I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Sodastream!

By: Anne M. Raso

We love Sodastream here at financefoodie.com--not only does it save a busy New Yorker time and energy lugging home bottle of soda and club soda from the supermarket but each bottle of flavoring makes about 40 thirty-two ounce bottles of soda. While you can purchase all different styles of Sodastream in the price range from $80 to $200 (basic plastic models are in stores like Target while the fancier metal ones are sold in upscale markets like Dean & DeLuca), we find that all the styles do the job of fizzing up water equally well. The basic premise is that you buy a Sodastream machine, purchase one of their refillable O2 tanks (aka "carbonators") for about $20, depending on size (the Sodastream people will come pick up empties for you and bring you new ones wherever you live and most New Yorkers just leave them with their doorman).

Making the soda or flavored carbonated water with Sodastream is easy. Fill the 32 ounce plastic bottles made for the Sodastream machine with cold water, then take off the top and literally screw it into the top of your machine. Pump 10 or 1 times on the top of the machine and it will fizz up your water with oxygen (you can pump a few extra times if you want a highly carbonated product). Next, put a capfull of flavoring into the mixture by using the cap actually on top of each flavor bottle, and then shake gently. This will not only flavor the soda product, but add a little more fizz. We've tried all the Sodastream flavor now and the top ranked with us are Root Bear and Orange Mango. They also just launched a line of all-natural flavorings, and they seemed to be a hit at the recent Green Expo held at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel in April.

Just so you know, both regular and diet formulas are available but the regular comes in at half the regular calories of fully sweetened soda. We prefer the regular to the diet, but the best-tasting diet SodaStream flavor is Ginger Ale because it tastes more like real ginger and less sweet than most diet ginger ales on the market. For more info, go to www.sodastreamusa.com.

**********Giveaway**********



Congrats #44 - Masha Thompson

Sodastream wants to give one of financefoodie.com's reader their very own Jet Sodastream Machine + their choice of three Sodamix flavors!

You can enter up to THREE times:
1. REQUIRED: In my comments section, tell me what flavor you are most excited to try.
2. Follow Finance Foodie on Twitter (leave a separate comment telling me this)
3. Reblog / Retweet this giveaway (leave a separate comment telling me this)

Contest ends Friday June 10 at 5pm EST. Winners will be chosen via random integer generator on random.org announced on the financefoodie.com site shortly afterwards that night!

[Full disclosure: giveaway provided by Sodastream USA]
[Photos Courtesy: Sodastream USA]