Introduction

This is a review of the basic EasiYo yoghurt maker. The New Zealand-based company claims 'no electronics - no mess - no fuss - so simple - so easy!' While I am not attempting to review the accompanying products it's necessary for me to make reference to some of the EasiYo sachets, as without this I could not reflect on the performance of the yoghurt maker.

An Impulse Buy?

We are a three adult household and, as individuals with quite individual tastes, usually have a fair selection of yoghurts in the fridge. My son enjoys freely consuming a variety of flavours from those big 450g pots. My husband, whose digestive system is 'sensitive' at the best of times, and more so since he has needed steroid treatment, likes to take a probiotic drinking yoghurt each day and eats an occasional Activia- style yoghurt. I'm really a natural yoghurt consumer, though I do like the sharper taste of some of the Longley Farm varieties, but unfortunately they are not readily available where we live. I've owned a Lakeland yoghurt making machine for some time, and have found it easy to use, economic to run but limited in terms of what it can produce [natural yoghurt] I've noticed the EasiYo products in several stores and often considered trying one out but to be honest I wasn't convinced I liked the idea of using sachets, generally preferring fresh ingredients where possible. I don't know whether it was a moment or recklessness or just spontaneity, then, that persuaded us to buy an EasiYo Yoghurt Maker when we were in Lakeland to buy something else immediately after Christmas. On second thoughts, the fact that it was offered at half the usual price and there was a special offer on the sachets probably persuaded us! Normally retailing in Lakeland for £14.29, we paid £7.14 on this occasion. My husband's normal reaction would have been 'Not something else to clutter up the cupboards!' but on this occasion it was 'I guess there's not a lot to lose at that price.' Well, ladies, that settled it! There were a couple of packs on offer: one just had the yoghurt maker & the pot that goes inside it, the other was a more deluxe version and had two pots, I think, a trial sachet of yoghurt and maybe something else - we didn't look too closely because we saw that some of the sachets of yoghurt were also on special offer at £3 off if you bought two. As we live some 20 miles from the city we felt it was more sensible to take advantage of this offer. For the record, the cherry yoghurt, described as a 'probiotic base' was selling at £11.49 for 5 sachets, while the probiotic, reduced fat natural yoghurt was £10.49 for 6. All of the sachet boxes have full nutritional details on them.

What's In The Box?

When we unpacked our tall, slender box at home, we found, unsurprisingly, a tall red and white cylindrical container with a screw - on lid. The yoghurt jar was inside this; it, too, is red and white with a red lid. A red plastic ring with a base that has a hole in the centre puzzled me at first; this is called the baffle and you push this down into the yoghurt maker to hold the yoghurt pot. There was a 24 page information and instruction booklet, and a guarantee form: 12 month replacement/repair. As this looks very much like a plastic flask I can't really see that much can go wrong, though I suppose you could drop it and cause it to crack, or melt it on a hot plate, etc. This wouldn't be covered under the guarantee though, unless you could prove the damage resulted from faulty workmanship in some form.

Let's Get Going!

Despite the fridge being pretty full of Christmas leftovers at the time, I was typically impatient to try it out and turned to the 'Just 3 Easy Steps' page without reading the rest. I never seem to learn! I read that I simply had to fill the yoghurt pot to the half-way mark with tap water, add a sachet, mix it well, top up with more water to the top, put the lid back on and shake well. Then I had to boil the kettle and fill the yoghurt maker with boiling water to the top of the red baffle inside it, put the yoghurt pot inside, put the lid on and leave it for 8-12 hours. No problem. Armed with a sachet of the cherry yoghurt I set to work, just before bedtime. I left it overnight and checked it in the morning to find something that looked like pink drinking yoghurt - not what I had expected! I took the yoghurt pot out, tipped away the water in the base, boiled the kettle and repeated the procedure. After a further period of time I looked again, to see that it looked thicker but still not as I had expected. That was when I decided to read the instructions properly! I should not have changed the water; doing that could have destroyed the culture or made the yoghurt curdle! I should instead have left the yoghurt as it was for up to 24 hours. Thankfully it wasn't wasted. I would have felt very annoyed with myself if it was.

I have to say that the appearance and flavour of the yoghurt was quite delicious!

Obviously, after that near miss I had to try again with the natural yoghurt. This time I took my time and was careful. I discovered that I probably hadn't filled the boiling water to a high enough level with the cherry mix, so I rectified this. I left the yoghurt for well over 12 hours this time, and was delighted to discover really thick, tasty yoghurt when I did open it.

Supplementary Products

EasiYo's booklet gives a lot of nutritional information, discusses the benefits of acidophilus cultures, [contained in every EasiYo product], who should eat EasiYo yoghurt every day [just about everyone!] and gives serving ,recipe and even beauty ideas. There's also information about what products are available. I have to admit the range is comprehensive. You can get a cookbook, extra yoghurt jars and lunchtaker pots, ranges described as standard, lower fat, speciality, biolife, drinking yoghurt, premium, yoghurt 'n bits and fruit squirt toppings. I believe there's an ice-cream making product available too, but I haven't looked into this as I have an ice-cream making machine with which I'm well satisfied.

Evaluation

I think I am going to like making yoghurt this way, which slightly surprises me. I'd heard that it is good but I was a bit cynical - it IS good. It costs next to nothing to run - not even the cost of boiling the kettle if you make a cup of tea at the same time! I think it would be wise to have a few varieties in the cupboard at the same time; otherwise it would be easy to become bored with eating the same one week after week! It seems to me that there is a much wider range available through online shopping than in-store so I will look further in to that. I suspect it will become my preferred option.

Yoghurt cost: by my reckoning, and I'm not great at this, at full Lakeland price 1 kg cherry yoghurt would have cost in the region of £2.20. I think a 450g Onken pot favoured by my son was about £1.25 last time I bought it for him, so this could work out cheaper.

I think I would have felt somewhat cheated if I had paid Lakeland's full price and then seen the prices at which this can be bought on various internet sites. Much as I like Lakeland as a shop, this is a huge difference. It's clearly worth looking out for special offers. Incidentally, when I visited the shop again last week, they were no longer on offer!

The only disadvantages I can see are that the yoghurt maker appears to be useless without the sachets, so you are tied in to buying these. Because of this I definitely think it is worth shopping around for good offers and I've included some of my initial research because I think it will help you to look at these if you're thinking of buying the yoghurt maker. Also, due to its height, it's possible that it might not easily fit into some kitchen units.

I recommend this yoghurt maker and rate it as a 5 star product. Just make sure you get a good price!

Websites

www.easiyo.com

www.easiyoghurt.co.uk with online ordering across the range, including special offers, clearance items, starter packs, special packs - you can even design your own starter kit featuring a choice of 5 different colours for the yoghurt maker. The price for the basic yoghurt maker - which is the pack we bought - is currently £7.49 - only a few pence more than what our Lakeland Special Offer, so it's probably a good idea to compare prices for the best offer, much as I like Lakeland!

www.easiyoshop.co.uk at first I thought this was the sales part of the same site but it appears different in that it offers fewer yoghurt maker packs, has a loyalty point scheme and sells individual sachets.

Thank you for reading my review, which may appear on other sites.