July 21st, 2019:

	In and amongst the events of the past week, we bought a 
Sodastream.  I've wanted one for a while, as my soda siphon has been 
missing since we moved back in 2015.  The Sodastream Jet was on sale for 
$75 at Canadian Tire, so we picked it up, along with three flavour syrups 
(Black Cherry Cola, Cola, and Cranberry-Raspberry for our daughter).

Setup was easy, the instruction "manual" consists of ten wordless pictures 
showing how to open the unit up, install the CO^2 cylinder, close it back 
up, and install the carbonating bottle.

Using the thing is simple: fill the carbonating bottle with cold water (up 
to the line drawn on the bottle), screw it tightly into the Sodastream, 
then press and hold the button on top for two seconds and releasing 
(repeat as necessary to achieve the desired amount of carbonation).  Once 
you've done this, give the water a second or two to settle, then unscrew 
the bottle.  At this point, pour your desired amount of syrup into the 
carbonating bottle and shake gently.  I refrigerated the end product for 
an hour before drinking.

My first impression?  Meh.

I didn't carbonate the water enough, so the resulting black cherry cola 
was a tad flat - like a storebought cola left open overnight.  So, I drank 
the entire bottle and tried again using more carbonation.  This resulted 
in a soda that was TOO carbonated and slightly metallic tasting.  Practice 
makes perfect, I'm sure I'll get the ratio right the more I use the thing.

Of course, I didn't buy the Sodastream just to make sugary soda, I really 
wanted it so I could make fresh seltzer water for cocktails whenever I 
want.  It was marginally more expensive than a new soda siphon, and it's 
getting harder and harder to find soda bulbs locally...

If you're buying the Sodastream to replace store-bought soda and you like 
to have a variety on hand, do yourself a favour and buy a couple more 
carbonating bottles.  Either that, or buy a couple of containers to store 
your soda once it's made.

 My only complaint about Sodastreams in general is that you can't reenact 
your favourite slapstick scenes by spraying passersby with your seltzer 
bottle.  At least not without modification.