Kitchen / Food and Drink - Soda-Club Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker

Happy Independence Day, America!

Of course, for many people in the U.S. of A., the 4th of July means barbecue!

If you're sipping a nice ice-cold soda while grilling today, think about all the plastic and aluminum required to hold your fizzy drinks. (Of course, you can recycle the packaging, but still...)

How can you kick the bottle and can habit? One solution (my first choice, actually) is to use tap water and tea bags to make nice big pitchers of iced tea.

But if you've got to have the bubbly stuff, at least you can ditch most of the packaging with a Soda-Club® home soda maker.

The Soda-Club machine basically consists of a canister of carbon-dioxide inside a plastic dispenser. You add tap water to the 1-liter bottles that come with the machine, inject carbonation into the water with the press of a button and then add whatever syrup or other flavoring you like. Voila - practically instant soda!

When you're finished with your soda, just rinse out and reuse the bottle. (That would section #2 of the famous "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" slogan.)

As Soda-Club points out, if the Green movement doesn't want people buying bottled water, why is it OK to buy bottled soda? Why not just make your own soda at home with tap water, a CO2 cylinder and a dash of flavored syrup?

Well, for one thing, most people who drink soda like a particular brand or taste. IMHO, Soda-Club's flavors don't quite measure up to some of the name brand soda tastes that have been refined over decades. (On the bright side though, Soda-Club does claim that its soda mixes contain no high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and have 2/3-fewer carbs, calories and sugar than store-bought soda. We presume they mean non-diet kinds of soda...)

Also, if you're just an occasional soda-drinker, you may not want the hassle of mixing your own soda when you get an urge for a glass of the fizzy stuff.

Soda-Club could be great fun for kids who'll get to see what goes into making a bottle of soda, or it could even be a (minor) hit at cocktail parties, but be warned that the 1-liter bottles won't quench a thirsty crowd. You might want to get a couple of extra bottles if you do plan on using Soda-Club for a party.

Our verdict: For heavy soda drinkers who also want to play a smaller role in the plastic and aluminum waste stream, Soda-Club could be a Revolutionary product. But it still probably won't get its own public holiday.

Now go enjoy your fireworks.

Where to buy:
Online at Soda-Club's website. Offline at Boater's World stores nationwide and assorted other retail outlets.