Remember when I went to the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago? I was able to go to a blogger event and meet SodaStream! They had Jillian Michaels come and talk to us about why she likes SodaStream. She said that Bob was the first person to tell her about it. SodaStream contacted me after the event and asked me if I’d like to try one out and also if I’d like to give one out to one of you lucky readers!

What is SodaStream?

Making carbonated water and soft drinks is simple! Turn tap water into sparkling water in under 30 seconds, with no clean-up. Enjoy the freshness and convenience of homemade soda and protect the environment at the same time. No heavy bottles to carry, store at home or throw away. Fizz to your taste and add the flavor of your choice to make your favorite drink. Simple to clean and reuse. With a variety of colors and silhouettes, you’ll be sure to find a soda maker to match with any decor.

One of the things I like about SodaStream, because I’m watching my calories, is that even the regular sodas are lower in calories than store bought. A Cola made at home is 35 calories per 8 ounces where the calories in a Coca-Cola is 97 calories in 8 ounces. The Cola is pretty darn close to the flavor of the real thing (as long as you get your mix right!)

So how do you make your own soda at home? Your SodaStream comes with a CO2 bottle that fits into the back of the machine. You fill your bottle with tap water to the line printed on it. Screw your bottle into the SodaStream, press the button on top 3 times, and unscrew your bottle. After you’ve carbonated your water, you pick your soda flavor and pour a full cap of soda into your water. (Make sure you tip your water bottle sideways a little, as if you’re pouring beer, so that it doesn’t explode like a volcano!) It’s nice that the SodaStream uses no electricity, so you can put it anywhere. It’s so easy to move around that you can put it away when not in use so you’re not taking up precious counter real estate!

I brought my SodaStream to my Mother’s in law house for Easter and had a good time making soda for everyone. We made Regular Cola, Cola Free, and Root Beer at the party. I put too much cola syrup in the regular because I was using the smaller bottle and it’s sometimes hard to judge how much soda flavor to put it. The Root Beer was a hit, though! My favorite so far has been Orange. I did try the Raspberry water flavoring, but I’m not a fan of carbonated waters, so I didn’t like it. The Raspberry flavor was good, don’t get me wrong, I just don’t like flavored carbonated waters. SodaStream has so many flavors to choose from! They have regular, diet, energy drinks, My Water, Sparkling naturals, sparkling waters and sparkling teas. It seems like whatever you like to drink that has CO2 in it, you can make with SodaStream!

Each CO2 cartridge is supposed to make 60 or 130 liters of soda, depending on which size you have. If you buy a 130 Liter CO2 cartridge and your flavors, each Liter of soda should cost you around .65 to make. It’s so much easier to store your SodaStream than it is to store heavy bottles and cases of soda. Because you are not throwing a way a ton of cans or plastic bottles, you are also helping to save the environment. Click here to learn more. SodaStream sodas are not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, no preservatives and less salt. They do use sucralose to sweeten the drinks.

How would you like to win a SodaStream? One of my lucky readers will win a Fountain Jet that comes with a CO2 cartridge, 1 liter bottle and sample pack of flavors.

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