Why not try asking at an industrial food supply company if you can buy a box of soda syrup? [I used to work for US Foodservice and we could buy anything not stocked for a specific chain like Dairy Queen or Taco Bell. We certainly could have bought soda syrup if we had wanted to. ] Or if you have a friend who works in a convenience store if they will order soda syrup for you.
You can buy boxes of brand-name soda syrup at Sam’s Club (probably Costco, too). These are the boxes that “feed” some commercial fountain soda machines. I don’t know if you could adapt them for use with the SodaStream, though.
My GOD that’s an annoying website.
Tastes awful from a sample from a friend, I wold never buy one.
We picked one up when they were on sale at Target. I’ll echo the sentiments that the syrups they provide are undrinkable. My wife’s been making a lot of soda water with a dash of lime. I tried to make my own syrup once, with little success. 30 tablespoons of sugar in a saucepan for 20 minutes with some citrus. The flavor was off, the syrup killed the carbonation, and it didn’t mix well, so it went from not-sweet-enough to way-too-sweet.
If anyone finds a good source to buy syrups that aren’t awful, I’d jump all over that.
Neat little device though. It may get used for scotch and soda.
Is this supposed to be cheaper than just buying soda? From the looks of it it seems to end up being more expensive.
$70-$100 for the machine. $5-$7 for flavors that make (6) 2-liters. Then you have to buy carbonater?
I do not have a friend who works in a convenience store, nor do I have access to a Costco (no membership+no car). I’ve poked around for a food supply company that will sell on a one-off basis to a single retail customer, and have not had any luck. US Foodservice, for example, does not sell retail. You have to have a rep. You can buy it the syrup off ebay but the price is ridiculous and the supply, erratic.
Well, let’s see. 2-liter bottles generally sell for $1 at the best price these days (but usually more like $1.33), so say $6 for the lot. A quick look online says the Sodastream mixes are more like $3-5, so let’s figure $5 to bias this toward normal soda.
You’re not going to make your money back anytime soon, but if you use the Sodastream machine regularly, you probably will end up saving money over the course of a year or two, depending on how much soda you drink. Plus, hey, you’re lowering your own trash footprint.
Of course, if the flavors are that nasty, then most people will probably stop using theirs after one or two bottles. Seriously not worth it then, unless someone can figure out how to hook a bag in a box up to the machine.
Dang, took too long for the edit window:
Whoops, neglected the carbonator. It looks like those are pretty expensive outright, but some retailers have an exchange program. It looks like $15 for an exchange, and each one works for 60 liters, so that’s about $3 for 6 2-liters, bringing operating cost up to 8, or…$1.33 a bottle. So, no. Unless store-bought 2-liters jump to $1.50-2 and stay there, you’re not saving money.
Well, for me, I never buy soda in 2-liter bottles so that price comparison isn’t relevant.
I also don’t buy it in bulk because I have nowhere to put it. What it generally replaceds is the purchase of a 20 oz. bottle which I buy on an ad hoc basis for $1.75-$2.25 each at the convenience store across the street. So rather than $6/12-liters I’m actually spending something closer to $40/12 liters of soda (assuming I did my math wrong.
That said, I don’t really care if I save money in the long or short run. Obviously I’m not looking wring every penny out of my soda spending. It is just more convenient for me and, in those flavors I like (which are only a few), it provides that. While also providing my wife with a massive supply of soda water and minimal occupation of limited space in my apartment.
My wife and I share a heavy, debilitating addiction to fizzy water. The Soda Stream was definitely cheaper than constantly buying 2-liter bottles of sparkling water, but the carbonator refills ran out sooner than I had hoped and were relatively expensive to replace. After out second machine cracked and failed, I went to a homebrew store and bought a CO2 tank, a regulator and the fittings to pressurize 2-liter bottles. That setup (maybe $150 in total) has worked for years now, and costs about 20 bucks a year to refill.
Bah. Who needs technology and moving parts when you can have fizzies?
The soda companies don’t just carbonate tap water. They have an extensive purification process. They may start with tap water, but they filter it to meet their own specifications. For someone with a soda stream, any flavors in their tap water will come out in their soda.
There’s also the fact that I just don’t drink my soft drinks at home out of a glass. I prefer a can or bottle, although fountain drinks in a restaurant glass with a straw is Ok. But my own homemade soft drink in my own glass? For some reason I don’t care for the idea.
Now THIS is a good idea!
They have a line of “Sparkling Natural” flavors made with cane sugar.
This is pretty much my experience, too. I drink a diet soda maybe once or twice a week so the soda flavors aren’t really that important to me. What I do drink a lot of is sparkling water, typically buying multiple 6-packs of 20oz bottles each shopping trip in order to bring a bottle to work each day. It’s been really nice not to haul those around each week and to cut down on the number of bottles I use (even though they would be recycled). That said, I got a sample pack of soda flavors and bought a few others and there haven’t been any that I flat out hate. Probably my least favorite was the Red Bull wannabe engery drink. Everything else was fine. Yeah, the Dr. Pete isn’t exactly Dr. Pepper, but it was close enough for my taste. And truthfully I’m always baffled by people’s attachments and weird hangups about soda.
For you other users, these True Lime packets work great, as does Mio flavoring.
Not true in my experience, but maybe my city just has good water. Anyone with a filtered water line in their fridge won’t have that problem.
My brother has one of these, and uses it a lot for soda water. A local boating supply shop was going out of business & selling the starter kit ridiculously cheaply, so I bought another one for him (for extra parts) & one for Mom. Mom hasn’t tried hers yet, but keeps a bottle full of (still) tap water in the 'fridge. Not sure why.
My brother’s teenager tried to carbonize milk for a chocolate soda. Not a bad idea. The brother adds fizzy water to scotch. I suggested carbonating the scotch. 
Apparently the expense is replacing the “special” water bottles, buying carbonation refills, and the syrups. If I had the time & inclination it would be fun to make up recipes.
I saw bottles of Coca-Cola syrup at my local Rite-Aid pharmacy last week. Cocal-Cola mixed with still water is an old Southern rememdy for an upset stomach.
whoops, premature postification! Could you use the Torani soda syrups? I’ve tasted them in still water, I think they would be good carbonated.
It has been a while back, but I recall seeing rootbeer and gingerale syrups for bottling your own in larger grocery stores.