Dull Men's Club

I'll pass on a company doing business in illegally occupied Palestine and just drink water.

I do not like Sodastream's or many other Sodastream-like specific syrups because they aren't sweet enough to cut through the carbonic acid created by carbonating the water. When I had one, I would get real syrup boxes, like for a real soda fountain. Super economical even for the smallest box. It also helps to let the finished water off-gas a bit, because if your model doesn't have a control for how much carbonation you want, it tends to be a little on the higher side.

Also the higher surface area to volume ratio of the little canisters might effect the freshness.

I have had a soda stream for a few years but have only had to replace the little co2 canister once. I usually drink it with no flavors, and have not noticed any taste. Me and my family have tried the cola flavors and the fruit seltzer flavors, but it's usually more trouble than it's worth to clean the bottle, vs if you use water only.

Maybe you had a bad batch? Or have a more refined palate?

bums me out how much i dislike the taste of carbonation, so I can't justify to myself getting a soda machine. love a fun kitchen gadget.

the local gas store? specifically for different types of gases? I'm unfamiliar.

I brew beer and exclusively keg it, no bottling. Years ago I decided to just fill a keg with water and throw it in the kegerator on my third tap. One of the best ideas I've ever had.

This is not dull, steps toward self sufficiency are exciting!

Check out BigClivedotcom's YT channel, besides being an electronics geek he tries to carbonate every liquor known to man.

I just spent a little time this morning refilling canisters we use in our machine. I just have the tank with an adapter and I got a diptube put into one of my CO2 tanks to do that with, so it fills with liquid off the bottom of the tank. I put empty cyclnders in the freezer so they hold more when filling.

In your scenario, you just want the gas at the top for directly running the machine, but I don't have room to put a full tank by the machine in the kitchen, besides being ugly.

Heavily carbonated water fresh out of the pressurized tank is delicious. Try mixing with some dry, white wine like a sauvignon blanc for even more fun!

Check out One On One Flavors. They sell water soluble and oil soluble flavors.

A few years ago I bought a variety the water soluble flavors for making flavored sparkling water at home. I've enjoyed most of my choices and the few I don't care for are still interesting (and useful for cocktail experiments).

Some of the cola flavorings are fine as-is. Some of them rely on a bit of sweetness to taste like they should.

Just throwing this out there on the flavored syrups side; most companies that I'd only previously known for latte syrups also make some good mixers. For instance Monin's lavender is awesome in carbonated water

I wonder if you're tasting off gassed plasticizers from the seals used in the soda stream bottles or something? It would depend on how you modified your SodaStream to use the new big bottle, but those tend to be a lot more metal and a lot less plastic or rubber than a cheap consumer bottle.

I was always intrigued by Sodastream as I love sparkling water and bottled water is getting expensive. They are heavily marketed here in Germany, too, but it wouldn't work for me because our tap water sucks.

I'm glad they work for you. I could never get mine to carbonate the drinks, no matter what I did. The CO² and liquid refused to combine in the bottle.

I wish someone would just make a mini soda fountain for the home that can fit on a kitchen counter. That would work a million times better than a SodaStream.