When I was a little girl my Mum bought us a Sodastream, and I loved it. I used it regularly, and particularly liked making my favourite flavours then adding a hefty dollop of ice-cream to make ice-cream soda, yum. So when I was offered the chance to review a Sodastream machine I had to say yes.

First a confession. I drink diet coke, fairly regularly. I know it’s evil, and I’m not too crazy about the company that make it. However since I can’t stand tea or coffee, have small children and generally start my day at 6am, caffeine is my friend. Diet Coke has become the means by which I get my caffeine hit.

I was interested to note that Sodastream make their own version of diet cola, and I was eager to give it a try. In fact I decided that the only way to fully test the cola would be to hold my very own diet coke taste test. So I invited three eager testers, well ok I invited two eager testers and Motherventing a self confessed cola hater. So it was that Jo from Slummy Single Mummy, her beautiful daughter Bee and Fran aka Motherventing arrived to find me, my incredibly scientific chart and a shed load of cola drinks.

I added crisps and a butterfly filled with Jaffa Cakes to make the event a little bit more classy. Nothing says classy like Jaffa Cakes in a butterfly, right?

So to the test. I had Diet Coke, Pepsi Max, Coke Zero and Sodastream’s diet cola all contending for the prize of most popular cola drink. I asked the testers to rate the drink’s taste and fizz. The overall winner on flavour was Coke Zero scoring an impressive 12 out of a possible 15 points. Pepsi Max was the fizziest scoring 11 out of 15. I also asked the lovely ladies to identify what they were drinking. Well done to Bee and Jo who managed two out of four, guessing correctly which was the Diet Coke and which was the Sodastream.

The Sodastream cola obviously wasn’t the favourite of the bunch but with such strong contenders it was a tough challenge. If you’re a purist about your diet cola Sodastream have a massive range of other flavours available. I like the cream-soda and cherry flavour. I am also becoming fast addicted to the ‘my water’ range, subtle flavours to jazz up sparkling water.

The children have been testing the kid’s naturals range. A great way of letting them enjoy fizzy drinks with none of the nasties, artificial sweeteners or flavouring that you often find in soft drinks and squashes. Super Kid has given them a thumbs up.

I would absolutely recommend getting a Sodastream if you like fizzy drinks or sparkling water. It’s easy to use and takes up little space. Also what could be more fun than carbonating water? I have the Source model which is available to buy here alongside the rest of their range.