Refreshing drinks with Soda Stream

One January day, I contacted Soda Stream to see if I could review their cool machine that makes sparkling water and soda.   I could see lots of potential for this machine both at home or in the RV.    So I emailed them and waited for an answer…   Seeing no answer coming my way, I moved along and continued to review the books/products I already had.   Not every company answers my requests so I thought this was one of them.    One cold February morning, while I was homeschooling the kids, the door bell rang and when I got to the door a box was waiting for me.   So I picked up the box and put it on the ground in the entrance while I went back to whatever lesson we were doing at the time.    Lunch came and went.   Later that afternoon, I realized that the box was still there.   So I decided to open it and I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what was in it.    A Soda Stream box was staring back at me!  Okay – not really staring but still.   The beautiful red machine was in the house…

You might wonder: “What is soda stream?”.   Essentially, it is a little machine that will allow you to make carbonated water and soft drinks in about 30 seconds.    It will easily fit on the counter in the kitchen as it doesn’t take much space.    All you will need to make your sparkling water is a bit of tap water.   If you would prefer to have  a soda or flavoured sparkling water, you will have to add some a bit of flavour to it yourself.    It is as easy as saying 1-2-3!

When I received my soda stream I was quite excited about it.  But then I realized that I didn’t had any bottle of flavour in the box.   Hum!   So I emailed the company to let them know that my review won’t be done immediately due to the fact that I needed to get some flavours myself.  After verifying where I could purchase the various flavours, I discovered that in my city, there was only Sears, Bed Bath & Beyond as well as another store that were carrying the products.    After waiting a few days, we were able to go to a Sears and purchase some regular Cola.   What is great with the regular flavours is that even though they are simple, the calories attached to the glass you are drinking are way lower than the regular can of cola you would buy at the store; only 35 calories.  Pretty good!  

A week after I received the machine, the door bell rang again and I received the 12 trial-size samples of the most popular flavours that soda stream has.   In it there was Cola, Cola Bold, Orange Grapefruit Sport, Cranberry Raspberry, Lemon-Lime, Diet Lemon-Lime, Orange mango, Orange, Diet Orange, Ginger Ale, Pink Grapefruit, and Diet Pink Grapefruit.    With this kind of variety, I am sure we will find interesting flavours.    Personally, I was looking forward to trying the Orange Mango one.   It was refreshing with a hint of mango coming through the orange flavour.    It was definitively different than what we were used to.  Both my husband and I enjoyed the Orange Mango flavour and will definitively buy more of it in the future.  The next one on our list  to try is the Cranberry Raspberry.

I find it very convenient to make our own soda.   Not only it helps to protect the environment but we don’t have to store cans of pop at home and recycle them.   You have the control on the amount of fizz you can put in it (a major advantage if you ask my husband who doesn’t like fizz that much) and have different varieties of flavour depending on your taste.    A friend of mine who has one also told me that if  you bring back the carbonator back when it is empty, you will receive a rebate on a new one.   She said that a carbonator is about 35$ but if you bring your used one, it will be 20$ to get a new one at Bed Bath & Beyond.    Pretty good deal if you ask me.

There is also a big variety of syrup that can be purchased – either to made soda or to add flavour to your sparkling water.   You can even create fun recipes with them!

Do we love the Soda Stream?  You bet and I would recommend it to anyone interested in making their own sparkling water and soda.    So far we tried the cola and the diet ginger ale which we purchased.   Both are amazingly close to the ones you would buy at the store.    Even my kids enjoyed their glass of ginger ale!

The starter kit contains the machine, one carbonator, and two BPA free 1L bottles.   All this for the price of 129.99$  Cdn!    Each flavours are sold separately for the price of about 7$ Cdn.   Check on the Soda Stream website to discover where you can buy them!  You could even purchase it directly from the website.   We also discovered that there are expiration dates on the syrups and on the bottles used for the soda.    So check out the dates before purchasing.

As for us, we are enjoying our Soda Stream very much and will definitively bring it with us while we go RVing next summer.  It will definitively be easier to bring this than buying cans of pop while on the road.   When traveling with the RV, you always try to find ways to save on the weight. I think that getting two more bottles would make it easier when we have get-togethers with friends.    In the meantime, we will also keep our eyes open for other flavours when we go to the US.   Some flavours are not available in Canada like the Fountain Mist (compares to the Mountain Dew), the Cream Soda, and Dr. Pete.  I sure hope that more flavours will be available for Canadians in the months to come!

Disclaimer: Thanks to Soda Stream for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way.  All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Please note that this review originally was published on my review blog Canadianladybug Reviews! But since I discovered this product while visiting a Camping World store, I thought it was an interesting product to have while RVing.   Any price mentioned are based on Canadian prices.