The One Kitchen Gadget I Saw in Every Swedish Home This Summer

Swedish style and design are revered the world over for their simplicity, functionality and timeless appeal. Which is precisely why every time I travel there (I’m originally Swedish but I haven’t lived there for decades), I make sure to take note of the latest trends those effortlessly chic Swedes are embracing. Just last month, I spent three weeks in and around Stockholm, popping into various homes of friends and family, and I noticed they all had one kitchen gadget in particular—a sparkling water maker, or carbonator.

What is a sparkling water maker, you ask? The device is simple, really—it sits on your countertop (it’s slightly smaller than the size of a blender) and uses carbon dioxide to carbonate tap water and make bubbly water in seconds. The carbon dioxide comes in the form of gas canisters (more on where to get those below) that you insert into the device.

Anecdotally, this kitchen gadget is very popular in Sweden. And per reports, some 20 percent of households in Sweden own SodaStream machines. Why so many? If I had to guess, I’d say that it’s partly because Swedes drink less soda than many other countries (you can buy syrups to put into your device to make soda, but nobody I know uses these), so this is a healthier way to get your fizz fix. I suspect another major factor is that Swedes are famously eco-friendly, and making their own sparkling water rather than buying it in cans and bottles cuts down on trash and recycling. It’s also highly cost effective—one user recently did the math and discovered that a family with two soda water drinkers consuming two cans each per day can save close to $600 a year with a SodaStream device. (My husband and I are guilty of each drinking one LaCroix a day—sometimes two!—an indulgence that costs us more than $360 per year.)

In Sweden, there are two big names in the household carbonator game—SodaStream and Aarke. Here in the U.S., both brands are available but there are others, of course, including Breville, DrinkMate and Philips. I haven’t tried the latter, but I can speak to the Swedish favorites.

You can easily buy carbonation canisters online from the soda maker’s own website. Both SodaStream and Aarke offer canister exchange programs that allow you to exchange your empty CO2 cylinders for new ones delivered straight to your door. You can also buy gas from big retailers like Amazon, choosing either to stick with your device’s own canisters (like here and here) or opt for a compatible (and often cheaper) CO2 canister (like this one). If going through another retailer, exchange programs may vary. Alternatively, many retailers like Walmart and Target sell these canisters in-store and will exchange empty ones. These canisters cost anywhere from $10 to $30 each, so don’t forget to factor that into your final cost analysis.