Soda Stream Giveaway

SodaStream Review and Giveaway

By Kim Davis

Bloggity Blog


And at the bottom



I want to thank for helping me promote this giveaway


Grandma Juice


The Kids Are Grown Now What?


Christina Serrano Avon


Mom Goes Wild


Colleens Book Nook


Military Wives Saving


Coupon Girls LA


and


EliteMama

SodaStream Review and Giveaway

 By Kim Davis

Bloggity Blog

I am pleased to tell you about SodaStream home soda making system. I was delighted to receive my SodaStream, I had been wanting one for a very long time and when they approved me to review one I was ecstatic. When it arrived my kit included the start up kit which is the machine,1 empty bottle and cap, a C02 cartridge a sample pack of flavors. Because I am doing a blog review they also sent additional full sized flavors: cranberry raspberry,  rootbeer, green tea-pomegranate peach, cola free, diet pink grapefruit, and sparkling natural rootbeer. Plus we received a package of the MyWater flavor essence.

This machine is very easy to use and I did a video on it but I broke my video camera and have no idea how to retrieve the video so I can not show you how easy it is.

All you do is insert the C02 cartridge, fill the bottle with water , screw it into the machine and press the button on top until it makes a loud buzz noise ( you do that 3 times)

after that you slowly pour the flavor in the bottle, gently mix it by rotating the bottle and you are ready to drink it!



Okay the problems I had with this machine is: when we used our tap water, the soda tasted bad, we had to buy filtered water to try it out because the stuff they add to our water made it taste bitter. So we bought a filter pitcher and plan on getting a reverse osmosis system because it was alarming to us that the water was so bad and we never noticed it until we made our own pop. Another problem we had is, their instructions say to use the soda cap as a measuring tool, you are to fill the cap to the designated line add it to the pre-carbonated water and that's it! Only there are 3 lines and they don't give you specific measurements so we filled to the top line and it was terrible, we have had to guess at how much to add and sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don't... the lines are not clear and concise like they are with laundry product lids.

                                                

The only flavors we really did not like so far is the mywater flavor essence, it tasted terrible, no matter how much we put in it did not help, and the change of the water to filtered did not make me think any higher of this product.



There are regular, diet and sparkling natural flavors for the sodas. In my package I received a regular rootbeer and sparkling natural rootbeer, they both tasted great to me and I personally could not taste a difference in the two.The sparkling naturals cost a little more and make fewer bottles however they contain no artificial sweeteners, colors or flavors and there are no preservatives so they are a healthier option for soda addicts like us.



The cost: I am mixed on my opinion of the cost for this product. It is available in our town so that is a plus, I don't have to drive 2 hours to find what I want and I save shipping costs. Online the basic starter kit is 79.95, HyVee, my local grocery store sells it for 99.95 a 20.00 mark up, bad juju says this blogger. The flavors on line are $4.99 and up,  HyVee sells them for $5.99 and up get the trend? The carbonating bottles on line are 19.99 for 2 bottles, I had to pay 25.99 for the two I bought at HyVee. I do not like to find retailers that mark up prices higher then the manufacturer and I don't understand why this manufacturer allows anyone to sell higher then they do. I am unsure why but they say you have to replace the bottles every 3 years so I want to get glass if I can. I don't think they make them for the lower end machines like mine though. The last beef I have is the cost to get the C02 cartridges... this is where they really get you, to order a refill from the on line store is 29.99 for 1 bottle, at HyVee with tax it is 20.00. I can get 3 cylinders refilled for 13.00 at a local shop however SodaStream has a notice on their bottles that it is against the law to fill their bottles anywhere but their authorized dealers, and their authorized dealer here only sells the filled bottles. In fact there is no discount for an exchange and I can go in without the empty cartridge and buy a filled one for the same price. This is confusing to me.

Okay so now that I told you about the bad stuff let me tell you what I do like about this product and why I went ahead and paid for the new C02 cartridge. After the initial cost to start up with this product the cost for a glass of soda is about 10 cents, not too shabby. My kids guzzle pop like it was free so the cost effectiveness of this product is great. It is easy to use, convenient to have in the house and fun. Plus there is a wide variety of flavors, we already purchased orange, lemon lime and regular cola (the kids are not thrilled with the cola flavor but it could be because we have not found the right measurements yet). My personal favorites are the grapefruit, cola free and the orange pop. I plan to keep it in stock and hope to find an authorized C02 refill station so I can save money that way also.




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I want to thank for helping me promote this giveaway

Grandma Juice 

The Kids Are Grown Now What?

Christina Serrano Avon

Mom Goes Wild

Colleens Book Nook

Military Wives Saving

Coupon Girls LA

and

EliteMama

Disclaimer: I did receive a sample kit from this company so I could review it, however I would never say I liked something if I did not and I would never tell you about something if I thought it was not a good product. All opinions are my own.