On a recent trip to Bed Bath & Beyond my fiancée and I picked up a soda stream home fountain soda machine. I have to say that it is the greatest purchase we’ve made in the past 4 years.
It is extremely easy to use. The kit we purchased for $99 included the base filling station, carbon dioxide canister, two very solid plastic bottles and twelve sample flavor packs. We simply assembled the base by screwing in the canister and within five minutes we started making our own soda.
Now let’s get down to business. We specifically purchased this device because we are sick of paying $1.59 for 20oz bottles and we’re sick of lugging heavy soda up to our third story apartment. We drink a lot of diet soda and it adds up pretty quickly. So the cost of this system needs to be at or below the cost of bottled soda for the environmental benefits to be truly realized. The initial investment was $99 and as I said it included one canister and twelve flavor packets which are each good for a liter. Refill canisters are $30 unless you bring in a spent canister, in which case refills are about $15. A bottle of flavor concentrate is $5. The concentrate is packaged saying it can make 50 8oz glasses, and the canister can make up to 60 liters. I will have to run some long term testing to see if there are real savings after we purchase another canister and a few more bottles.
One thing is for sure, the taste of the sodas are exactly identical to their name brand counterparts. Diet Cola taste just as good as the name brand stuff. This is great news for people who are sick of our two soda company global duopoly and would maybe even like to try making their own flavors.
More updates to follow after I have more time to crunch numbers.
