Review & GIVEAWAY!: SodaStream Soda Maker

image courtesy SodaStream

Let me take a few minutes to tell you about my favorite new kitchen toy: The SodaStream. I was given the opportunity to try this baby out for myself in my own kitchen and I fell in love. I was like a kid at Christmas as I took it out of its careful packaging, oohing and ahhing over every bit I unpacked. Here's what I got:

The Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker

60-Liter refillable Carbonator

9 SodaMix Flavors, including:

• 
  
  Diet Cola
• 
  
  Diet Pink Grapefruit
• 
  
  Diet Lemon-Lime
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  Diet Cranberry-Raspberry
• 
  
  Lemonade
• 
  
  Root Beer
• 
  
  Orange Mango
• 
  
  Energy
• 
  
  Cola

My Water Flavor Essence in Lemon-Lime

It's so much fun to make your own soda at home! Even my husband, who doesn't get excited about much, got excited about the SodaStream. It's so simple to use that even the kids like making their own soda. And for sleepovers and playing with friends -- how cool is it to be able to make your friends fresh soda with the push of a button? Very cool.

So it's fun, you're thinking, but it's still soda, and soda's junk.

Sure, I'll give you that. Soda's not a drink for every day, and not something I'd serve my children at meal times. But if you're going to have some soda now and then, I bet you want it to be a bit better for you and your family, right?

SodaStream's SodaMix Flavors have no high fructose corn syrup, no aspartame (they're sweetened with Splenda), and are lower in calories than store-bought sodas (averaging 35 calories per serving). There are fewer carbs, less sodium, and less sugar than store brands. Plus, you control the water you use as well as the amount of flavoring and carbonation. Like a lot of bubbles and just a bit of flavor? You can do that. Like the traditional store-bought soda flavors? Easy as can be. Like just a few bubbles and lots of syrup-y goodness? You can do that, too. Maybe you prefer sparkling water with no flavorings. Easiest of all.  SodaStream allows you to control and customize what you drink. It's soda on your terms.

SodaStream is better for the environment than store-bought soda, too! When you're making soda at home, in a reusable plastic bottle (SodaStream comes with two of them), there's no buying bottles or cans at the store, and no worrying about throwing them away or recycling them (my community doesn't even have a recycling program!). There's less waste in landfills. There's less energy going toward the manufacturing and shipping of those bottles. Plus, you don't have to cart them from store to home!

SodaStream is fresher than store-bought soda. You make what you need, in a neat 1 liter reusable bottle. Because it's a smaller size than traditional 2-liter store bought bottles, it's likely to stay bubbly until you're through with it. I don't know about you, but I hate it when I open a half-full bottle from the store only to find it's gone flat. SodaStream is still bubbly the next day, and I love that.

SodaStream is a great value! Twenty-five cents gets you a liter of sparkling water. According to my math, SodaStream soda costs about half of the store-bought price, and I get to make my own soda. You all know how much I love making my own.

We tried all the flavors. They're all delicious. There were a few favorites, though, and I'd like to talk about them briefly:

The kids enjoy the Root Beer best. It's delicious, and it's first ingredient is simply sugar.

I enjoyed the Diet Cola best. I thought it would taste like Diet Coke, but it didn't. It tastes like a mix of Diet Pepsi and RC Cola. Best of all (and this is not a scientific finding, and not a product claim, merely something I noticed), I don't feel dehydrated and puffy when I drink it. When I consume Diet Coke and other store-bought colas, I feel unwell. I feel puffy and dehydrated and out of sorts. With the Diet Cola from SodaStream, I feel very hydrated and I love that. I enjoy diet cola, and I like that I can feel good and have my little pleasure at the same time.

My husband's in an intense Army school right now. It involves classroom time all day, plus hours of studying at home. He is ever so thankful for SodaStream's Energy flavor. It's an exact match of Red Bull energy drink, only better ingredients and only 35 calories per serving. He loves it and brings it with him to class each day.

Look at how easy it is to make a liter of soda at home:

I highly recommend giving SodaStream a try. You can buy it online or in many retail locations. It's a great value for your wallet, the environment, and your taste buds.

Or Win It!

That's right! Win yourself the Fountain Jet Soda Lover’s Start-up Kit (approx. $100 retail value.) It includes the Fountain Jet, CO2 makes over 100 liters of soda, 2 reusable carbonating bottles, a sample pack of flavors, and 3 full-sized flavors of the winner’s choice. Sorry, continental U.S. Addresses Only.

Here's how to enter:

Mandatory Entry: Visit SodaStream and leave me a comment telling me which three full-sized flavors you'd most like to try.

Optional Additional Entries:

1. Be a public follower of this blog via Google Friend Connect. Leave me a separate comment telling me you're a public follower.
2. Like All Home Cooking. All Year Long. on Facebook. Leave me a comment about this giveaway on Facebook AND tell me you've Liked me on Facebook in the comments section below.
3. Explore the SodaStream site and tell me something you've learned. (Leave another separate comment)
4. Post about this giveaway on your own blog. Leave me a comment with a link to your post.

I'll draw for a winner on Thursday, July 29, after 6 p.m. eastern time. Good luck!

Disclosure: I was provided with the SodaStream At Home Soda Maker, 9 SodaMix Flavors, My Water Essence Flavors, and a Carbonator free of charge from SodaStream for the purposes of my review. My opinions are solely my own and are in no way influences by this.