Cultured

This Yoplait yogurt in strawberry is one of my earliest childhood memory. It was the early 80s, I was probably 6 or 7 and my family was living in Boston at the time. We had only been in the US for a couple of weeks. One Saturday morning, my family and I went on a walk near a wharf. I remember it was near a wharf because there a guy there shucking and selling oysters and I remember having one. It was fresh! I was an adventurous eater even at that young young I guess. Anyhow, I also remembered that there was a Yoplait vendor there that day handing out free yogurt. Not just a sample but the whole container. We were very poor at the time so getting a container of yogurt all to myself was a real treat. My mom didn't like it. She said it was sour tasting. She still doesn't really like yogurt to this day. She always says it tastes like old spoiled milk. Yogurt was not eaten very often in Vietnam I guess. From that very first taste, I was in love with this creamy treat. I ate it often, even after I discovered that I was lactose intolerant. I know some people are able to tolerant yogurt but I am not one of them. A couple of years ago, I stopped eating yogurt all together. It was a sad time in my eating life. I felt like I had lost a taste sensation from my childhood. But I practiced discipline and have not had one in a very long time.

Then recently I had that old strawberry yogurt craving. And for a second, I thought about just having one and dealing with the stomach cramps but I think that I've been suffering enough lately so I went to my local health food store and raided the alternative dairy case. There are A LOT of substitutions these days. I think soy may have been an early contender but now there is also coconut, almond and even rice milk yogurt. So that's the good news. The bad news is that they are far from tasting like yogurt. Here let me explain...

Amande Cultured Almond Milk (Strawberry) - had a weird almond taste. I guess I am just not a big almond milk fan. I've had almond milk before so I like almond milk enough but I didn't like this. Weird after taste so I didn't finish this one.

WholeSoy & Co. (Raspberry) - this is the first time I tried a soy yogurt. I am not a fan. I would rather not eat yogurt again than to have to eat this. Thumbs down.

So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk (Strawberry) - this was the best tasting of the bunch but it was not creamy. It was runny and smoothie like but it tasted the closest to the Yoplait strawberry yogurt if you can overlook the runny texture. This was the only one I actually finished.

Almond Dream (Strawberry) - this one had a really strong almond taste that I could not get over. It was thick in texture but it was not creamy and that heavy almond taste caused to me toss this out after one taste.

Ricera Brown Rice Milk (Strawberry) - I would rate this one better than the Almond Dream one but not by much. It didn't taste like yogurt. I toss this one out as well.

SO DELICIOUS Coconut Milk yogurt was the winner of this bunch. I wish that it was a little bit thicker in texture. I had a feeling that I would like this one best because I feel that coconut milk is the best substitution (taste-wise) in place of milk. I mean So Delicious was the first company that made it possible for me to experience the sensation of eating ice cream again after 10 years. That stands out big in my mind! ;) So that's my little yogurt experiment.