The Penguin is no Batman character, and it doesn't march. The Penguin is one darn nice machine to make soda water.
Yes this is an expensive device; it is about double the price for the plastic bottle version. But the quality of this is so much higher and the design is so much better than the plastic bottle machines. Yes they make exactly the same soda water, the syrups and carbonator are identical, but this is a joy to use and look at.
SodaStream water is a huge surprise. I never imagined that our tap water, not bad tasting in the first place could taste this good. Using simply tap water, the flavor is not far off from Perrier or San Pellegrino. Our tap water from Lake Michigan the City of Chicago, has a bit of chlorine and harsh flavor. Add syrup, and this is remarkable water.
This isn't necessarily something to do because it is cheaper - I'm still not clear on the economics. No, first and foremost, it is convenience and flavor. Convenience in that I don't have to carry big nasty cases of sparkling water from the car and Costco anymore. Convenience in that it takes under a minute to make roughly a liter of sparkling water, another minute to add syrup to make a soda pop. Flavor because I can now make a zillion different flavors of soda that taste at least as good as the canned variety, and in some cases way better.
The tipping point for me compared to the plastic bottle SodaStream was the design and glass bottles. The plastic bottles have a two year shelf life and cannot go in the dishwasher. I'm not a huge fan of trying to keep track of when two years is up for the bottles. I don't like the idea that the plastic bottles can't be sanitized with hot water. The glass bottles solve all those problems, they have essentially a forever shelf life, can be reused for a very long time. They can be run through the dishwasher. Any time you are dealing with sugar and water, there is always a chance that bacteria could grow (bacteria growth media for the laboratory is mostly a sugar source and water). Yes if you keep the bottles refrigerated the chances are less, but why bother with even that possibility.
The design aspect of this machine is outstanding. This is one beautiful machine. It stands kind of tall, about a foot and a half. It really does look like a penguin in real life. The silver beak is the carbonation trigger. The two eyes are the release button to remove the black rear panel for exchanging the carbonator. The silver back is two parts - the top is plastic and the bottom half is stainless steel. The top part contains the adapter for the CO2, and raises straight up. The bottom half swings out on an angle to easily insert a glass bottle. There are two buttons on the back, the top one is the pressure relief - after carbonating the water, that button releases the left over pressure. The bottom button is to unlock the compartment (it is not possible to move that lever when the bottle is under pressure).
The bottles are ultra heavy duty. These are thick glass, more like wine bottle thickness. They have a pleasant shape, hold nicely in my hand. The ripples on the outside add a bit of grip to them. They look beautiful in the refrigerator or on the table. The caps are the slightly controversial part of the bottles. At first I hated them, silver plastic round bubble with a black plastic base. After using them for some time, they are really well designed. The round top actually screws a silicone plug up and down inside the cap. The black plastic goes around an octagonal lip on the bottle that prevents the cap from spinning freely. The silver cap is then turned to force the silicone plug down and seal the bottle. Hard to describe, super easy to use.
The unit itself has a really good weight to it. The silver end of things feels expensive. The big black plastic cover for the carbonator feels a little bit cheap, but that isn't something that gets removed very often, so that's not a bad thing.
Oh the pain of the first root beer I made with this. Stupid, stupid, stupid me. I filled the bottle with water up to the raised line on the glass (very easy to see). Put it in the machine, closed it up, pushed down on the beak four or five times until I heard it whistle three times (the machine whooshes as CO2 gets fills the bottle, and once the bottle is full, the relief valve whistles), vented the CO2 with the button, opened up the machine and took out the bottle. In the dining room I poured a dose of foot beer syrup into the brown cap, and then proceeded to slowly pour the syrup into the bottle of carbonated water. Things went really great for about half the dose, and then all of a sudden it was like Mount Vesuvius erupting, root beer was bubbling up out of the bottle like crazy all over the place. I grabbed the bottle and dashed to the kitchen sink. By that time the foaming had stopped, but there was a trail of root beer for 10 feet and a big puddle on the dining room table.
