it does require an initial investment in purchasing it to get started. It’s nice that it doesn’t take up much counter space, and it’s really nice that it doesn’t have to be plugged in or use up batteries to work.

Well, now that you’ve heard all about the SodaStream, you might be wondering how you could get your hands on one for yourself! You can buy one online here or… you have the chance to WIN one here!

The winner of this giveaway will receive a Fountain Jet Soda-Lover’s Start-Up Kit  (approx. $100 retail value). It includes: the winner’s choice of a black/silver, white, or red/silver Fountain Jet, Co2 to make over 100 liters of soda, 2 reusable carbonating bottles, a sample pack of flavors, and 3 full-sized flavors of the winner’s choice. This contest is open to all continental-US residents. Entries will be accepted until midnight CST Thursday, August 26.

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Note: SodaStream provided me with a machine and flavors for review and is providing a prize for the giveaway. My review was not affected by this – honest opinions were provided and my opinion remains my own. I was not compensated monetarily.