Bonne O sparkling beverage system review and taste testing

I’m a huge fan of small kitchen appliances, and when I find a great one I love to share my new find with friends and family. That’s why, if you’ve been around me for the past week, you’ll probably have heard me me talk about how much fun I had with the Bonne O sparkling beverage system.

I’ve had at-home beverage makers before and I used them religiously to make my own soda or carbonated water, but the one thing that sidelined me every time was the fact that I had to go out and pick up a CO2 tank when the one I was using ran out. They always seemed to run out during the times I needed them most too.

That’s one of the reasons why I love the Bonne O beverage system: it doesn’t use CO2 tanks to carbonate your drinks. Instead,  you can pick up a box of handy little pucks, and each carbonation puck will carbonate one bottle of Bonne O.

There’s a lot of other great reasons why I’m huge Bonne O fan, so read on to see why I think this beverage maker will soon be popping up in a lot of kitchens.

Appearance of the Bonne O Beverage Maker

The Bonne O sparkling beverage system is made from plastic and looks a bit like other soda makers or drink carbonation systems you’ve seen. Included with the beverage maker is a Bonne O reusable soda bottle, but instead of putting flavouring inside the bottle it has a removable area where you add flavouring and the carbonation puck.

The reusable soda bottle makes approximately 2 glasses of drinks at one time, and the beverage maker will make any type of drink including sparkling water, infused water, tea, or just add some bubbles to your favourite cocktail.

Testing out the Bonne O Beverage Maker

Who doesn’t like a sparkling beverage of some kind once in awhile? Whether you like to add a little sparkle to your glass of orange juice or you like to use bubbles to add a splash to your favourite cocktail, it’s handy to have a bottle of carbonated water around.

But when you just add carbonated water to a drink, it tends to make it a little watery and you could lose a lot of the flavour of your beverage. It’s almost like you’ve added ice to the drink and then let it melt.

There’s also the fact that once you open a bottle of sparkling water or carbonated water, it goes flat almost instantly. With the Bonne O sparkling beverage system you get to create drinks infused with fresh carbonated water, and that means every drink tastes better.

To test the Bonne O the first thing I did was grab some fruit. I love fruit infused water, but I usually use just plain water and my handy little infuser to make it. I was dying to try carbonated fruit infused water, so I grabbed a few mandarin oranges and filled the Bonne O water container up with ice cold water. Warmer water won’t carbonate as well.

Once you’re ready with your bottle of cold water you can add in your favourite fruit. Placing the bottle on the Bonne O machine is easy too. Just twist the lid on and twist to line up the top of the bottle with the Bonne O machine.

Once I had my bottle attached, it was time to add my carbonation puck. This is my favourite feature on the Bonne O. The carbonation pucks remind me of chlorine pucks I’d use in the swimming pool, and they come in a box of 10 so you’ll always have one handy.

Just open the package, pop in a puck, and close it back up again. There’s also a compartment beside the carbonation compartment that you can put in flavouring or juice. If you’re not going to add flavouring, you’ll need to add water to the top of the fill line.

With the carbonation puck inside there’s nothing left to do but push the button on the Bonne O and it’s ready to go. You’ll notice it starts to bubble pretty quickly, but it takes a minute to really get the fruit moving around in the container.

The included Bonne O recipe book says it takes 3 to 4 minutes to complete carbonate your drink, but when I was timing it I found it took about 2 minutes. When it’s done carbonating it will double beep.

To remove the bottle you just need to twist the top, and then all you have to do is open the bottle and pour. Just like any bottle of soda you’ll have to be careful when you open it. I turned the lid and it started to explode a bit on my counter.

My carbonated fruit infused water was very, very bubbly, and you could really taste the orange flavour in it. It was delicious, and because it was cold water, you could drink it right away without adding any ice.

To clean up all you have to do is give the bottle a rinse in the sink. The compartment with the carbonation puck may have some carbonation residue so you should rinse that out before you use it again too.

Overall thoughts on the Bonne O

The sky is the limit as to what you can make with the Bonne O. If I had a bit of soda syrup I’d have been able to make any kind of soda, and the best part is that it would be very, very bubbly. Those carbonation pucks work better than an CO2 tank I’ve ever tried.

The other thing I loved? As long as I have carbonation pucks, I know exactly how many bottles of Bonne O I can make. With a CO2 tank it’s anyone’s guess when it will run out. It also doesn’t hurt that the Bonne O isn’t complicated to use and is very easy to clean up. Just a quick rinse and you’re ready to carbonate another day.

Just in time for holiday gifting, you can find the Bonne O in grey or white on bestbuy.ca right now.