We just got the "penguin" soda stream a couple of months ago. I'm not much of a carbonated water drinker, but my husband is and he loves it. I use it to make their Diet Dr Pepper knock off and it's really good.

DH LOVES his! He drinks a lot of seltzer, which he now makes. Plus he enjoys making his own simple syrup and rummaging for new flavors of "soda". Lime juice, rose syrup, root beer liquor, grenadine syrup, and almost anything else you might classify as edible.

If you don't like flavors, it does make good fizzy water. Very easy to use and they even have reusable bottles to take on the go.

I've had one for several years. I'm a big seltzer drinker - I can easily drink a liter bottle daily. The machines are easy to use and seem to work well for a long time. Depending on where you live, the replacement cartridges should be easy to get. Near me in central NJ we can exchange in Bed, Bath and Beyond and Staples (but I use a coupon in BBB). I no longer have to drag bottles of seltzer from the supermarket, nor do I have huge amounts of bottles to send to recycyling.

When I have company I can offer a range of drinks with my assortment of syrups, and as williamsem mentioned, you can even make your own syrup.

Helene

Hmm. Sounds like the commercials aren't all hype! :)

dh & I love ours. We both use daily. Canister lasts close to 3months and get a refill for $15.00 at Target

glad you posted this - I've been wondering about it myself.

qvc has had it as the TSV a few times in the past few months. just again the other day.

I drink lots of pepsi and they say it has less calories and less salt? sounds healthier! and I wouldn't have to keep up on the pepsi sales and cart bottles home. It's a pain.

I like the idea of being able to buy up a few of the flavor bottles to have on a shelf so i don't run out.

anyone tried the 'cola' flavor? Is it as good as coke or pepsi?

The product isn't controversial, it's just that some people who don't understand international law are conjuring up controversy where none should exist. Controversy should connote disagreement on issues based on facts, not ignorance.

Please let's not bring politics and ignorance into discussions about kitchens and kitchen products - there are plenty of other forums where people can go to discuss conspiracies and such.

Thanks for the post, Liriodendron. Although SodaStream's decision to locate its largest plant in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory may be controversial for a variety of issues arising from that location choice (tax and labor law dodging among them), no problem--There are other brands available. SodaSparkle, Cuisinart makes one, etc.

I have a Soda Stream Penguin. I like the Penguin, 1) because it is cute 2) because the water carafes are glass. We have had it 2 -3 years, it is still going strong.
Were were going through a couple of cases of seltzer a week and I was really sick of the room those empty cans took up in my garage before I could bring them to the bottle redemption place.
I like that I can control the amount of fizz, sometimes you want more bubbles than others. We do not use any of the flavours. We will add a splash of cranberry juice and a twist of lime, when we are feeling 'fancy'.

This post was edited by localeater on Fri, Jul 5, 13 at 7:24

Now, I didn't know there were other manufacturers. Great. Now I actually have to do research. Geeze.

I wondered why they so prominently display "Made in Isreal" where they don't mention China, Indonesia, or any other nasty-labor countries. I thought it was just bigotry.

Penguin...hmmm

What does Cuisinart call their machine? Thx.

I just went looking on line, Christine. It's Sparkling Beverage. It turns out, though, that the one I was thinking of, our friend's machine, which he likes a lot, is Primo. We were just at his place yesterday for fireworks, though I drank wine all evening. Looking on line now, Primo costs much less and the cartridges are rechargeable, BUT Cuisinart bought them out, so it likely won't be around much longer.

At the price, though, I just decided to grab one anyway. Didn't quite realize I needed a carbonator until this thread got me intrigued, so thanks for mentioning it. :)

I have an older Soda Stream Fizz and a newer model Soda Stream (not sure of that name). My thoughts are that I love my old Fizz simply b/c I don't have to lug bottles of drink into the house and store them. A few notes from what I have observed - My old Fizz seems better built than the newer model, I am not crazy about their cola flavors but really love using the sparking water and fruit flavors, the fizz meter never worked, and the co2 tank is fairly easy to exchange - I use Bed Bath & Beyond as well bc of the coupons. If you want a deal on one, they often run specials on their site. It's a kitchen gadget that I really use and love - it's even worthy of counter real estate.

