Yogurt used to be something I would eat with a spoon, slurp in GoGurt form, or, if I was lucky, drink in the form of Danimals smoothies as a kid. Recently, I’ve been noticing a probiotic phase sweeping the nation. Ads are urging me to take note of my gut health and badgering me to ingest probiotics on a daily basis. After reading a few reviews and talking to a few people about a probiotics regimen called Goodbelly, I was ready to test it out and write about it on this very blog. Yet, upon going to the store to buy the product, I found that all of their food products are made with oat milk and are not gluten free. As I would prefer to eat food rather than take probiotics in pill form every day (and the pills have potato starch in them anyway, which I can’t have), I decided to go on this dairy free yogurt adventure.
*I would like to note that I ate yogurt for 12 days straight and that was an interesting enough experiment on it’s own. Maybe I’ll write more about that another time.
Methods (I feel like I’m in science class again)
I chose seven gluten free, dairy free, vegan, vegetarian, vanilla-flavored yogurts, all in the price range of $1.50 – $2 each for 150 – 170g of yogurt. (There are many other dairy free yogurts out there, but they are either expensive, creepy looking, or had ingredients I could not eat.) I tested one each day, at first without any additional ingredients, then sometimes with fruit or mixed into a smoothie. I emptied each yogurt into the same classy wine glass (partially for the photos; partially because it was fun) and ate the yogurt with the same spoon each time. I wrote down what my initial reaction was after each first bite, then took about 5 to 6 more bites so I could taste and write down the flavor profiles. I also stuck my nose in and took a couple of generous sniffs to see if there were any interesting smells happening.
This review is mainly about taste and consistency, so you should use this as a basic guide for what you might be looking for—maybe you’re looking for a low calorie yogurt, specific ingredients, or a certain number of live culture strains. So, without further ado, here are the short results (read on for in-depth coverage):
- Silk Soy (Yes! Yum! Creamy, vanilla-y, delicious)
- Silk Almond (A close second, calorie-filled creamy loveliness)
- Forager (Minimal ingredients, yummy vanilla bean)
- Kite Hill (Greek yogurt-like, pretty good)
- So Delicious (Watered down coconut vanilla)
- Trader Joe’s (Very watered down coconut vanilla)
- Good Karma (Ew, toothpaste)
*I don’t normally go for flavored yogurt because of the sugar content, but I did for this experiment’s sake. Forager is still my favorite for plain and drinkable yogurt variations because of the flavor, texture, and minimal ingredients.
7) Good Karma
Base: Flax Milk
Protein: 5g
Sugar: 15g
Calories: 120
Ingredients: Cultured pasteurized flaxmilk, cane sugar, pea protein isolate, corn starch, tapioca starch, agar, locust bean gum, vanilla extract, citric acid, cultured dextrose, natural flavors, tricalcium phosphate, sunflower lecithin, annato, sea salt, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2, vitamin B12
Live Culture Strains: 7
Consistency: This yogurt is similar to Yoplait’s yogurt cup consistency, but a little bit runnier.
Smell: Vanilla with a slight zing at the end.
Initial Reaction: Huh. Almost sour. It’s creamy, but has a certain flavor that I can’t place my finger on. It’s not too sweet.
Flavor: This is the only one I’m going to tell a story about, I promise:
When I was a kid, my dentist would make me brush with this über mega special fluoride dentist toothpaste for one minute immediately after he finished cleaning my teeth (what the heck, right?). This toothpaste had the essence of the flavor it was supposed to be, but not quite there. For example, I would choose the orange crème or marshmallow flavor and it would almost taste like it was supposed to, but had a weird tang to it that wasn’t quite right.
This. Yogurt. Tastes. Like. That. Toothpaste. After identifying this flavor, I could not eat the yogurt anymore, so I mixed it into a strawberry banana smoothie and called it a day. It wasn’t bad in the smoothie, but it did ruin the figs that I had already placed in the yogurt—such a shame.
In conclusion, this is the only yogurt I would never buy ever again no matter how much bad karma it may bring me. Sorry, Good Karma.
6) Trader Joe’s
Base: Coconut milk
Protein: < 1g
Sugar: 16g
Calories: 170
Ingredients: Coconut milk, tapioca starch, water, cane sugar, modified corn starch, natural vanilla flavor, pectin, locust bean gum, citric acid
Live Culture Strains: 5
Consistency: Gel-like and a bit clumpy.
Smell: Next to nothing with some sweetness.
Initial Reaction: Tastes like watered down coconut vanilla.
