Soda Stream Soda Maker

I've gotta say that I love the SodaStream soda maker. It is basically a carbonator, but it really does make tasty sodas! You can buy about 20 different flavors for about $5 each, and each bottle makes about 12 liters. The flavors available include Cola, Root Beer, Ginger Ale, Cream Soda, Grape, Orange, Cranberry Raspberry, Fountain Mist (like Mtn. Dew) and many others. There are even diet versions of most varieties. Not that diet is really needed. The syrups are sweetened with sugar and sucralose (Splenda), so they are lower calorie than regular sodas. An 8 ounce serving of Cola is 34 calories. I find that the cola tastes like RC cola, which is not a bad thing (other than the Moon Pie craving...). The carbonator I have is $35, but it makes 60 liters of soda (using the standard three buzzes of carbonation). You do need to use special bottles, but they are rinse and reuse and good for about two years. Once they have expired, you recycle them and order new. The CO2 carbonators are returnable. You purchase a "license" and they ship a new one with a return label for the old one.

SodaSteam is environmentally friendly and wallet friendly, too. Once you purchase the equipment (about $140 will get you the unit, 2 carbonator bottles, 4 liter carbonating bottles and 5 bottles of syrup), the soda costs about $0.25 per 12 ounces. There is no special water to buy. You can use tap, but I use the filtered water from the refrigerator. One tip for the best tasting soda is to let it "age" for about 30 minutes. This will let the syrup fully integrate and the carbonation to set in. You can drink it right away, but the soda tends to have a seltzer taste if you don't let it sit.

Kate got me this as a birthday present, and we have not been without soda since. We also have only bought soda to take to parties and for Thanksgiving when we were expecting a lot of people. Kate really likes the Ginger Ale. Cranberry-Raspberry is my current fave, but the diet cola and diet root beer are also very good. Oh, and the grape has really good flavor, too!