Sodastream
For Father’s Day, the wife got me a Sodastream. It makes sodas, or as we Southerners say, cokes. Anyway, it’s great. At first, my experience with it wasn’t good because I ordered the sample pack of flavors. And they tasted like ass. Seems all of them are sweetened with sucralose, the same foul tasting, repugnant shit that Splenda is made from.
Fortunately, Sodastream also makes flavors with natural sugar. And, frankly, it’s awesome. The cola flavored one is clearly not Coca Cola but it’s damn good. And since I only use Coke to mix with bourbon, I hardly notice. I really love the the apple mango flavor. The lemon lime is exactly Sprite. The ginger ale is also good. And my kids love the rootbeer.
And if you don’t care for those, you can make your own soda syrups.
Bottom line, it’s tactical and black. Oh and once you stop using the sucralose laden crap, it’s delicious.
June 25th, 2013 at 7:48 pm
“fowl tasting”? So, they taste like chicken, or duck, or maybe quail?
June 25th, 2013 at 7:49 pm
LOL. damn you fingers!
June 25th, 2013 at 7:55 pm
Coke is a terrible thing to do to Bourbon…
June 25th, 2013 at 8:33 pm
One word. Tab.
June 25th, 2013 at 9:07 pm
“And since I only use Coke to mix with bourbon…”
Well, that ripped the record off the player. I just got regular Coke Zero tonight for mixing with bourbon, since I don’t like the way that regular Coke makes my teeth feel furry, and I don’t need caffeine in the p.m. I drink diet Coke in the a.m., and use the bottle for water for the rest of the day. However, in the evening, I prefer a mixer that has no caffeine, or sugar. And then there’s the diabetes, a genetic irritant. My other excuse.
June 25th, 2013 at 9:13 pm
BTW, I might put on the Andrews sisters doing “Rum and Coca Cola”. Although, I would have it with Zero Coke and bourbon.
June 26th, 2013 at 12:30 am
It also makes fresh soda water for a proper bourbon and soda without needing to open a bottle that will be flat in days.
June 26th, 2013 at 1:44 am
I’ve had one for over a year. I have one of the fancy ones with glass bottles, have 4 bottles so we can keep them on hand in the fridge. I’ve gone from drinking lots of pops and juice in the evening to sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon and it has been significant in helping me to lose weight.
I tried making sodas with syrup and was disappointed. I went whole hog into soda making with yeast – I bought a couple dozen bailtop bottles, bought a book, read stuff online. It’s like beer making but quicker and easier. I have made some amazing sodas – real root beer from sassafras root, lime soda, strawberry, amazing ginger beers sweetened with honey and pineapple juice – great stuff. You can make it in any screwtop plastic bottle just watch out for explosions – minimal yeast and time is the way to go. I use 1/8 teaspoon of yeast per gallon. I love my Sodastream for sparkling water and because it got me into real soda making.
June 26th, 2013 at 6:49 am
I just combine the Soadastream’d fizzy water with regular fruit juice (grape, cranberry, and lemonade seem to work best). Tastes great, very simple to do, and it’ll make a one gallon bottle of kosher, 100% juice, too-damn-expensive brand last all month with my kids instead of one weekend.
June 26th, 2013 at 9:13 am
I have been wondering if you can carbonate vodka (or any other spirit) with that thing. Could you run a test and find out?
June 26th, 2013 at 10:15 am
I’ve been making my own mint and berry syrups for ours, mint soda’s awesome.
June 26th, 2013 at 10:58 am
I like mine with just a drop of bitters. Speaking of which, making my own bitters is something I’ve been meaning to try. Along with syrups, it is a burgeoning hobby it seems and permits one to enjoy more than what to grocery store stocks.
June 26th, 2013 at 12:03 pm
“This item is not for sale in Catalina Island.” HUH???
June 26th, 2013 at 2:09 pm
I actually like sucralose pretty well (and radically prefer it to aspartame, not because of the stupid hysteria about it, purely a flavor thing).
And I got a SodaStream last month – pretty brilliant. (I got mine mostly to avoid dealing with cans, honestly. Slight price savings are a bonus.)
In contrast to you, I found the Ginger Ale to have an annoying mint taste. Pity, since I love Ginger Ale.
June 26th, 2013 at 2:52 pm
Wanted one when I heard they are an Israeli company that advertised on Rush Limbaugh’s program until lib groups set their sights on them. The pathetic losers caved to the lib groups and stopped running ads on Limbaugh’s show. So I say eff ’em if they don’t know who their friends & customers are. Scratched them off my Amazon wish list. Price-wise it’s cheaper to buy 2 liter sodas on sale anyway.
June 26th, 2013 at 4:39 pm
Chas, I hate to break it to you, but Coke Zero has caffeine in it. Same amount as regular Coke, actually.
June 26th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
Thanks for the product reviews, guys. I’ve been looking at this for a while. A friend of mine in Germany had a soda machine in the ’90s and it was an almost violent affair. We called it the “Sodagrenade”
June 26th, 2013 at 4:46 pm
won’t you think of teh betus?
June 26th, 2013 at 5:11 pm
And it can also be drank without any flavor.
😉
For a cheap flavoring agent, also try Mio (I’m fond of the blueberry)
June 27th, 2013 at 11:35 am
Try a big dollop of bitters (e.g. Angostura, Paychaud’s, Regan’s) in soda water on ice. It’s really nice.
I had a nice seltzer bottle that you charge with the 8oz cartridges, but it fell of the top of the fridge and broke. It was cheaper to just buy 12oz cans of soda water by the case but it was fun to make drinks with.
June 28th, 2013 at 9:48 am
WARNING: The plastic bottles have expiration dates. Don’t exceed them. I did and one morning while carbonating, the damn thing exploded. It sounded like a gunshot (really) and made my ears ring for an hour. It threw plastic everywhere (and far).
Considering that my hand was pushing the carbonation button at the time, I am happy to say I got off with little more than some plastic shrapnel wounds (a little blood) and a hand that hurt for a few days.
The SodaSteam was toast. The top blew straight apart and the brass filler valve was the only thing that didn’t fly away. I have a second machine (from a second home) and haven’t used it since because I need new bottles. That was two years ago. Should probably go order some.
The bottle was probably six months out of date and was used 2-3 times a week.
They are nice little machines and damn handy. Just don’t push that plastic further than it says it should go!