Soda Stream Review and Giveaway

                                                      Who drinks a lot of soda?  Who has a soda on occasion?  Who wishes they could just make more at home?  This girl couldn't help but be curious since Coffee, Soda, and Tea are my weakness.  Can a Soda Stream help my habit/pocket book out?  Check out my review and enter to win a Soda Stream of your own!
Mommy Moments with Abby Review: It's always exciting to open a new box!  This one came in the off the shelf box, which many review products do not.  I made sure to check the box out for tips and damage.








Was pleased to see it came with a sample packet, which is nice for trying out flavors before you buy.

I opened the box and started taking out it's contents.  There were some sparkling water flavors and soda flavors:

Orange Pineapple,

Regular Cola,

Ginger Ale,

Cranberry-raspberry,

and a 3 pack of sparkling water flavors in orange, lemon-line, and raspberry.

I dug back into the box......

I pulled out more soda flavors to try:

Cola Free, Diet Pink Grapefruit,

Root Beer, and Diet Lemon-lime.

Back to the box...

It came with the CO2 container 60L, 2 of the 1-Liter soda stream bottles, and soda stream device.

Now, for the scary part, reading the directions.  I always dread opening up directions as I never know if they will be written well or if I'll be looking at something that may as well be written in Sanskrit!

Lucky for me, it was a step by step description with pictures.  Seems easy enough, except I have worked in an ER and dealt with tanks before, they sometimes can be tricky or, if connected wrong, cause a burst resulting in injury.  So, I had the husband attach the CO2 container and felt stupid for having any concern.  The tank is set up to connect easily without even a slight releasing sound, it twisted on as easy as if you put a lid on the PBJ.

So, feeling considerably embarrassed at my girly moment, I set the connected CO2 tank and device on the counter and went for the next step.

Next step, is clicking the top on the bottom, seriously it was just that easy.  OK, lets give this baby a whirl.

I took the bottles out of their bag and found this warning label.  Good, thing to note is to add flavor after carbonating the water!  Will do, properly warned I continued on.

Now I need to decide which flavor to try.

















For testing purposes I went to the sample packet that I found in the box.

HMMM, decisions, decisions, why are there so many decisions?

Narrowed it down to two, either the Diet Cola or the Orange Soda.  I asked the hubby his choice and then filled the 1-Liter Soda Stream Bottle to the fill line with water from my purifier, you can use tap but in AZ the water is hard and we drink purified water instead.

Per the instructions I stationed the nozzle so it was at an angle and screwed in the bottle.

I pushed it back so it hung directly down and pushed the button for a second (saying elephant) at a time.  I did this until I heard a loud, what they call, Buzzing sound.  The kids advised this sounds like a loud fart.  Per the instructions I pushed the button again for a second at a time until I heard another "Buzz", then again until I heard a third "Buzz".  For light soda's you want 3 "buzzes" for darker 5-6 "buzzes".  Make it to the bubble consistency that you like.

Pulling the container back to the angled position a hissing sound is heard, unscrew the container and you are ready for flavoring.

I added the Orange flavor slowly to prevent fizzing or overflow.

If you squeeze hard it will react like a shaken soda, I found out the hard way.

You can add as much or little flavor as you like, recommended is one sample packer per 1L or one cap of flavor.

As soon as you add flavor it is ready to drink no stirring needed.  So, I did what any wife does and poured a glass...
















and handed it to the hubby to try!  He said it tasted like Orange soda, sort of candy like, like a Tic-Tac.

I love this because I'm not stuck with one flavor nor am I stuck with a flavor that is either too weak, strong, or flat since I can make it to my taste.  I found that the flavors either come in size that produces either 6 or 12 liters.  They cost between $5-6 dollars, but if you get them at Bed Bath and Beyond using one of the coupons you get for Bed, Bath, and Beyond in the mail you can get them around $4 plus tax.  This means it costs between $0.67 and $1.00 per liter for the 6 liter flavors (depending on place of purchase and tax not included) or
$0.34 to $0.50 per liter for the 12 liter flavors (depending on place of purchase and tax not included).

CO2 replacements and refills costs are minimal as well.  For purchasing 2 spare containers, so you don't have to wait for a refill to continue to make your soda, it costs around $59.99 plus tax, from there you can refill at any participating retailer or order refills on Soda-streams website for $29.99 for 2 refills.  These prices are based off the 60L CO2 container.  Since, 1 of the 60L containers carbonates 120 Liters of water it comes out to about $0.13 per liter once the initial purchase of $59.99 for the spare containers is made and you are just refilling.

The unit we are giving away is worth the one time cost of $79.95.

So, for the soda stream you have an initial cost of $139.94 plus tax.  The cost per liter excluding the initial cost is from $0.81 to $1.13 per liter for the 6  liter flavors (depending on place of purchase and tax not included) or $0.47 to $0.62 per liter depending on the place of purchase and tax not included).

What about nutrition?  We all need to watch our waste-line's now a days!  I found a breakdown of the nutrition on the Soda-stream website and was amazed at how many calories I cut out by making my own soda!  Check it out for yourself by clicking HERE!  In most cases you go down from 100 calories to only 34!  That is huge!

For the same cost of the soda I drink now I get to choose the carbonation and taste myself and potentially save money, I based my prices above off the retail values and not the sale values except when mentioned.  I get to pick my flavor the way I want it, and I save considerable on the calories I'm taking in!  Right now, I'm addicted to the Raspberry sparkling water!  What is your flavor?  If you would like to purchase one of your own you can go to http://www.sodastreamusa.com/ or enter our giveaway below going on from June 21, 2012 to July 19, 2012.

Giveaway package is a Fountain Jet Soda Lover's Start-Up Kit  ($99.95)http://www.sodastreamusa.com/Fountain-Jet-Soda-Starter-Kit-P184.aspx. It includes:

-          Fountain Jet – winner’s choice of color (black/silver, red/silver or white)

-          1 carbonating bottle, reusable for up to 3 years

-          Reusable carbonator to fizz up to 60L of soda

-          Variety 6-pack of popular sample-size flavors

-          3 full-sized flavors of the winner’s choice

This giveaway is brought to you with the help of our bloggy friends: Thoughts of a Mad Typer, Delco Deal Diva, Begin to Craft, The Kids Did It, Giveaway Overload, Couponer's Corner,  Mommy's Memorandum, Powered by Mom, College Grad Coupons, Mom Blog Society, and Lotions, Potions, and Opinions.  Please stop by their blogs and leave them a special Thank You comment!!!!      

Disclosure:  My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Mommy Moments with Abby is not responsible for sponsor prize shipment.

a Rafflecopter giveaway