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SodaSparkle Soft Drink System
Review By Kim of Bloggity Blog
The SodaSparkle is a home soda system where you use regular tap water and make it into soda water.
This systems carbonating machine, (it's the tall white cap on the bigger bottle in the picture above) is really different than most of the other soda systems I have seen. The CO2 cartridges are also different than most systems they are individual cartridges, you get 5 of them with the starter kit. There is a 1.3 liter bottle that makes normal fizz and a 1 liter bottle that makes extra fizz. Lastly you get a 5 flavor single- serving variety box of flavors (apple, lychee, cola/lemon, pineapple and tonic). This kit retails $49.99 for a one bottle set and $59.99 for the set I received with 2 bottles..
I was pretty excited when this system arrived and I saw not only one but two bottles. I noticed that the machine itself was very easy to use. I loved the idea of single use C02 cartridges. I hurriedly read the instructions (never a good thing) and set out to get the system ready. Per the instructions I found that I had to chill the water first..bummer because this meant I could not take it out of the package and use it instantly. I filled the bottles to the required line and put them in the fridge to chill. A few hours later my daughter and I set out to test the system... I will show you the blooper video but I first want to make it clear that We did it wrong and not SodaSparkle. I did not read all the instructions clearly and messed up our test as you will see. What you don't see in the video, is my husband, as he tried furiously to signal to us that we were doing it wrong. He waved and pointed instead of saying, "your doing it wrong." So my daughter's reaction was due to the fact that we did it wrong..
My impression of SodaSparkle, I have mixed emotions, I like the pre-measured flavor packets because there is no chance of putting too much and making the flavor wrong.. I don't like that they only have six flavors. I got to try 5 of them, I don't use tonic water and we ruined the cola-lemon, so the only ones I can really tell you about is the apple, lychee and pineapple. I had never heard of lychee before so I had to look it up. Lychee is a fruit found in China, my daughter, husband and sons liked the lychee. We all liked the apple and pineapple. I like the cost of the start up set SodaSparkle is about $40.00 less then some of their competitors. I am mixed about the C02 cartridges because of the cost to purchase them, they are one use only and non refillable (which isn't very green). I also don't like that to purchase them through this company the cost is 24.99, they offer free shipping at $50.00 so even if you buy two boxes of the cartridges you fall short of the free shipping by .02 cents. You would have to purchase at the least two flavors and a box of cartridges to get the free shipping. However, if you wanted only two items and it did not meet the $50.00 for the free shipping there is no per item s&h charges, at least there were none when I played with their site. I do love how easy this system is to use, yet I don't know if they are cost effective. If you buy your supplies from SodaSparkles online store it will cost you between $2.00 and $2.83 per 1 liter bottle of pop, the cost difference is due to shipping charges. I also don't like that they don't have the ingredients listed anywhere that I could find. I did look for ingredients to the flavors and only saw that there is sucralose in them and that they are natural. I also discovered that the flavors are made in Australia yet packaged in Hong Kong.
Disclaimer: I did receive a SodaSparkle to try so I could review it. Even though it was free to me so I could try it out did not change my opinion of this product. All Opinions are my own.
