In our tests, the Drinkmate carbonated apple juice, wine, and a mocktail with no problem. The iDrink Drinkmate is a great option if you want to experiment with carbonating other drinks in addition to water. Body Fortress Super Advanced Whey Protein Powder,... Best Health and Fitness Gifts – Top 20 Listed. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. That works for us. Some people like the taste of the expensive SodaMix flavors. (One important note: SodaStream’s construction doesn’t make it easy to jury-rig the system to use CO2 tanks, but you can find directions online on how to use alternative tanks with their units.). In our years of testing, we’ve tested or considered a number of SodaStream models. Additionally, while the Source came with a limited lifetime warranty, the Fizzi OneTouch’s (as well as all newer SodaStream models’) warranty lasts only two years. However, you can buy them online, most food-grade CO2 cartridges will work, and they’re less expensive than SodaStream ones. In our tests, water from the Fizzi was nearly indistinguishable in fizziness and taste from water we carbonated with the Fizzi OneTouch. If the SodaStream Fizzi OneTouch is unavailable, the Fizzi makes a good alternative. Unlike the other soda makers Groom+Style checked out, this one doesn’t restrict what you put into the dishwasher-safe stainless steel container. Eat Slow. TheConsumer.guide, All Rights Reserved. Recent recommendations regarding this business are as follows: "Steer clear never buy any of their junk", "Avoid Soda Stream", "Don't deal with Soda-Stream refills". For the science behind carbonated water, we talked to Gavin Sacks, PhD, associate professor at Cornell University’s Department of Food Science. The Drinkmate requires a few extra steps to carbonate and then release pressure. The machine makes a high-pitched whine while carbonating the water, but it doesn’t last long. In contrast, SodaStream will void your warranty and money-back guarantee if you carbonate beverages other than water, and your beverage will likely explode everywhere. Learn more. We think the Fizzi OneTouch is the best of SodaStream’s available offerings due to its easy-to-control fizzing mechanism and sleek design. If one refill cylinder can carbonate about 60 liters of seltzer, that means you won’t be purchasing about 60 plastic bottles. We also combed the internet for any new soda-maker reviews and roundups. Let’s get to it: our best SodaStream reviews. To elevate water from a flat biological necessity to a fun, bubbly treat, your best option—environmentally and financially—is a home soda maker. If you are more interested in carbonating juice or wine than water, the iDrink Drinkmate is the only countertop soda maker we’ve found that’s up to the task. DrinkMate Sparkling Water and Soda Maker, 6. SodaStream - Source Sparkling Water Maker - White. And like the much less expensive Fizzi, it provides no visual indication of how much you’ve fizzed the water. It ranked the lowest overall among our taste testers in taste, bubble size, and overall fizziness of the water. It’s a pain. Digging deeper on the SodaPlus SP76327 Soda Carbonating Starter Kit: If you decide that carbonating drinks is not for you, but you still want to stay hydrated and healthy, then the other option might be to go for a juicer. But these DIY rigs still take an initial investment, and they may be too bulky for some kitchens. After that, you can exchange empty carbonators for full ones for about $10-$15 apiece. This seems straightforward enough, but our first time using the machine, our estimate of two seconds was too generous (apparently SodaStream does not adhere to the Mississippi-counting school), which resulted in some water gushing from the top of the bottle while we pressed the button. To save yet more money, you can find DIY alternatives to purchasing refill cylinders, such as this one from mixologist Jeffrey Morgenthaler. But there are downsides to SodaStream’s domination. We previously talked with Emma Christensen, managing editor at Simply Recipes and author of True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home; Jackson Anderson, founder of Blue Blaze Soda & Syrup Company; and Jeremy Butler, food scientist, blogger at The Homemade Soda Expert, and author of Making Soda at Home: Mastering the Craft of Carbonation. That’s not the only argument in favor of making your own pop. This click means that you now have your bottle of carbonated water. We tested one model, the Bonne O Sparkling Beverage System (since discontinued), that used tabs of “citric acid, potassium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), potassium carbonate” to carbonate water instead of injecting carbon dioxide. But the review team rank it at #2 in our list of the best soda maker reviews primarily for those who have other KitchenAid appliances on their counter and want a sturdy, dependable soda machine that will match them. To explore the Drinkmate’s capabilities in our 2017 testing, we gave our panel a sampling of pre-carbonated, bottled sparkling apple juice to compare in a blind taste test against apple juice from the same brand carbonated with the Drinkmate. In comparison, the iDrink Drinkmate requires some maneuvering to attach the fizz infuser cap to the bottle before locking both into the carbonator. You can find other companies, such as Soda Sense, that exchange cylinders by mail, but for now, SodaStream’s service is a better deal. Over the years we’ve found fewer and fewer competitors against SodaStream that meet our criteria. Here’s what we’ve dismissed: The Aarke Carbonator II looks very stylish, but we think it lacks enough features to justify the $200 price tag. Note too that SodaStream will void your warranty if you carbonate anything other than water in its machines. We've added information on a recent recall of CO2 cylinders from Soda Sense, a mail-in cylinder exchange program we don't recommend. For our 2019 update, we tested the SodaStream OneTouch and Fizzi against our previous top pick (the Source) and upgrade pick (the Power); both have since been discontinued. If you use SodaStream’s mail exchange program, the refills still cost $15 per tank, plus you’ll pay about $8 in shipping for two cylinders, or $15 in shipping for one. Since 2015, we’ve spent over 200 hours researching and testing 14 models (plus our own DIY version), and after drinking gallons of seltzer, we think the easy-to-use SodaStream Fizzi OneTouch makes some of the fizziest, tastiest sparkling water. You may remember your grandparents making something called “seltzer” with a handheld contraption that looked a little like a fire extinguisher. The SodaStream uses water directly from the faucet and turns it into soda. Unfortunately, unlike our former top pick, the now-discontinued SodaStream Source, the OneTouch runs on electricity and requires an outlet, so you are somewhat limited in where you can put it. Staff writer Anna Perling, who wrote the 2017 update, is a longtime seltzer lover who, before she got a soda maker herself, was known for going through 12-packs of seltzer cans in just a few days. The overall rating of the company is 2.0 and consumers are mostly dissatisfied. Using refillable CO2 cylinders is more cost-effective than paying for store-bought seltzer, too. They may be somewhat healthier to drink – but they’re certainly not good for you. It’s also great to be able to pump up the fizz if you’re planning to use the seltzer for mixed drinks. We’ll be completely honest here. Hi Grover, You are too kind Kind Regards, Lisa. Try finding them online at Amazon or getting canisters from another brand like DrinkMate. The Fizzi OneTouch gives great control over fizz level: You simply press one of three buttons at the top of the machine to select a low, medium, or high amount of carbonation. We began our testing by setting up each soda maker, noting how easy it was to assemble and how much counter space it occupied. After more than 60 hours of research and testing, and many dropped glasses, we think the durable Bormioli Rocco Rock Bar is the best all-purpose drinking glass. Specifications for the Flavorstation Home Beverage Maker: Check Flavorstation Home Beverage Maker Price on Amazon. Alternatively, you can press a quick-release valve to relieve the pressure, but the bottle did fizz over a bit when we tried this after carbonating apple juice. Here’s a machine that can do something that SodaStream can’t: the Drinkmate will carbonate nearly any beverage, not just water. In our tests, it successfully carbonated rosé and mocktails. When you make your own soda you have full control over the ingredients, so you can use recipes that eliminate all of the “bad” sweeteners and chemicals found in the majority of commercial sodas.