Good Grapevine
My grapes are bursting with info and flavour for you to devour!

If you are a savvy consumer, you know there are more beverage choices than ever. Before buying that next high-calorie soda pop, stop and consider a healthier alternative.

SodaStream was created in 1903. Giles Gilby invented a carbonation system which made fizzy water from standard water; it was originally sold to the upper classes. Different flavours were introduced in the 1920s. These included cherry ciderette and sarsaparilla. In the 1970s and 80s it enjoyed vast success, becoming a big hit in countries such as the UK, Germany and Australia.

The company underwent numerous changes in ownership, at one stage even being part of the Cadbury Schweppes empire. 1998 was the year the company changed hands for the final time when purchased by Soda Club, at that time Israel’s biggest supplier of SodaStream. SodaStream remained the name of the brand after Soda Club’s unsuccessful bid to change the brand from SodaStream to Soda-Club.

More recently Soda Club sought to reinvigorate the SodaStream brand. SodaStream was relaunched along with a new machine and many more new flavours, concentrating on being a healthy alternative to fizzy, sugar-rich drinks such as Coca Cola and Pepsi, and focused on health and diet issues so prevalent in this day and age.

In basic terms, the SodaStream product is a home carbonation kit, which allows you to change water into sparkling water, as well as allowing you to add low-calorie flavours such as cola and orange. A large assortment of calorie-free flavours to flavour sparkling water to great taste is sold at allfreightfree.com.

The SodaStream machine works by forcing co2 into a bottle suitable for pressurising that is filled with water. The water is turned into sparkling (carbonated) water by the co2. This process — dissolving co2 — is referred to as carbonation. The carbonated water can then be drunk on its own as sparkling water, or mixed with flavours to create tasty, healthy treats. Once the co2 canisters have been used up they can be sent back to Soda-Club who recycle the canisters by refilling them with co2 then sending them back out.

As far as the actual health and diet benefits gained from drinking SodaStream, it is claimed that all their flavours are completely sugar-free and contain a maximum of 2 calories per 100ml, surely good news for parents concerned about their children’s diet.

The SodaStream machine adds only co2 to the water, meaning it does not have the added sugar that some bottled sparkling water contains, so there is no particular difference between it and normal water.

SodaStream have made much of their environmental and health credentials, going so far as to claim that each litre bottle of SodaStream saves three aluminum cans. This, in turn, means that over 3 years, a family of four could slash their soft-drink-related packaging usage by over 90%. This is a big claim, one that should stand them in good stead in this environmentally conscious age. Obviously, Sodastream has developed into a realistic alternative to the big players in the soft drink world.