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| The Genesis model that I am reviewing |
As of this writing we have owned the Sodastream Genesis for 8 months (since Oct 2010) and use it multiple times a day.
One of our favorite things about the Sodastream is that we always have a variety of flavors on hand to choose from without having to either go to the store or have cases of drinks on hand at all times. The latter is back breaking to haul into the house and in the course of a week the empties will fill a standard 13 Gal. size kitchen wastebasket we use for recyclables, not to mention the flavor I want might not be cold at the time I want it.
We each drink in excess of 2 liters a day (in South Texas it's really HOT) so as you can imagine it's gets both tiring and expensive to keep that much flavored drink in the house. We are trying to increase our fluid intake to 3 liters per day to aid in weight loss so we only use the diet varieties, but the non-diet varieties contain only a third of the sugar and carbs of their brand name competitors.
For a complete nutritional breakdown and name brand comparisons, click here: Sodastream Nutritional Information
Now the flavored syrups do not taste EXACTLY like their mainstream counterparts (trade secrets and patents), more like a generic version as you would find
in your grocery store. I find this applies mostly to the Cola's and Dr.Pepper. The Lemon-Lime, Orange, Grape and Energy Drink (aka Red Bull) taste just like their mainstream counterparts. The online Sodastream store has a lot more flavors than your local retailer.
My personal favorites are the Green Tea mixes. These taste exactly like their counterparts Lipton and Nestea and come in the same flavors. I drink these both flat and with a little fizz.
About the fizz, I stop pumping Co2 at the first buzz usually. This provides a refreshing light fizz, however if you prefer a little more fizz you can give it one more pump for a medium fizz or 2 more pumps for a heavy fizz. The fizz is a little differnt than commercial sodas. I don't really know how to explain it, but I guess it's like the bubbles are smaller?
We are actually taking our Sodastream on our cross country drive this summer to save money. Since it requires no power, by keeping extra water bottles on ice, we can make our own soda at any rest stop in the country.Sodastream only offers bottles in boring colors like white, black and gray {yawn}. There is a seller on Ebay that lives in Israel thaty offers green, red and orange bottles if you like to carry around a little more zing.
Couple of warnings (that we learned the hard way)
After bottle buzzes, tilt bottle towards you to release pressure before unscrewing
DO NOT add fizz AFTER you add flavor.
ALWAYS add fizz first, THEN flavor.
(Unless of course you love cleaning your floors and cabinets, and counter and ceiling...)
Based on our calculations, the cost per liter averages about $.75. This varies a little ($.65-$.90).
For instance, I use plain tap water, my husband uses filtered water. Most flavors cost $4.99 per bottle. However there are a couple that are $6.99 and the Naturals line with flavors like Black Currant Pear and Apple Mango are $9.99 a bottle. With the average retail cost of $1.49 for the mainstream sodas, this is a steal!
Please see my blog post on Creative Ways to Store and Measure Flavor Syrups
For more information including a video, please visit the Sodastream website, Sodastream USA.
Let me know what your favorite and least favorite things are about Sodastream by commenting below, I'd love to hear what other people think.