Lesson learned the very hard way, and I hope you don't learn that lesson the hard way. Always, always, always, pour the syrup down the side of the bottle. Never pour it straight down the middle of the bottle. I've learned how to add the syrup now, and it is really not hard at all to prevent getting soda all over the place.
A little tiny bit of physics is appropriate. Cold water will absorb more CO2 than warm water. So if the desire is to have maximum fizzy soda, use very cold water. That is another huge advantage of these glass bottles, they have a fairly large thermal mass, so they help keep water cold longer than the plastic.
On to the economics. The syrups are kind of expensive, or they seem to be expensive. My first flavors are root beer and lemon lime. Both are outstanding syrups. The root beer has a good sassafras root flavor to it (not as great as Goose Island root beer but as good as Dad's retro with sugar), and the lemon lime tastes a lot like Sprite and Sierra Mist. Both are made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup. The syrups are in the $5 range for supposedly 25 liters of soda. I'm trying to follow the instructions on the volume of syrup to use, and there's no way I'm getting 25 bottles of soda out of that container. The syrup is probably around $0.20 to $0.30 per liter. The carbonator tank is a mixed deal. I'm lucky; I have a ton of places that exchange tanks near my house - including Staples. Once I've bought a tank for around $30, I can exchange that tank for a full one at $15. If I can make 60 liters of soda water, that's roughly $0.25 per liter of soda. I'm guessing I'll get less than that out of a tank, so the carbonation is $0.40 per liter. Now if I had to buy a new carbonator every time and maybe throw the empty tank away that would still be $0.50 to $0.80 per liter of water.
That brings me to the final cost per liter of soda. Sparkling water is a cheap $0.25 to $0.80 per liter. If I add syrup from SodaStream, the total cost is $0.45 to $1.10 per liter. On the low side, that's a great deal. On the high side, still a decent deal. Yes, from a purely economic standpoint, after you count the cost of the machine; this is not the reason to buy this system.
The next level of drinks with this machine is moving off the farm of SodaStream's syrups. There is a world of syrups out there in amazing flavors that will make the most unusual sodas. The Torani line of Italian syrups is a great first spot to look. The next spot is the liquor store; there are a ton of syrups for mixing drinks - cosmopolitan, appletini, and others. Grenadine is subtle pomegranate red syrup. Orgeat is almond flavored syrup that makes one of the most unusual sodas I've ever tasted. After that, using real fruit juice - fresh squeezed lime or lemons is pretty simple. To recreate a sweeter version of just plain juice, simple syrup can be added (another liquid from the liquor store). It's not too hard to make your own simple syrup with sugar and water. Even using unrefined or raw sugar for the simple syrup adds another flavor to the water. Bottled fruit juice is a little less successful because the flavor isn't concentrated enough.
Finally, there is nothing better in the world than a few ounces of Jack Daniels and a nice cold crisp freshly prepared equal amount of soda water on ice.
Is it clear that I love this machine? Sorry, I'm sure I sound like a crazed fanboy. That is purely unintentional. Once we decided to buy into making sodas at home, SodaStream was the first logical step. After getting to SodaStream, it wasn't too much of a leap to decide that glass and beautiful design were important. If this is going to sit out on the counter, I'd rather have something that looks great than something that looks industrial.
May 4, 2012 Update: I have discovered syrup nirvana - William Sonoma sells two incredible syrups, Cola and Root Beer. They are a bit more expensive, but the flavor is amazing. The syrup comes in glass bottles and does not require refrigeration after opening. I've tried the Torani syrups and just don't care for them, caramel and hazelnut were just too strange. I had a problem with my Penguin, the plastic tube broke. The store I bought this at replaced the unit with no questions asked (this is a local electronics / appliance store). I have no idea how much trouble a warranty replacement would be with SodaStream. I just didn't want to deal with shipping.
