From a very young age, I was a massive fan of Sodastream. I’ve written about it before. My granny used to have one in her house and I adored it. Naturally, 5 year old me didn’t know about Sodastream and the connection to Palestine. To be fair, much older me took some time too. I’m not here to judge you whether or not you take an interest in boycotts and the likes. I am here to talk to you about the Sodastream alternatives that are available in Ireland.
Aarke Carbonators – Best Sodastream Alternative in Ireland
Aarke is a Swedish company that’s focused highly on design. If you never liked Sodastream because of design, let alone all the other stuff, Aarke will interest you.
Sodastream tends to be very plastic and feels rather cheap when put up against the products you’d find in a premium kitchen. If you imagine Kitchen Aid versus Kenwood, that’s what I’m talking about.
Aarke offers a wide range of water carbonators, starting at €168, which does put them in the upper price bracket. However, the build quality is far superior, even with the entry level Aarke Carbonator 3. One additional nice point is that glass bottles are more the norm. Glass bottles are great because they look awesome, but they are also dishwasher safe. It’s very hard to get dishwasher safe Sodastream bottles.
You can buy Aarke from Faerly too. Faerly is an Irish sustainability brand stocking some excellent products. I understand for many buying the cheapest solution is the only choice, but when you can buy from a brand like Faerly I always recommend it.
C02 Gas Bottle Exchange
There was a long time when Argos was the only place I could get CO2 bottles swapped out. This is an important point when it comes to owning a carbonator. They’re only useful as long as you can get the gas for them.
There was another large Australian company in Ireland offering Sodastream exchange, but it was always a pain going to get the bottles swapped out.
Faerly offers a delivery exchange system. It’s absolutely excellent. You send back your empties and they give you a €10 voucher for each so you can buy more. Brilliant, isn’t it.
Anyway, some other choices for you.
My Soda: Another Scandinavian Option
Massive cavaet here. I’ve never tested out My Soda. They are a Finnish maker of water carbonators that I just have to include because of the price. For just €60 you can get yourself a water carbonator from My Soda. If you add in some syrups with your order, you’ll get free shipping too.
One issue here is that they can’t ship their products to Ireland with a CO2 canister. I say problem. You can still order your bottles of CO2 from Faerly. So if you don’t want to buy Sodastream but feel like Aarke is just a little overpriced, My Soda is a very viable alternative.
Drinkmate: The German Option
I’m including Drinkmate here because I’ve seen them in operation before and liked them. I’m also including Drinkmate because we recently brought the deposit return system into Ireland; a system which Germany has had for ages. So it’s worth mentioning that if you hate the run to the shop with a bag of bottles to get your money back, why not change your habits.
Any drinks carbonator will reduce the number of plastic bottles you buy. I used to buy dozens of bottles a week, but now thanks to a filter jug and a water carbonator, I don’t buy any.
Drinkmate will ship the Omnifizz to Ireland for €135, it comes with a few spare bottles and is again compatible with the CO2 canisters that Faerly deliver to your front door as part of the CO2 canister return scheme.
Personally, from these products, I would recommend Aarke above all. But I appreciate that it’s also the priciest on the list. Which ever one you buy, I think you’ll be happy enough. At the end of the day, they all kind of do the exact same thing!
What I have seen popping up in a few more places these days are syrups. Random little shops around Dublin sell drops and flavours to spruce up your fizzy water. I might take a closer look at that soon!