I have one of these, and we get a lot of use out of it. We’ve had it less than six months, so the novelty will wear off at some point, but I’m digging it now.
It’s great for making mixers for cocktails. I don’t normally keep 7up, ginger ale, and cola around, but I like mixed drinks that use 'em. Being able to make a liter on demand is great.
I also rather like the diet Red Bull knockoff, and given that Red Bull is upwards of two bucks for twelve ounces, that one could “pay for itself” pretty easily.
I’ve also seen a few recipes online to make homemade tonic water syrup, which I would love. I love g&ts, but never drink 'em because I don’t have tonic water around.
And the fact that the “normal” syrups are part splenda means it’s less sugar when I do just feel like drinking soda. Never been a fan of most diet soda, but part diet I can handle.
[white trash]I like to take boxed chardonnay and fizz it up.[/white trash] Yummy mimosa and Eggs Benedict with home fries and wheat toast makes a damn fine Sunday morning…
The Sodastream always seemed too expensive and proprietary to me, and they don’t do the one thing I’d probably be most excited about (besides take up less counter space)… re-fizz flat pop! I almost never drink soda but I like to mix some flavored vodkas with Squirt and I’m starting to get into gin and tonics. My problem is I never drink enough to get through a 20oz soda or a bottle of tonic without them going flat. Thanks to this thread I started poking the interwebs and came up with this:
That will be badly expensive in the long run. Those tiny CO2 cartridges have almost no capacity and can’t be refilled. In contrast, my 5 lb CO2 tank lasts for months of daily use and costs five bucks to fill.
Maybe she’s thinking that when she does get around to trying it, her drink will already be cold? Or that the carbonation will work better if the water is cold, like chilling whipping cream?
Buuuut - If you read the Amazon reviews you’ll see the SodaStream does not hold the advantage here.
“In discussing this with the Fizz Giz guy, he mentioned that he makes (but does not promote) a device he calls the “Fizz Giz home charging station”. It is an add-on for the Fizz Giz that allows you to use a real tank of CO2 (not a cartridge) and attach it to your Fizz Giz. So I ordered one from him. Note that these are not on his fizzgiz.com website (as yet) so you have to contact him via his website and ask him for it. He custom makes them when you order one. I paid about $66, including shipping. Plus I had to buy a CO2 tank (this one, intended for powering paintball guns: Empire 20oz CO2 Tank) for another $20. And as I said, it’s an add-on to the Fizz Giz, so you have to buy the Fizz Giz too. The home charging station screws onto the CO2 tank and has a hose which gets fitted to nipple on a modified CO2 cartridge that goes into the Fizz Giz.”
And from everything I’ve read their customer service is stellar.
It’s more-or-less even; you can buy the same type of adapter for about the same price for SodaStream. The only difference is that it is (creepily) a violation of SodaStream’s rules for how you use the tanks.
Is it possible to use a Soda Stream to make fizzy baked beans? Or maybe re-fizz cans of lager I opened and forgot about?
Could you re-fill the CO2 canister with other gasses? Maybe a drink made with pure oxygen would sell. Or maybe some nitrous oxide flavoured coke to relax…
Yes, well, I do understand your point. But being a foreigner myself, I first became familiar with the term ‘gizmo’ long before the more x-rated expression ‘giz’ refering to a sperm sample. So it honestly does depend on what one’s vocabulary building experience first encountered as to your first impression thereof. And another question might be do most people tend to regard the letter G as having the sound it does in guy, god, good, gay, get gone by golly or as in gelatin, George, Geronimo, angel, germ, gentle or gage (is that bi-sexual 'cuz it goes both ways?). Who on earth would read Google.com as joojul dot com? Gimme a break! I do agree with you. It is a catchy name from at least a couple of different perspectives
Yes yu can. I bought a few cases of Torani lime syrup (and several other flavors - don’t ask) several years ago and ended up not doing anything with them. A few weeks ago I came across them sitting in the garage and got the idea to try making lime soda. It was great, but their syrups are not as sweet as they need to be for soda-making. I ended up using about a third of the bottle of syrup. Next time I may use a few shots of the lime syrup and adding some ordinary sugar syrup just to kick up the sweetness.
For those complaining about the taste, remember YOU control the intensity of the flavor. The first time I made cola, it was awful because I reduced the amount of syrup to help make it less sweet. Once I added a bit more syrup, it was drinkable.
No it doesn’t taste like Coke or Pepsi, in the same way that your home made Lasagna doesn’t taste like Stouffers and your home made bread doesn’t taste like Wonder Bread. So you’ll be disappointed if that’s what you’re expecting. But it does make a decent drink that satisfies my need for a fizzy cola-type beverage.
And there’s a video on You Tube of a guy showing how to refill the CO2 canisters yourself using dry ice. I will try that when mine run out. Although in the past two years I have only used up a single carbonator cartridge, so it may be another year or two before I get to try that.
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