We Review SodaStream

This site is all about the re-discovered world of SodaStream. I love my new SodaStream and wanted to share my thoughts on the product range, flavours, tips and ideas with others. Primarily, I review flavours – both the official SodaStream versions and other unofficial creations. Get involved by leaving your comments and let me know what you think about your SodaStream!

Official Green Tea, Pomegranate Peach Flavour

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I’ve got mixed feelings about Green Tea. It appeared on my radar about ten years ago when some of my female acquaintances near enough gave up the blessed taste of PG Tips in favour of the swamp tinted health benefits of a cup of the green stuff. Never one to be left behind on the drinks bandwagon I tried it, found it to taste of little other than herby water and resolved to leave it be. Something kept nagging at me though… I kept wanting to get into it. Kept waiting a year, trying it again and arriving at the same conclusions. Sometimes the Emperor’s New Clothes just don’t fit.

As a result, it raised a smile when on unwrapping a present from my sister last week, I pulled a mystical green bottle from the wrapper and started laughing. Sodastream Green Tea: Pomegranate & Peach flavour, glowing out its green intentions with a green tinted bottle awash with a green splash design. My sister was laughing too: “I wanted to buy you the weirdest flavour I could find” she said, “and I’m looking forward to seeing a particularly scathing review”. I tucked into my pizza and put it it to the back of my mind, nestled with thoughts of carbonated drinks and the ghost of Christmas past, present and to come. Read more »

The Best SodaStream Drinks Maker for 2012

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Unless you’ve had your advertising shields set at maximum for the last few weeks you are likely to have noticed that Christmas is back and apparently here to stay. If you are like me you will spend the next couple of weeks procrastinating before hitting the shops in a frenzy of angst and confusion, wondering whether your brother in law would enjoy Piers Morgan’s bumper book of patronising put downs or whether Mum would like a bread maker. Seriously guys no-one wants to bake their own bread!

However, everyone likes to make their own fizzy drinks and that is a fact. If you are thinking of buying yourself or your loved ones a SodaStream drinks maker, rest assured, you won’t look back and you will remain hydrated and happy forever more. The question is though, which model to pick up – should you lean towards lean pvc utility or decadent chrome. I reckon they all work – they all successfully produce a bottle of fizz, so the decision here is about how easy they are to use and how good they look next to your espresso machine/food processor/slow cooker (delete as appropriate) So then, here’s my round up of the best SodaStream models of 2012 Read more »

Official Blueberry Flavour

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Blueberry is a firm favourite and common ingredient in the United States, but is a rare and exotic commodity, still gaining traction in Europe. Like those black and white videos of young kids in post-war England trying their first banana, I see the blueberry arriving in a Kool Aid lorry by mistake in Chelmsford in the mid eighties and due to a mixup at customs ending up in a few rogue packets of Ricicles in marshmallow form, eaten by a few small children like myself, starting a slow and sweet flavoured revolution, which twenty five or years later sees it now popping up with some prevalence.

But I digress, and in fact advise anyone reading this to discount the first paragraph and its obscure references. I don’t know why the Blueberry isn’t massively prevalent or popular in England. I do know that in recent times it can be found in muffin and yoghurt products and occasionally in allegedly digestive improving bacteria laden drinks. This may be because as the bottle of SodaStream Blueberry claims: it is a ‘super fruit’. Read more »

Robinsons Strawberries & Cream Flavour

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I stumbled upon a bottle of Robinsons Strawberries and Cream cordial while stumbling round the cramped aisles of my local off-licence. In pursuit of caustic soda (don’t put this in your SodaStream kids) to put my drains back to polished perfection, I suddenly found myself at eye-level with a bottle of evil pinky-red liquid proclaiming itself in celebration of the 60th jubilee of our esteemed Queen Liz.

