Soda Stream- BEST Green Gadget EVER!

Let me start out by saying that before the amazing people over at Soda Stream sent me their product to review I had not had any soda of any kind for over five years. I stopped drinking diet soda because nutra sweet ( aspartame) gives me migraines. I didn't drink regular soda because there is too much High Fructose corn syrup in those things.  But I do LOVE soda water. And I live in a house filled with people who love soda. I, on the other hand, came to HATE soda. Well at least the soda cans that were constantly left all over the house half full and just waiting for someone to knock over.

So I decided to check out the Soda Stream because I thought it might be a good solution to bags of recyclables that fill up my garage. No filling up of the recycle can and Agent Daddy and the kiddo's are  happy that we still have soda. The picture to the left is what the good people Soda Stream sent me. Just to be clear, all of this that you see here, is about 1/4 of the recyclables that my household would create in one month of soda cans bottles and soda water bottles.  In the past month we have had this product we have not used up even half of what Soda Stream sent me. But we did use up all of the carbonation container in 21 days. We LOVE this thing. It gets rid of everything I hate about soda. 1) No High Fructose Corn Syrup 2)No Artificial Flavors 3) No Cans and bottles left every where 4) Low sodium 5) Taste is AMAZING!6) Cost- 50 cents to a dollar per can of regular soda plus CRV of 5 cents ( I am in California). This is about 25 cents per same size serving, and no cans to recycle no CRV. 7) No ASPARTAME ever.

On top of negating everything that I hate there is a lot to LOVE about Soda Stream. The selection of flavors is jaw dropping. The Soda Stream  has 30 delicious regular, diet and caffeine-free soda mix flavors to choose from. They have four different flavors to add to soda water for people like me who love flavored waters. They also have 8 different sparkling tea Flavors and two energy drinks, regular and diet.  Soda Stream sent me the Genesis Seltzer Starter Pack. It retails for $99.95 and comes with the Carbonater, two one liter bottles, and a variety sample pack of 12 single use servings. Soda Stream also sent me Black Current Pear All Natural Soda Mix, Cola Naturally Sweetened with cane sugar mix, Natural Root Beer mix, Natural Lemon Lime,  Ginger Ale, Pomegranate Peach green Tea mix,  Diet Cola, Energy Drink, Pink Grape Fruit and and three Flavor Essences Lemon, Orange and Raspberry for my sparkling water.

The kids and Agent Daddy were ecstatic when this arrived. They could barely decide what flavors to start with. We quickly discovered,  for our family of four, two one liter bottles is not enough. Everyone wants to make their own flavor so I will be buying two more of the one liter bottles. I am excited that they have the Susan G Komen foundation bottles right now for Breast Cancer awareness month. Agent Daddy loves Ginger Ale and he said that the Soda Stream Ginger Ale is better tasting than Canada Dry.  The tech Monkey is a Sprite hound but he said that the Lemon Lime flavor was better , fresher, tasting than Sprite. High praise from our Techie. The Orange soda was a favorite but we only had the one sample size of it so I will have to buy more. Lemon Lime was gone in two weeks.  Oh did I mention that there are fewer calories in the regular flavored sodas than in Coke and Pepsi? Soda Stream's Cola had 35 calories a serving as apposed to 100 calories from Coke and Pepsi.

But I think the what closed the deal for me was the Natural Root Beer. The kids decided to make Root Beer Floats using the Soda Stream. I had soda for the first time in over FIVE YEARS. I thought it would taste bad. The Root Beer was SO awesome that I actually had a glass of it and enjoyed it. I would buy the diet in the future because 110 calories a serving isn't something I would do every day but what a treat it was.

I am sure you are wondering about the carbonation canisters, flavors  where to get them how to get refills but don't worry it couldn't be easier. You can find the Soda Stream at Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohls, Macy's, Best Buy etc. Don't have a mall near you? Go On Line and get it shipped straight to your front door. The Carbonation canisters are also super easy. You can exchange them in store for the cost of the carbonation or you can have them shipped directly to your house. They come with a prepaid pre-addressed return shipping container so all you gotta do is have UPS come pick it up or drop it off at your nearest UPS Store. So easy you can't help but LOVE it.

So What else did I love about this GREEN Product? I love that  when we have a party we NEVER have to run out of soda. Out of diet? No problem I will make more. When my dad saw this at my house he told me that when he was growing up this is how they had soda at home. Grandpa had Seltzer water bottles delivered and then they would add flavorings for soda. Every thing that was old seems new again. I also love that it does not plug in. I can put it anywhere and use it at the park, or on our bar for a party. So simple that the kids figured it out and were making soda in minutes.

One last piece of information you should know. The Soda Stream Machine is VERY clear that you should ONLY carbonate water in its bottles. Tech Monkey decided that he wanted Sparkling Apple Cider and when he removed the bottle carbonated apple juice sprayed all over my entire kitchen. I would not recommend carbonating  anything other than water with this machine. Apple juice is very sticky and took a while to clean up.

In conclusion, I always vote for FAD or FAB on my reviews and I say FAB to this but I also say that this is the BEST GREEN Product I have come across in a while. Simple, safe, easy to switch to. SUPER FAB!