Sodastream

I received 13 flavors of soda concentrate and one Sodastream machine from Sodastream's public relations department recently. Getting this machine was truly like Christmas in July.   The way this machine works is very simple.  You add filtered or tap water (if you trust your city’s water supply) to the bottle they provide and then use the unit to inject CO2 gas bubbles into it.  Then the instructions say to add your choice of flavoring to the bottle to make the soda flavor of your choice.  The first time I tried it, I didn’t push down the CO2 injector button down long enough to produce the desired bubbles in the soda for me.  So, I prematurely judged this to be a gimmick because the soda tasted very flat.

The second time I tried the machine, I produced a fresh tasting fizzy tropical soda with their Mango Orange flavor concentrate.  It was just the right amount of sweet and tart for my taste. My next favorite in the array that Sodastream offers was the energy drink concentrate. This is Sodastream’s nod to the Red Bull lovers out there.  I was not always a Red Bull lover, but cramming for medical school exams made me into one!  I would say this is where the practical aspect of the Sodastream system kicks in. It would save me a ton of money if I were to just make my own energy drinks as opposed to buying my token four Red Bulls before every exam. 

The other good thing about the flavors offered by the company is that they are lower in sugar than the leading full sugar soft drinks. Meaning they replace half the sugar with Splenda brand sweetner.  This is good news for diabetes or low glycemic index dieters that want to watch their sugar intake.  However, I am not promoting this quite yet as any type of health product.  I would love to see Sodastream execs add options of sweetners like Agave nectar and Stevia to their products.  This would satisfy the granola munching yuppie in me!

The tree hugger in me loves that by using this product, I do not have to recycle aluminum cans and two liter plastic bottles.  This is quite a great “green” angle that the company markets on.  The other side of this story is that the flavor bottles are infact heavy to ship.  When considering freight charges and fuel cost to ship this product intitially, it kind of starts making me feel a little guilty.  The CO2 unit can be refilled at various locations that you can look up on their website. 

All in all, this is a great new concept that many will find useful especially in families that consume a lot of soda.  They provide a wide variety of flavors that ensures that there will be something for everyone’s tastes!