I’ve got a half-hearted relationship with the strawberry as a fruit. Highly regarded by others and occupying the upper echelon of pricing in the fruit world I reckon the strawberry looks nice – like a fruit beamed down from space – but taste wise, gets trumped by the raspberry, gooseberry, blackberry. People like to think of the Strawberry as quintessentially English and of course the concept of Strawberries and Cream is synonymous with watching tennis, which take it from me is a pretty minority pursuit. Read more »

Vimto SodaStream Flavour

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If you’re experimenting with unofficial SodaStream flavours, Vimto is an obvious choice. A firm family favourite available in pre-made, syrup and official fizzy formats it’s a decent benchmark for working out whether SodaStream can equal the dizzy heights of a carbonated drinks factory.

Firstly though, what is Vimto? Well, to be entirely honest, I’m not sure. The label describes a ‘secret recipe’ before mentioning in the list of ingredients grape, blackcurrant, malt, spices and intriguingly ‘Anthocyanins’. Quite what the ratio of these ingredients is I can’t say, but what I can say is that to me, Vimto is a fruity, predominantly grapey kind of drink which reminds me of now banned (in the UK anyway) toxic eighties varieties and kool-aid and evokes an imagined ratio of 3 parts sunshine, 2 parts pot of honey, 1 part sherbet fountain. Read more »

Will I get bored of my SodaStream?

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Many people thinking about buying a SodaStream for themselves, a friend or loved one, will be worried about whether they will get much use out of it. Will it become a daily fixture in family life, constantly churning out bottles of fizzy water to a keen audience of soda pop fans or will it join the juicer, the smoothie maker, the cheese slicer, the George Foreman grill and the home-sushi-rolling kit, taking up space and gathering dust?

Well, it’s a personal choice I guess, but for me the answer is the former… I’ve had my SodaStream drinks maker for just over one year and I’m still filling my fridge with home made fizz on a regular basis. At a rough count, I’ve fizzed 155 bottles in one year, which is a credible average of around 3 bottles a week. Just what the doctor ordered! Read more »

Which fizzy drinks get drunk the most

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I’ve had to take a temporary hiatus from reviewing the armoury of flavours at my disposal due to the premature expiration of my recent gas cannister. I fizz a lot of bottles, but I have a rough sense of how many I’ve carbonated and a definite feeling that the last cannister was perhaps only 50% as durable as the previous. This has temporarily dented my enthusiasm and I’ve scheduled the inevitable trip to Robert Dyas for next week and will be searching for a cannister which has the distinct high pressure aura of a metal carbonator from outer space. Read more »

Official Root Beer Flavour

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Root beer, a once prevalent fizzy flavour is now as scarce as a silverback gorilla. It used to be a staple of Fast Food joints and corner shops alike. A perfect accompaniment to a McRib in McDonald’s (also now sadly departed) or a great way to wash down a strawberry sundae after a round of ten-pin bowling. It always had a bit of a marmite quality: you were either a kid that loved it or shunned it and I guess in these homogenous mass-market times, not appealing to all demographics will see you sidelined.

These days your best chance for a taste of the eponymous root lies in swigging dentist’s mouthwash so I was delighted to see SodaStream representing the old skool (sic) flavours once again and offering Root Beer alongside cream soda and ginger beer. Read more »

The best SodaStream Flavours

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Having reviewed a number of the official SodaStream flavour range I thought it was high time I put together a top ten based on the delectable bunch of flavours I’ve drunk so far. This top ten will no doubt change as I try even more, so I will come back and edit this post down the line. For now… here are the best SodaStream flavours in the land.
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Official Pink Grapefruit Flavour

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There’s few things in life better than waking from a big night out to gorge yourself on rashers of bacon, egg, sausage, potato waffle, beans, grilled tomatoes, a fried slice and then either a glass of ice cold grapefruit juice, or even better, a fresh grapefruit, the edge taken off with a scattering of sugar. Grapefruit is bitter, but also flavoursome and it has the power to burn through a hangover with cleansing acidity, leaving you feeling like you can put your shoes on and leave the house.

As for fizzy grapefruit… well, I have to admit I don’t think I have any experience of that. I am casting my mind back, but… no, I can’t remember ever drinking it before, but hey, there’s a first time for everything and well, as a big fan of grapefruit juice, surely adding carbonation is a workable concept? Read more »

Number of bottles fizzed 272

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