In the past year, SodaStream has hit the shelves in a big way: It went from 2,500 stores in the fourth quarter of 2010 to nearly 9,500 today. That sort of growth is nothing short of explosive for any brand, but especially for one that until a few years ago had awareness levels in America of, well, zilch.
Did you know that the average British family uses 827 plastic bottles for carbonated soft drinks every year? The people at SodaStream do, and as well as obviously promoting their more environmentally-friendly approach to fizzy stuff, they commissioned artist Bamber Hawes to illustrate just how much plastic that is.
Even SodaStream itself is just an update of a product that’s been around for years. The company’s roots go back to 1903, when Guy Gilbey (a surname familiar to gin drinkers) invented the first home carbonation machine, in the United Kingdom. A smaller version of the machine was popular in Europe and elsewhere for decades, but it wasn’t until 2009, after a global brand revamping, that the product became widely available in the United States.
Andrew Schloss, author of the recently published “Homemade Soda,” credits SodaStream with making the process easier for the amateur. The company, which had a heyday in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and ’80s, is enjoying another one in North America, where sales of its home-carbonation machines have almost tripled in the past year.
SodaStream's own corporate roots extend back more than a century. The heir to a gin fortune invented the first SodaStream in 1903, and the company made a splash in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s with its famed jingle, "Get busy with the fizzy."
“It’s fantastic,” said Jim Sinclair, a financial planner in Tybee Island, Georgia, who received a SodaStream appliance in December. “If you have guests coming over, you don’t have to buy a 24-pack to keep them happy.”
Fridge A fun booze alternative, the SodaStream Crystal instantly transforms tap water into carbonated water, soda, sparkling energy drinks or cocktail mixers. The energy-efficient machine requires no batteries or electricity. It scores eco-points and saves his back — no more lugging countless cans and plastic bottles that end up in landfills.
Dad can make his own soda with this handy gadget, which basically carbonates water that you can flavor with bottles of syrup. The whole back of the Fizz is a CO2 tank, giving you a whole bunch of bottles of pop on one recharge. I really liked the soda flavors that you can buy, a couple of the exotic flavors were challenging but for the most part they were tasty and accessible.
Erin O'Connor is lending her support to SodaStream's new World Without Bottle campaign, an initiative to raise awareness of plastic bottle waste and its effect on the environment.
Erin O’Connor has teamed up with SodaStream to launch 'A World Without Bottles', a campaign to raise awareness of plastic bottle waste and its devastating effects on the environment.
