Flash in the Pan

My family knocks back seltzer as though it were water – which it is. But to get more effervescent joy in ordinary tap water you have to add the bubbles. That’s what the Soda Club Edition 1 soda maker does, and quite well from my experience with the review unit the company sent.

As you can see from the picture, the unit is close to twice the height of a liter drink bottle. A large CO2 cartridge screws into a connector in the back. You fill one of the supplied bottles with cold water (keeping it in the fridge works as does well water from a tap in rural western Massachusetts). Screw the bottle into the connector on the front, press a button on the top, and you have carbonated water in about 20 seconds. Although the instructions suggest pressing the button thrice, each time until you hear a buzzing noise, I found that to be excessive. One to two rounds is enough, depending on the amount of carbonation you want.

The soda part comes from adding a syrup after carbonation is done. We tried a few – the root beer, cola, and grapefruit (too strange for our household), but overall found the quality to be high. And adding syrup to gassy water is exactly how soda machines at eating establishments work, albeit automatically. Instead of following recommendations to pour a fixed measure of syrup into a bottle, we added a teaspoon or two to a glass. That worked just fine and you end up using a lot less syrup than you would get in a store-supplied batch. You also get far more flexibility in soda flavors, so you don’t end up with partially opened bottles all going flat at the same time. If you prefer diet, the sweetening agent is Splenda instead of Aspartame, which my wife says is smart, and I find it smart not to disagree as she tends to be right.

Now let’s talk economics, and hang on because it will get complicated for a moment. The unit we tried lists for about $80 and $20 in shipping and handling, so $100. Each canister of gas is about $19 and $8 in shipping and handling, or $27, unless you happen to live near one of the retail outlets that offer the products.

There can be a long-term cost savings. The company claims that a canister gasses about 110 bottles, but I rounded that down to about 100 given the wide-eyed optimism I’ve seen from corporations in the past. That makes the first 100 liters of seltzer alone about $1 each. But after that, figuring on having the CO2 canister delivered, the seltzer is 27 cents a bottle, or about half of the cost if you get 2-liter bottles at a grocery store. Go through that second canister and you’ve broken even on the cost.

How quickly you hit that break even point depends on how quickly you consume. I worked it out to be about four months if you go through 8 liters a week, which is actually significantly less than my family does. (We’re big on plain seltzer with a slice of lemon.) so this is one of those things that really can save you money, depending on your drinking habits.

The syrups run from $2.99 to $4.99 per bottle. The company says that each container makes 12 liters of soda, which adds between 25 and 42 cents a liter, not counting shipping. There’s a half liter or 16.9 ounces per bottle. There are 5 milliliters in a teaspoon, or 10 milliliters if you use 2 teaspoons per glass as we did. That would work out to 50 glasses, and if you figure four glasses in a liter, that works out about the same as the company’s calculations. So once you hit that break-even, you’re looking at between 52 and 69 cents per liter. Not bad at all, and that’s before the bubbles start tickling your nose.