I bought a couple of bottles of flavored syrup for my sodastream today. They have expiration dates that are only a few weeks away. IIRC, syrups can be kept forever and still be fine to use as long as they haven’t crystallized. What is in Sodastream syrup that makes it expire so soon? These are Sodastream branded.
How do you know it wasn’t just very old stock that you bought? I’ve seen products on shelves that expired over a year ago. That doesn’t mean they have a negative expiration date.
I just checked a couple of bottles I bought yesterday. They expire in November. I think you just got unlucky.
Usually places will put soon-to-expire stuff on sale for the brave or someone that’s going to use it within a day or two (for meat). But yeah, sounds like you got unlucky.
I only buy the diet flavors and I also just checked mine. I think I bought these in November or so (I drink a lot less in the winter) and they all expire in Jun, Jul, Aug etc.
Do they “expire” or are they “sell by” “best by” or similar. Either way, I can’t imagine that syrup should be tossed if it’s out of date, even by some time (the OP notes this though).
The flavours degrade… old cordials/softdrinks have less tang and more bitter.
Maybe the acids and antioxidants get used up by the end of life…
there may be a worry preservatives are also ineffective by that time.
Honey and fruit juices and very sucrose filled syrups have enough antioxidants and acids and sucrose to last longer ?
In the diet drink,the very sweet substances (sugar replacement, to make it diet…there’s so little sweetener its of very little calorific value…) may degrade (oxidise, break up, combine into non-sweet molecules) too… resulting in the lack of sweetness, which leaves the cordial to taste bitter or foul.
On a related topic, I probably wouldn’t trust a Sodastream branded product’s expiry date. I would bet that they’re unnecessarily conservative. It appears that a big portion of their revenue is generated by the “blades:”
“According to SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum, ‘We created a razor and a razor-blade business model. The razor is obviously the soda maker and we have three blades: the CO2 refills, the flavour syrups, and the bottles. So it’s not a one-time sale – the blades are our future revenue stream. We acquire users, build our installed base, and we cultivate those users for life.’”
Due to Sodastream’s $40 refills for the 130L canister in Canada, I have modded mine to take a standard paintball C02 tank. Fills are now $4.
Yeah, if the bottles say they’re expired, that probably just means that they want you to buy more. Doesn’t mean you have to.