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!
SodaStream Bottle Cleaning Tips
There’s a lot of good things about SodaStream, but what goes up must come down and inevitably there are a couple of negatives to pursuing the eco-route and making your own soda. Chief of these for me is a) having to wait for your bottles of SodaStream pop to chill once you’ve made up a nice batch of cola and b) having to clean the bottles before you can use them again.
Well, a) is partly solvable – if you have the foresight to pre-chill a bottle of still water either directly in your SodaStream bottles or in a bigger recepticle such as the eponymous Breville water filters (5 extra points to them for the slogan ‘it’s a brevillation’) or the common or garden jug. I do not have that foresight, but who knows maybe one day…
b) however, is a challenge. Washing up in general isn’t much fun and the flip-side is that no-one wants to drink from a bottle of SodaStream with sugar residue at the bottom. So here, are my top tips on how to reduce the pain of keeping those bottles spick and span. Read more »
Official Clear Passion & Mango Flavour
When I was a little kid in the eighties it seemed like every other week, either on TV or in school I got told the tale of the Emperor’s new clothes. You know the one: The Emperor wants some new garments so he gets the finest tailor in the land to put together a fine suit and for whatever reason, rather than making a proper outfit, the tailor puts on an elaborate charade of making a suit out of nothing, all along the way insisting to his client that the materials are of the finest quality. The Emperor ashamed of his ignorance of sartorial matters chooses to believe the clothes do exist. His advisors and eventually the people don’t point out the error, for similar reasons and because they don’t want to offend his kingship. Eventually a small boy points out that the Emperor is wandering around in the nude and the charade falls down.
Well I used to hate that story when I was a kid. It seemed to me that the Emperor was an idiot and that his people were pretty out of order not pulling him up on his mistake sooner. In time though the tale grew on me and these days I find myself thinking about it all the time for a lot of situations in the world, big and small. Read more »
Official Orange Flavour
Orangeade kind of tastes like sunshine doesn’t it? Well, at least that’s what it reminds me of. Hot days running around the garden. Kicking plastic airflow ball around a giant playground only to run inside moments from heat exhaustion collapse to satiate your thirst on a classic mix of citrus and carbonation.
The perfect orangeade is colder than polar ice, fizzy enough to burn away the back of your throat, and sweet enough to dissolve a tooth at one thousand yards. I’m absolutely delighted to say that the official SodaStream Orange flavour delivers on all these counts. Read more »
Pros and Cons of Sodastream
Given the time of year, with many people wondering “is the SodaStream the last minute present to buy for my friend/sibling/parent/colleague (delete as appropriate)”, I thought it might be a good idea to give a list of benefits and drawbacks of owning and using a Sodastream.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Making drinks is fun, the process, the noise, it’s great for kids and adults! | Making drinks and then waiting for them to chill takes time |
| Good for the environment* | Have to wash bottles |
| Cheaper* | Inevitably, not quite as good as the real thing for some flavours (e.g. Coke) |
| New models look good in the kitchen and don’t take much space | You may not want to stump up for the penguin, the nicest looking of the range |
| Flavours stocked in a range of commonly found stores and these days internet ordering makes it easy to get flavours | Storing lots of flavours (if you like having a lot of variety like me) takes up space |
| Wide range of official flavours with more launching all the time | No evidence yet of the brilliant 80s Schweppes and Irn-Bru tie-ins |
| As well as making drinks with the official flavours you can invent your own concepts | Fizzy lemon barley may not turn out to be a good idea |
| Amount of fizz and amount of flavour is under your control | Potential for over fizzing or underdosing if you step outside the guidance |
| Having access to fizzy water is a great thing in itself | Quality of your tap water (or willingness to use mineral water) may affect quality of your drinks |
| Bottles hold onto their fizz for a long time – innovative cap design | Bottles run out quickly if you have a few guests |
| Making drinks and always having great drinks in the fridge is an easy habit to pick up | Running a gas cannister out and not bothering to replace it for a bit can see your Sodastream neglected just like your George Foreman grill and your smoothy maker |
| Product feels retro yet innovative | Some people just shrug their shoulders and feel it is completely pointless |
| Flavours stocked in a range of commonly found stores and these days internet ordering makes it easy to get flavours | Storing lots of flavours (if you like having a lot of variety like me) takes up space |
* More research and evidence to be discussed on these claims in the future. Read more »
Official Lemonade Flavour
I reckon SodaStream Lemonade flavour is statistically the flavour you are most likely to have tried. Usually bundled with your new SodaStream Drinks Maker, you get the thing out of the box, discard the packaging, get the gas cannister in and apply some fizz to your first bottle. Carefully reading the instructions you pour in the syrup – et voila a bottle of lemonade that you may be prepared to chill for ten minutes before getting impatient or probably you just poured it straight out ready for tasting.
