Soda-Club Fountain Jet® Home Soda Maker (review and offsite giveaway)

As Jennifer’s Husband it has occurred to me that certain items necessary to every family may not be quite Jennifer’s cup of tea. Therefore, if it has to do with yard work, home improvements, or things that could possibly blow up I will happily be stepping in to lend my voice.

The Soda-Club Home Soda Maker falls into the third category. Homemade soda has to be better than the corner store, right? And with more control over what I put in it the possibilities seem endless. Oh the rabbit hole, so many tunnels, so deep.

This is our first review that includes a video! Yea!

What it came with:

1 – Fountain Jet®Home Soda Maker

1 – Exchangeable Alco2Jet 110 co2 Carbonator (under license)

1 – User License Certificate

2 – Reusable Soda-Club Carbonating Bottles with Fizz-Preserving Caps

My Expectations:

I have had the chance to have homemade soda before getting the Soda-Club, my cousin bought a machine a few years ago, and he had to show it off and make anyone who came over some homemade soda. However, he immediately went overboard with the flavors and before he knew it was well on his way down the rabbit hole of special sweeteners and super concentrated flavors. My cousin is a chef. I am no chef. I expected the machine would perform well and the flavors would be a gamble, particularly my expectations for the cola flavor was about that of a $0.69 2-liter of generic store brand.

The Results:

After reading all the directions thoroughly to make sure not to blow anything up in our kitchen I found a spot for the soda maker and chilled both the bottles of water so it would best hold the carbonation. Putting the bottle on the machine isn’t the easiest task and takes both hands, but the thicker threading of the Soda-Club made it much easier than the “make sure it’s on straight that I remember from my cousin’s machine. Carbonating the water is as simple as pushing the button on top firmly for a few seconds three to five times.

Mixing the flavor in is simple, and as long as you don’t just dump it all in quickly the carbonated water won’t fizz out of the bottle. Mixing was easily accomplished by turning the bottle over slowly a few times and looking at the color consistency. I tried three soda Flavors and two seltzer flavors for this review, and made a friend into the guinea pig for one of the diet flavors. The Energy drink flavor was excellent. Especially with the high price of Red Bull or Monster it is nice to have a good tasting alternative to the extra strength Starbucks I usually brew at home when I need a boost. The cola flavor really lived up to my expectations. I have yet to find a cola flavoring that can compare to my two favorites RC or Pepsi. Unfortunately the other soda flavors performed about the same. The flavors just seem to be not sweet enough, while still seeming to be too sticky sweet. I compared the lemon-lime to the diet lemon lime and made a diabetic friend try the diet to see how it compared to other diet sodas and her opinion was no different than mine. The best flavors were the seltzer flavors. Both the orange and lemon-lime were great.

Conclusion:

I recommend the machine, seltzer flavors, and the energy drink from Soda-Club. However, the regular soda flavors are just too laden with high-fructose corn syrup and the sweetness just doesn’t seem right. I am afraid I may have to have my cousin teach me a few all natural recipes. I have also tried using flavors from the grocery store that were meant for snow-cones and the results have been much tastier, I highly recommend blue raspberry. Personally I have found that prefer two loud noises instead of the three to five they recommend, luckily the Soda-Club make that easy. Finally, just adding a few lemon, lime, or orange slices makes a great seltzer with a light natural flavor, very refreshing over tons of ice. I really like the bottles, they keep the fizz in very well and are sturdy. I am still missing soda in glass bottles though, it really did taste different than plastic.

Randall Gniadecki

DaddyMommyBlogReviews

Soda-Club Giveaway:

First, I want to make it ABUNDANTLY clear that this isn’t my giveaway. The Smart Mama is the one hosting the giveaway and it’s really easy to win. You need to sign up for her newsletter by August 10th to be eligible. For her take on the Soda Club as well as the full entry rules go HERE. Good luck!