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Anyone here have a home carbonation system (SodaStream, DrinkMate, Aarke, etc.)?
Do you have a home carbonation system? What do you carbonate with it? Just plain water? Flavored drinks?
My girlfriend gave me a DrinkMate as an early birthday present, and I love it. I've been going crazy with it.
We just had a thread about this topic:
https://tildes.net/~food/175c/questions_for_sodastream_users
There's a lot of info about different flavours and so on.
Yeah, we have had a SodaStream for years, and we get so much use of it. We both carbonate plain water as well as our favorite cordials (my favorite is an orange/lime flavor, partner does passionfruit), or even water/juice combos - but we don't ever use the branded syrups. Just don't think they're that good, or worth the price.
While I don't have a soda stream, I do have a kegerator and a corny keg I used for homebrew. Often when I don't have any beer to put in it, I make sparkling water in it. It's pretty simple. Put in a bunch of ice, fill 3/4 full of water, add in a cup of whatever juice you want for flavoring (I do cranberry) and then force carbonate for a few days.
They actually have carbonating keg lids you can use to carbonate on-demand. They are a bit expensive, though, and water can freeze in the lid, blocking everything up until it's thawed. I've had mine for a couple years now, and it works great. 20lbs of CO2 lasts me about 6-8 months.
Sweet, thank you! Definitely getting one now.
We had a soda stream a while back, and it is a good substitute for bottled fizzy water if you drink a lot of it. I say this as if you just have a glass or two, the rest of the bottle just goes flat and stays in the fridge for an inordinate amount of time.
We also experimented with some flavours/tonics but they never came out as refreshing as cans you can buy (e.g. flavoured Dash water in the UK), so it just became an unused appliance in the corner of the kitchen.
Whenever anyone mentions Sodastream, I always think of the Ashens video about it:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dgbra3RTex0
I have an older sodastream that I rent a food grade c02 tank for. I don't know the size (my partner takes care of the rental), but we exchange the tank once a year. I believe it's somewhere in the $130/yr range?
It has a 2' flexible line that screws onto the tank and then into the sodastream. We built a little "sodastream bar" out of an ikea cart, so we could cut a hole in the top for the line to come up through. It's been much cheaper to run this way.
My mom recently got a sodastream and it has a different type of fitting on the machine. I'm not sure what it's called, but if you're looking to save some money the big tank is something I highly recommend. I've been REALLY happy with mine.
I came here to relate an almost identical anecdote. At least for me the cost of the tank is ~$15/refill at the keg store and lasts for about 1-2 months of very heavy use. It, too, is built into an ikea cart. I've come to believe this is the one and only correct way to use the Soda Stream.
I have SodaStream just to carbonate tap water. Saves from carrying bottles between home and back to store for deposit. I once calculated the cost per liter to be way cheaper compared to store bought but I do not remember if I took the cost of SodaStream bottle into account. I still drink some mineral waters, where I mainly like to drink Hartwall's Vichy original.
We've got the SodaStream. It's pretty nice, but I regret not getting the one with glass bottles, to be honest. It just seems more delicate then reusing the plastic one over and over.
I don't buy the branded syrups either, and generally mix with some fruit or some other concentrated flavouring, but in the end, it's all generally flavoured sparkling water for me.
I am looking for ideas though, especially on how to make tasty passion fruit or mango flavoured water.
I have a DrinkMate, which is nice for carbonating water and all that, but where it really shines is when the beer I'm making finishes fermenting and I want to try it nearly immediately. I'll dispense the last of the fermentation bucket into a bottle, throw it in the freezer for 45 minutes, and carbonate with the DrinkMate. It, amazingly, doesn't explode beer all over my countertop like the one time I tried that with a SodaStream. I then get to try my super young beer that will markedly improve after sitting in a keg for a week carbonating normally... But I'm impatient.
It's also nice to carbonate OJ with for mimosas. However, I think 98% of my usage is just the massive quantities of carbonated water I drink.