So it has quite a bit to live up to given that this is probably the moment where you will find out whether your new SodaStream really can make drinks even as halfway decent as you can pick them up down the corner-shop. Fortunately then, I think the official lemonade flavour does deliver. Good clean, crisp citrus flavour, not too sweet, and works well heavily carbonated or lightly fizzed according to your preference. Definite potential for maximum refreshment, if refreshment is your aim and of course high potential for mixing with an array of alcoholic beverages. Read more »
SodaStream childhood adventures
Back in the eighties when the UK was experiencing its first dose of the SodaStream experience, I regarded the machine with some respect, a little awe and a lot of fun.
Aged somewhere around seven or eight, I had the motor skills to start interacting properly with the adult world of drinks pouring and carbonation, but not always the thorough understanding of the correct order of processes to prevent disaster.
Having been thoroughly trained by my parents in the business of filling the glass bottle up to the right line and then topping up with syrup to one of two bobbles depending on recommended level of flavouring, I set about quickly unlearning and attempting variations of that theme. Read more »
Official Cola Flavour
Trying this flavour was always going to be a clash of the titans. Actually that’s wrong, maybe David vs Goliath. Maybe Samson and Delilah. ;o)
First thing I should explain is that I am a massive Coca Cola fan. I love coke. I drink litres of the stuff each day and no sodastream no matter how good is going to be able to equal the magic, the complicated wonder of a can or even better, an ice cold glass bottle of the good stuff.
This said, I had high hopes for Sodastream Cola, I’m just saying they weren’t unreastically high. I knew Sodastream Coke wouldn’t be as good as real Coke and once you accept that I think it stands as a pretty good drink in it’s own right. Read more »
Official Cream Soda
Ah Cream Soda, as old as the hills, as nostalgic as candy floss and summer fetes and as sweet as a quarter of penny sweets. Somehow I associate the creation of cream soda as being around the time Sodastream or Soda Pumps were first in use back towards the start of the last century. Of course that could all be completely wrong and most likely heavily historically inaccurate.
Fortunately then, the Cream Soda flavour in question is faithful to my memory of Cream Soda and as a concentrated flavour mixed with water from your Sodastream, this flavour stands up well to the method. Cream Soda is just a taste meant to be home made.
A strong, simple, very sweet caramel taste has the sense to keep a bit of crispness. All the right vanilla notes and a good potential to hold the fizz. Very much up to the standard of cream soda you might buy in a can or bottle. Read more »
Official Blackcurrant Flavour
Sodastream blackcurrant flavour crept up on me. After trying a lot of flavours first, I finally got round to it. I figured until Sodastream can arrange some kind of partnership with Vimto or Ribena they had this flavour as a stopgap. I was wrong.
Beneath the slightly more muted purple colours of the concentrate bottle lurks a flavour of true excellence. The surprise champ of the current range, which balances a decent kick of flavour with maximum refreshment.
A lot of the flavours have a dose of pleasing sweetness, but the blackcurrant drops the sugar down a notch. Berry flavours are striking, but not overpowering meaning this is one of the most thirst quenching flavours in the range. It’s a decent blackcurrant drink in it’s own right which stands up to the likes of off the shelf products like Oasis, Tango Blackcurrant and Snapple.
Tastes best with as much fizz as you can put in it. I like to dose just under the recommended concentrate line as this one is really about flavouring your water, not masking it.
Get your flavour packed bottle of syrup here.
What about the big celebrity tie-ins
I seem to remember that in the 80s in the midst of my first foray into the world of Sodastream, various partnerships had been achieved with Schweppes and other big beverage companies to produce a range of premium concentrates. I remember Fanta, Coca Cola and notable Irn Bru and Tizer.
Irn Bru particularly was a great concept. As radically left field as the premade version, with an orange colour fit to stain a small child’s white tshirt at a hundred yards.
Did these flavours exist or am I making this up?