I'm a longtime GW member and occasional participant...had to sign in to add to the chorus here. We bought a Soda Stream earlier this year and we use it every day. We tried some of the flavor syrups that came in the free sample pack, but we're just not that into traditional soda flavors.

We most often drink the seltzer plain, but we've also bought the Monin flavored syrups to make Italian-style sodas (vanilla and blackberry are good). Last night I mixed the seltzer with pomegranate liqueur and lime juice -- very refreshing.

Target carries the refill canisters and they're easy to find online, too.

We use it so much that we just keep it out on the dining room buffet for easy access. I'm thinking of bedazzling it and calling it art.

We switched to Soda Stream because we were buying Pelligrino by the cases. We are not much of soda/pop drinkers.

First, we had the individual cartridge maker doodad that are featured in the movies from the 30s that you shoot the carbonated water out of the bottle: Isi Siphon They are PITA to use and we basically felt that $100 went down the drain.

We bought a Soda stream several years ago and it has paid for itself by the money saved on the cases of Pelligrino that we did not buy!

Penguin is made by Soda stream. You use the same replacement canister.

Penguin bottles can go in the dishwasher. I have the plastic bottle kind and they cannot go in the dishwasher.

Long time lurker and in my rush to actually post this, I now notice that I have one too many 'b's' in my name :)

I was going to buy a Soda Stream, but read that they massively overcharge on the gas. You can go to any number of beer brewery sites and buy a much better setup. I used kegconnection.com and eventually upgraded to a 10 pound tank that costs me $15 to get a refill and lasts about half a year. We go through a lot of seltzer water, not to mention that we love it very bubbly and can set our pressure at 60 psi versus Soda Stream, which is around the 10 psi mark.

I highly recommend spending some time on youtube and seeing other people's setups, you'll save a lot of money and it's more versatile, I've used mine to bubble up wine :)

Kaismom,

I had the exact same path as you Pelligrino > Isi seltzer bottle > Penguin. Agreed the Isi bottle was a total waste, and as soon as I saw the Penguin I knew I had to have it!

If you buy their soda flavors, buy small ones at first because they may or may not be to your liking. I didn't like them and I returned them all. But now it looks like they have better flavors and ingredients, like real sugar.

But I like to make my own concoctions, with sugar syrup, ginger juice concentrate (just found that one!), frozen lemonade mix, mint leaves, etc. Yum. I like hearing recipes that others are using.

Bobbbeig, (I like all the Bs, was tempted to add a few more...), I considered a setup like yours. Agreed it is far cheaper. In the end, once the Penguin came on the market, it was too easy to resist. Plus, I only go through a CO2 canister about every 6 months. But it's a good way to go if you are a high volume consumer of bubbly drinks.

Isn't all that CO2 causing global warming???? BWAhahah!

Nancy

HA! See? I was gonna go there, but didn't want to tread in a contentious area since we had already been instructed not to do that!

In my perfect, imaginary world, they would capture CO2 from fossil fuel burning, and use it for bubbling everyone's drinks. That way we could all be very refreshed while watching the world burn up. (disclaimer - I am totally kidding!)

Samsung has a new fridge for about $4k with a Soda Stream maker built in! I briefly considered splurging on it as we just finished our remodel, but opted for the top-of-the-line countertop model instead. Our family probably drinks at least 6 litres of seltzer per day and while we may still be in a honeymoon period, we are thrilled with our Soda Stream.

I was wondering how the bubbled water tastes? I drink too much Pepsi. Usually a small 12 ounce bottle a day, sometimes two on the weekends. I like the carbonation more than the actual flavor so I was thinking the soda steam may just be the ticket to cut down on my soda habit. I could also try some different syrups.

Holly-Kay I also like the carbonation rather than the taste I really like the lemonade flavor and only use less than a cap full. It gives you just a hint of flavor.

I will be looking on line to find a good price. I am a member at sam's and Costco. They should have a decent price. Does the lemonade syrup come with it?

It comes with several different sample flavors but the lemonade wasn't one, at least not with mine.