SodaStream Review

Pros:
Fun to make at home, no carrying or storing heavy bottles from the store, less plastic waste and recyclables, lower in sugar, lots of flavors available, no high-fructose corn syrup, no aspartame, no electricity required.

Cons:
Majority of flavors (diet and regular) contain sucralose, similar or higher cost than purchasing bottled soda, more time-intensive than just pouring.

Summary:
If you would like to easily make soda in your home in a variety of flavors for a cost comparable to purchasing popular name brand sodas, this is a great little machine!

Full Review:

Honestly, we are not super big soda drinkers...but Friday night is our party/game night and we go through several bottles of soda per week!  After realizing how much time, energy and money we spend purchasing, carrying home and storing soda, and then returning the bottles...SodaStream started sounding like a great idea! 

The SodaStream machine allows you to make soda in your home or anywhere in any way you want to! Assembling the machine was fairly simple ... just insert the CO2 tank, fill the reusable bottle with COLD water (we noticed room temperature doesn't work as well), and then press and hold the carbonation button about 3 times.  After (and only after carbonation), you can either add one of the many SodaStream flavor syrups, or add juices, flavorings, and/or sweeteners of your choice.

Since we had a large variety of flavors to try and a large group of people, we found it simpler to just fizz the water and then let each person measure out a flavor shot into their own glass. It was also nice as sometimes our friends leave the top to the bottle unscrewed. With SodaStream, no problem - just re-fizz the water!

It was great to have so many flavors to offer guests without taking up huge amounts of counter or storage space with bottled soda!  Everyone was able to find flavors that they liked.  We did notice that the regular (non-diet) soda has a much lower sugar content than regular bottled soda because it contains a mixture of cane sugar and sucralose.  There are some naturally sweetened flavors that are sweetened only with cane sugar and taste great! We loved the natural variety ginger-ale and cola flavors.  We wish there were some options that contain Stevia, but we are going to experiment and try making some of our own flavors.

Since the SodaStream is powered only by the CO2 tank, it could easily be brought to a party, the park, or to camp and stored without worrying about cords or temperature changes. We look forward to trying some of the other available flavors.

Visit SodaStream on Facebook and Twitter.

Disclosure: We received the SodaStream and accessories listed above for review. The opinions we have expressed are honest opinions and have not been influenced by the companies providing the product. No other compensation was received.

Signing Time On Demand and iPad 3 Sweepstakes!

                                                   

Pros: No commercials, watch any time or place, watch on a variety of media options, entertainment on the go, always there for you to load onto future computers, phones, or tablets!

Cons: Cost may be a factor..especially if you want them all!

Summary: This is a great stuff-free gift you can give your children or others that they can continue to use for years to come!

Review :

My 4 Year old was thrilled when she saw the pictures on this post and said, "Oh I LOVE 'silent' time with Alex and Leah!"  :) We've loved these videos since our children were babies, but since we bought our first dvd's, a few of them have gotten scratched and no longer work.  We love the idea of Signing Time on demand! No more storing dvd's or worrying about them getting scratched. And if you happen to get a new computer, phone or tablet,  you can just log in and reload the videos you've already purchased!

We received the digital video from Series 1, Vol. 5 video, ABC Signs..  This video teaches the sign language alphabet and also includes signs for numbers 1-10.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Signing Time, they are wonderful instructional videos geared towards children from infants to around 8 years old.  We love it!  These are great videos to have your children watch over and over again when you are waiting for doctor appointments or traveling, etc... These videos are also great tools to use in the classroom to promote better communication or to teach a second language. 

Click below to download a free Signing Time on demand video and enter to win an iPad3 until May 18, 2012!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.