My brother is in town from Southern California today. He calls me up and says… “ummm what is Swig, and why is there a line of cars for it?” I informed my brother that here in Utah, we take our soda VERY seriously. So seriously in fact that a small shop that sells cookies and “dirty” sodas (soda with a shot of flavored syrup) will have a line of cars at 10 AM (or really any time of the day). So, when I was at CES and saw what Keurig is doing with soda…. I knew I had to give it a shot!
Keurig was kind enough to send me a drink maker to test out and I brought it along with my to my friend’s Super Bowl party. 8 adults… about a billion kids… it was the perfect venue to test this guy out!
My friend also just so happens to have a ton of flavored syrups so we were able to make our own “dirty” sodas with our Keurig Kold.
I’m sure you are all familiar with the standard Keurig machines (the hot ones). You have pods of different kinds of hot drinks, coffee, hot chocolate, etc and you are able to make individual cups of those drinks. This is the same sort of thing, but with Soda! It also does mixed drinks as well, but I don’t drink alcohol, so I have no idea how well it handles those.
So, in a room full of soda connoisseurs from Utah, how did the Keurig stack up?
Things we loved
We loved that it dispenses COLD fountain drinks. Just like you would get at the gas station or restaurant. Keurig actually put research into the perfect temperature for a beverage and found that 39 degrees was the sweet spot. We also loved that we could have a large variety of drinks, without purchasing a ton of 24 packs that would end up half used, and everyone could have what they wanted.
To keep the drinks at the ideal temperature you have to let the water you put in the drink maker chill for a certain amount of time. You can avoid this wait by putting ice in with the water. They call this “party mode” which was definitely utilized during our Super Bowl party.
The home brand drinks were delicious! I’m a total root beer snob. I even ask what brand of root beer a restaurant has, if they have an acceptable brand, then I will get root beer. If not, I will drink water. I LOVED the root beer that Keurig sells.
No more waiting in the always lengthy line of cars as Swig! Making my own “dirty” Dr. Pepper just got a whole lot easier.
As an EXTREMELY occasional soda drinker, I love being able to just choose a soda I want at any time. Since I don’t drink soda often, I usually can’t even finish a can. This gives me a little treat, but doesn’t make me over do it on the soda.
Things we didn’t love
It does take 90 seconds to make a drink. I know… first world problems for sure, but it does seem like a while when you are waiting for one.
Pods are expensive. This is definitely not for a heavy duty soda drinker for their daily fix of soda. It would get extremely expensive. It is typically around 1.00 per pod, and the pod dispenses and 8 oz. drink. You can definitely get a 24 pack of 12 oz sodas for MUCH cheaper. If your soda of choice is from a fountain though, this is going to be perfect for you, since you are already paying close to that anyway.
Something wasn’t QUITE right with the Diet Coke. Again, we are a serious state about Diet Coke. I have actually never had the stuff, but most of my friends are avid Diet Coke drinkers. I had them do a taste test, since I really wouldn’t know the difference. They said it didn’t quite taste right. Either there wasn’t enough syrup or carbonation or something. We did notice that there was a little bit of syrup left in the pod after it had dispensed the drink, and we think that may be the cause.
Final Verdict
I actually like the device a lot. As I mentioned I’m not a huge soda drinker, and it’s just the right amount of “treat” for me. I’m enjoying a perfect root beer float right this second! It also does iced teas and as I mentioned it does cocktails as well. If you love to entertain, it’s a GREAT option to be able to have a lot of drinks ready to go for all of your guests, without taking down the entire soda aisle at the store. I did purchase a ton of Diet Coke pods for all of my friends, so if you need a nice cold Diet Coke… you know where to find me!
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