My nice crew, from the trip up here from the UK, left the
boat with a gift of a Sodastream machine. And on top of that, they made a double recipe of Seaworthylass' superb homemade tonic
I've always had great luck with crew!
Now how to get the best from this machine. Maybe others can offer some tips. Here are my impressions so far:
1. I don't have a good feel for how many times you have to press the button to get the right amount of carbonation. I think I've been pressing it too many times which obviously greatly increases cost, but also makes the
water somewhat acidic. I want strongly carbonated
water, however.
2. Despite the apparently really well made product bottles, the product doesn't keep very well, so one liter of produced soda water does not equal one liter of usable soda water
I think I need half-liter bottles, but I was not able so far to buy these separately.
3. Because of the wastage and large number of presses required to get a strong carbonation, I am not expecting to achieve the advertised economics. I'm not sure whether I will be willing to go to the yet further hassle of self-refilling of the
tanks. HOWEVER, I'm not sure this is so terrible. That's because I can't seem to really get good soda water in cans anyway, AND it's a lot of lugging even if you do. Even if it's not cheaper than
buying cans of stuff, it is definitely more efficient in terms of space taken up, lugging stuff to the
boat, and the hassle of finding it. I probably wouldn't mind spending the cost of a couple of bottles of gin to have a couple of
tanks of gas on board which gives me a whole summer's worth of soda water for cocktails -- problem
solved for the whole summer.
4. I'm not using it for anything besides cocktails. We also drink a bit of Coca Cola -- something I never drink except at sea, but like to have there. I'm not sure we drink enough of it, for it to be worthwhile trying to make it, with the Sodastream.
Any thoughts or tips?