In Japan, carbonated beverages are a precious resource for many people looking to cool down during the hot and humid summer months. We are constantly making trips to the convenience store, supermarket or nearest vending machine to get a fix of fizzy relief. However, this dependence comes at a price: since most people can’t make these beverages in their own homes, they must pay for plastic bottle after plastic bottle that eventually yield some degree of waste, even if recycled.

Israel-based company SodaStream offers a solution to this problem with its line of household carbonated beverage drink makers, which turn tap water into sparkling water in 3 seconds. This breakthrough machine is already available in 41 countries, with Japan joining the party later this month.

The process seems simple enough: pour tap water into one of SodaStream’s high pressure-resistant bottles, set it into the machine, pull the lever to inject carbon, add the flavored syrup of your choice and you’re done! You don’t even need electricity!

While SodaStream’s international website claims there are over 100 flavors of syrup available for purchase, it seems Japan is currently limited to only 11: Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, ginger ale, and a variety of fruit flavors.

We were able to get our hands on a machine for our office and were pleased to find that the flavor is just the same as the carbonated beverages we’ve been so fervently drinking. Not only that, but since we can just use the bottles packaged with the machine, our office is a little more green and we don’t have to take the trash out as much as before!

One SodaStream carbonator goes for 3600 yen – 2100 yen if you bring in your old one at the time of purchase – and is said to make the equivalent of roughly 120 plastic 500 milliliter bottles. With Japanese people always looking for new ways to add more green to their lifestyle, we’re sure these drink makers will shake things up once they go on sale later this month.

Photos＝Rocketnews24

Source：SodaStream (Japanese), SodaStream (English)


▼　A selection of the syrups available at launch

▼　Make a bottle faster in less time than it takes to walk to the vending machine!