The pods are awful. My friend, who buys lots of useless stuff, has described the Kold as "the most useless thing I've ever bought."

A mini-fridge + 20 cases of Coke is cheaper upfront and in the long run.

Plus it doesn't take 90 seconds to get a can out of the fridge!

That seems to be some reviewers thoughts as well - save the trouble and buy a mini-fridge

http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/07/keurig-kold-irl/

If you have a soda fountain, you can buy a 5 gallon pod of Coke syrup for $81 which will make you 320 12-oz drinks: http://www.samsclub.com/sams/coca-cola-5-gallon-bag-in-box-f...

That seems to work out to around 25 cents per 12 floz which is not a whole lot cheaper than the cans from costco.

A four pack of two-liters is $4: http://www.samsclub.com/sams/coke-4-2-liter-bottle/prod96004... which is 18 cents per 12 floz.

But it takes up less space, you don't need to resupply as often, and you can set the mixer on your tap to add more or less ratio of syrup to water.

Not to mention the aluminum cans are infinitely more recyclable than the used pods are.

I suspect it's a licensing thing. The Soda Stream lets you make a liter of soda for about the price of a generic soda (when you factor in CO2 + syrup)

As for the size of the pod, a cap of syrup smaller than one 12 oz drink's pod can make that same liter (though the Kold doesn't have a CO2 cartridge, so I'm sure the tech transfers the fizziness to the pod somehow)

FWIW, you can buy a sodastream unit for ~$70 and then for another $200 to $300 get a conversion kit and a large co2 cylinder and from then on the cost of carbonation works out to less than three cents per liter. Not sure what the syrup cost is since I only use mine for sparkling water.

I just wanted to comment to say that that is a brilliant idea. I only use my Soda Stream for sparking water as well, but I pay about 25 cents per liter for the standard refills.

I have a co2doctor[0,1] kit, a 20lb capacity tank from amazon (bought new - you can get them used but then you don't know where they've been or how clean they are...) and filled it for about $30 at Carbonic Service[2] in Santa Clara.

0. http://co2doctor.com/ (site down at the time this comment was posted)

1. http://www.ebay.com/sch/co2doctor/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg...

2. http://www.yelp.com/biz/carbonic-service-santa-clara

Or skip the sodastream and special kit and buy a "carbonator cap" for 15 bucks. That, a tank, a fitting, and a regulator and you're good to go.

Helps that sodastream doesn't try to chill the drink, which you can just do ahead of time by refrigerating the water

I like Soda Stream and own one, but the syrups aren't very good if you ask me. I'd happily pay more for Syrup if it was the branded stuff that tastes right.

Part of the reason why, I suspect, is because they aren't aiming for 1:1 parity, they want "healthier" so they can put it on a billboard. Ultimately result is that they taste like diet drinks (only with more sugar).

I agree. I have one, and about the only want I can tolerate is their Cola Zero. However, I've since went back to Coke Zero cans, and was excited by the Kold, but the price really is a non-starter.

>And those capsules look big (which is probably because there's so much sugar in soda, they can't make them tiny. Probably about 1/4 the size of a 8 ounce can of coke.

Also "carbonation beads stored within the pod"

Who knows, maybe Coca Cola is playing a long game, and hope to refine the technology enough that one day they can ship around only the dry ingredients, and save $$$ on shipping all the water in each can?

That'd be an insane amount of money being saved if that really did happen.

Like they do with their Freestyle product?

In essence, yeah. Probably the catch is the vending machine style approach just doesn't work in homes or small offices- a Keurig approach, where the user supplies the raw materials packet, would be more suitable.