Looks great, until you see that the delivery prices are $13 to the North Island as Wests are in Dunedin!
245sam,
Jan 7, 11:41pm
eurekarika, our daughter and I both looked at West's website and could not find the answers to my questions there hence the reason I asked the questions at #22 in the hope that huia991 would be able to advise from her experience as she is obviously a very satisfied West customer. :-))
245sam,
Jan 7, 11:43pm
IMO $13.00 to the North Island is quite reasonable considering that delivery within the South Island is only $2.00 less at $11.00. :-))
ry5,
Jan 8, 9:51pm
I don't know what your equivalent to New World (Foodstuffs) is in the Nth Is, but they stock Wests syrups. Edit: just Googled Foodstuffs & they are New World, Pak n Save and Four Square. .
sarahb5,
Jan 8, 10:22pm
A gas refill is $12 and fizzes 60 litres, SodaStream would pay for itself in no time - 60 bottles of budget soda water would be $59.40 by comparison. You can SodaStreams for less than $100 at Briscoes or Farmers on special, or free if you have enough Fly Buys. Common sense tells me that fizzed tap water is much, much cheaper.
245sam,
Jan 8, 10:48pm
I guess those of us with lovely fresh tasting tap water are very lucky and of course it makes sense to utilise what is "on tap" + at the same reduce/minimise the need to store, then dispose of the empty-no longer needed bottles from the purchased ready to drink product. :-))
sarahb5,
Jan 8, 11:39pm
You could filter water in a jug before you fizzed it if your tap water wasn't that great - in my figures you'd save more than $270 a year if you drank 1 litre of budget soda water a day which would more than pay for the SodaStream and gas refills
wendalls,
Jan 10, 5:22am
Our first cylinder didn't last long. Not 60 litres that's for sure. On the 2nd and everyone's lost interest. Very good ideas though and I'll have to try the roses cordial and lemon juice ideas. I can't see why we can't carbonate wine. someone needs to try!
chester62,
Jan 10, 1:21pm
I remember once doing this as a teenager using my mothers casked wine. It exploded everywhere and I was left with wine all over the place. So there's the answer to your question. It doesn't work!
scoodiesonline,
Jan 11, 3:37pm
I have had my Sodastream for about 15 years and it is still going strong. I drink it every day as I love fizzy drink. I have always used Thriftee diet cordial in mine, you only need about 30 mls per one litre bottle so it lasts for ages. My favourite was pinapple and orange but I haven't been able to buy it for the last couple of months, but the blackcurrant is lovely so now I have that instead. The Thriftee Lemonade flavour is a little tart but it is ok. When I bought mine the instructions said that the Sodastream plastic bottles would have to be replaced every 12 months, well mine are still going strong after 15 years! And for water in an emergency, there is always some cool water in the fridge! I wouldn't be without mine EVER!
eurekarika,
Jan 11, 11:55pm
I emailed Wests & they said they had no stockists in the North Island.
eurekarika,
Jan 11, 11:57pm
Lol, I'm just imagining that scene!
eurekarika,
Jan 12, 12:04am
Didn't know this brand did diet, will have to check it out. Loving the soda stream so far, even with just plain water it's making me drink 1 litre per day. Plain non fizzed water is just too dull for me to cope with! Also some of the Soda Stream flavours seem ok, the diet cola & sugar free cola are ok & I liked the pink grapefruit - can't find it in diet though but apparently they have one according to this site for best & worst taste reviews of soda stream flavours - http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2014/04/taste-test-sodastream-sodamix-flavors-best-and-worst-soda-flavor-reviews.html
I found that the energy one for soda stream was full of sugar. Don't get why each store I go to seems to be selling completely different flavours. I wish someone would just stock the whole range.
