Just another reason why I love our local BJ’s Wholesale Club. You never know what kind of product demonstration you are going to see when you stop by. Not to mention what yummy samples you can fill up on. :ps…the sample people will almost always let your kids have seconds..and sometimes thirds so don’t be afraid to ask!:

Since we’ve been members we’ve purchased a Vitamix Blender, a Keurig Single Cup Coffee Maker, some kind of super-duper military towels that soak up any mess a four year old can throw at you and now our new SodaStream Soda Maker Kit.

So we are walking the demo table and the boy starts screaming he wants a sample..he has no idea what it is but he wants it. Once he realizes it’s soda he asks the nice man for a Diet Coke. After everyone gave me a stink-eye look for letting my kid drink Diet Coke so often that he asks for over regular Coke or Sprite, the demo guy made us a fresh, bubbly liter of Diet Coke. It was AWESOME!

There are countless flavors and it’s so easy that they boy can mix up his own liter of lemon-lime soda or root beer without my help, save for opening the flavoring bottle. We probably would have bought one anyway, but when the guy whipped us up a quick liter of their version of Red Bull, the hubs was putting one in the cart before I even knew what had happened.

Here’s how it works…the starter kit comes with the machine, (that does not need batteries or electricity by the way) a slim carbonator cylinder, two liter reusable soda bottles, one smaller reusable bottle, three small bottles of flavoring if you just want flavored bubbly water and about 15 sample flavors.

You fill the bottle up to the water line, attache to machine, push the button until you hear the buzz, add in your flavor, gently shake and enjoy a freshly carbonated soda that tastes 100 times better than the flat coke you get at fast food joints on a regular basis.

So far we’ve made the energy drink, diet cola and  lemon-lime soda. I thought for sure once we got home and the “new” wore off the hubs would say he still needed the expensive Red Bull..but so far likes this stuff better. And I really can’t stomach regular Diet Coke, I only ever drink Coke Zero..but SodaStream’s version of diet coke is actually good.

Tomorrow we will be making some fresh root beer. If I had known there was a big root beer sample in the box I would’ve bought some ice cream.

Cost breakdown:

Start-up kit at BJ’s = $89.99

After you use up your samples which will make about 15 liters of soda you need your own bottle of flavoring

Each bottle of flavoring = $6.99 (each bottle of flavoring makes 50 eight oz glasses of soda)

After 200-250 sodas you will have to replace canister for about $20

Definitely a good value if your family is into soda. Or flavored bubbly water.

Oh, and they have tons of decaf soda flavors too…like orange and cranberry.

Big thumbs up for this real family.