Flavor: You can tell that this is an honest review because the Trader Joe’s brand isn’t automatically first (no matter how much I want it to be first). This yogurt is less creamy than the others and makes me think of what fat-free yogurt must be like. It’s not too sweet and has more of a coconut flavor than vanilla. It’s not bad, it’s just boring. I would get this if Trader Joe’s was the only grocery stop I was making (which is almost never).
5) So Delicious
Base: Coconut Milk
Protein: < 1g
Sugar: 16g
Calories: 130
Ingredients: Organic coconut milk, cane sugar, rice starch, calcium citrate, pectin, locust bean gum, citric acid
Live Culture Strains: 8
Consistency: Gel-like, very jiggly, a little grainy.
Smell: Coconut plus vanilla extract.
Initial Reaction: Tastes like watered down coconut vanilla.
Flavor: I remember trying this a year or so ago and it tasted really bad. I think they changed their recipe. This yogurt is not too sweet, also less creamy than the others, and very light (like fat-free yogurt). It’s not bad, not exciting, and nothing to rave about. I would buy this if Sprouts was sold out of all of the following yogurts.
4) Kite Hill
Base: Almond Milk
Protein: 4g
Sugar: 18g
Calories: 170
Ingredients: Almond milk, cane sugar, tapioca starch, natural flavor, locust bean gum, citric acid, vanilla bean, xanthan gum, agar
Live Culture Strains: 4
Consistency: Pretty thick—like a cross between Yoplait and Greek yogurt.
Smell: Vanilla bean.
Initial Reaction: Vanilla bean with an alternative sugar aftertaste.
Flavor: This yogurt has a nice vanilla bean flavor, but I think the “natural flavor” may give it an artificial after taste. It has a creaminess that sticks to the tongue in a pleasant way. Pretty good for the middle of the pack. I enjoy mixing Kite Hill’s plain yogurt in smoothies and savory dishes, though the plain flavor has a more almond-like flavor that doesn’t come out in the vanilla flavor.
3) Forager
Base: Cashew Milk
Protein: 3g
Sugar: 12g
Calories: 140
Ingredients: Cashew milk*, cane sugar*, tapioca starch*, pectin, coconut cream*, locust bean gum*, natural flavor, agar, lemon juice concentrate*, vanilla beans* (*organic)
Live Culture Strains: 6
Consistency: A little runny, doesn’t hold shape.
Smell: Vanilla extract.
Initial Reaction: Creamy, sweet, a little tangy.
Flavor: This yogurt has a great vanilla aftertaste, doesn’t taste artificial, and has a delightful creaminess that sticks on the tongue. I enjoy the slight tang that makes me think of the mango lassi drinks I used to order at Indian restaurants. This yogurt is nothing too special. However, as I said earlier, I like that this ingredients list is shorter than the other brands.
2) Silk—Almond
Base: Almond Milk
Protein: 5g
Sugar: 17g
Calories: 200
Ingredients: Almond milk, cane sugar, pectin, calcium citrate, citric acid, natural flavor, vanilla bean, tricalcium phosphate, vitamin D2
Live Culture Strains: 5
Consistency: This is similar to Kite Hill’s consistency, which makes sense because they are both made from almonds. It’s pretty thick—like a cross between Yoplait yogurt and Greek yogurt.
Smell: Vanilla extract.
Initial Reaction: Yum! Sweet vanilla!
Flavor: This yogurt is creamy, has mid-level sweetness, and has an enjoyable vanilla aftertaste. I actually did not expect it to taste this good and had planned on blending it with a protein shake, but ended up eating it on its own! I would definitely buy this again and maybe stick it in the freezer to create a delicious fro-yo!
1) Silk—Soy
Base: Soy Milk
Protein: 6g
Sugar: 16g
Calories: 140
Ingredients: Soy milk, cane sugar, corn starch, natural flavor, pectin, tricalcium phosphate, citric acid, dipotassium phosphate, sea salt, vanilla bean, vitamin D2, vitamin C ester, mixed tocopherols
Live Culture Strains: 4
Consistency: Thicker than Yoplait and very creamy.
Smell: Vanilla extract.
Initial Reaction: Yes! Yum! Creamy, vanilla-y, delicious.
Flavor: This yogurt is not too sweet and has a nice tang. It has a slight eggnog flavor—not spiced at all, just thick and creamy. The aftertaste is not artificial at all. I felt so luxurious eating this yogurt. The cream was delectable and I may have even closed my eyes so the flavor could whisk me away. Silk knows what they’re doing: they had dairy-free products before it was cool.
That’s it!
If you read this far, you rock, and are extremely knowledgeable about dairy free yogurts now. You also get to see a kitty picture and this bonus yogurt I posted on my Instagram. It’s strawberry flavored, so it does not fit into this experiment, but it is from Trader Joe’s and deserves an honorable mention.
Happy eating!
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