sarahb5,
Jan 12, 12:21am
The pink grapefruit with stevia was at Briscoes before Christmas, and at Farmers and Noel Leeming but Briscoes was cheaper. My son uses the energy drink when he's training and says it is just like Red Bull but too strong if you use the recommended amount of syrup - its an energy drink so I would expect it to be full of sugar. SodaStream also don't use aspartame in their sugar free syrups in case anyone's concerned about that - they use stevia or Splenda.
eurekarika,
Dec 19, 12:08am
A bit confused by the different types & if you buy one with a 30L cylinder does that mean you can't replace it with a 50L cylinder when the time comes for a new cylinder? How long do the cylinders last? Am wanting one just for a one person household. Looked at them at Farmers & they range in price from $79 to $140? I couldn't really see the difference between them re why one was more expensive than the other & the staff were useless & didn't know anything.
We studied the various options on that website before making our purchase a few months ago - we bought the "Fizz" model when one of our local stores had a ½ price deal going. The info' on the website indicates that the "Fizz" only takes a 30 litre gas bottle however it will also take a 60 litre gas bottle.
Hope that helps. :-))
wendalls,
Dec 19, 1:30am
None! We bought one last year and the kids don't really like the flavours. Another useless gadget. But maybe yours will be more popular for longer than a month.
245sam,
Dec 19, 1:51am
wendalls and eurekarika, years and years ago we had a soda stream - don't recall what happened to it but now there's just the two of us at home and DH and I particularly like soda water so for us it was a no-brainer to be buying ready-made soda water (cost, storage space. ), hence the reason we made our recent purchase. It's so much easier to have the bottles of chilled water all ready and to aerate them as and when we want to enjoy a glass of chilled soda water. We did however buy the sampler pack ( http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/red/catalog/product/Sodastream-Syrup-Sample-Pack-500ml-12-Piece?SKU=1643115 ) and are gradually working our way through trying them to see which, if any, of those flavours we want to buy in the readily available 500ml bottles. Obviously, not all the flavours are in the sampler pack so we did also buy. when 'on special', a couple of the bottles of flavouring - one is all gone and we were not impressed with that one so will be interesting to see what we think of the other. I'm also looking at making some cordial (e.g. using our own lemons) to have with the soda water. :-))
kateley,
Dec 19, 2:05am
245sam - I make my own lemon cordial and often have it with soda stream soda water - it is cheap and really refreshing. 1 cup lemon juice 1 cup sugar 1 cup boiling water 1 Tbs citric acid. Dissolve citric acid and sugar in water then add juice. Keeps in the fridge for weeks. (I actually don't usually put the whole cup of sugar in, but I do like it very lemony)
245sam,
Dec 19, 2:13am
Thanks heaps for the recipe kateley - it looks very easy to make. Usually when I try a recipe for the first time I make it as is but I'm guessing that subsequently I would do the same as you and cut back on the sugar - we also like really lemony but not overly sweet.
Hope you have a safe and happy Christmas. :-))
kateley,
Dec 19, 2:22am
I think the original recipe I had (that my mother made when we were kids) had a pound of sugar and the juice of 4 lemons! I've pared the sugar down over the years - I'm very happy with this brew but Mum complains about it being to sour.
cgvl,
Dec 19, 6:33pm
we don't buy the soda stream flavours as I can't stand the taste of the artificial sweeteners they use in them (regular also has it in). We too make up the fizz as we want and add fruit juice or lemon juice (freshly squeezed) or buy the lime cordial (eg Roses) and use that. More than happy with ours and it gets a lot of use over the summer months.
harrislucinda,
Dec 19, 9:42pm
soda water is cheap budget 99 cents a bottle then add your own flavours
245sam,
Dec 19, 11:21pm
I agree that Budget soda water is cheap but when we have great water on tap why not use it and have the means to make soda water available on demand with no storage of endless extra plastic bottles that will only add to the recycle collection. Keeping some fresh water in the refrigerator for on-demand soda water also ensures that there is a back-up water supply always available for emergencies; the importance of which most, if not all, of us in Canterbury are now all too aware of. :-))
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