Yogurt, Yoghurt or Yoghourt?

Apparently there are even more names than this for the delicious milk culture, take your pick!  In fact, we tend to take the wide range of yogurt and yogurt products for granted now, but I can remember when yogurt was an exotic treat.  I found this advert for Ski Yogurt from 1967 on YouTube which would be around the time that I remember it  first featuring in our fridge.

Yogurt or Yoghurt is now pretty ubiquitous and there are many different yogurt based products available that there should be something for everyone.  Sadly, many of them are full of artificial sweeteners and flavours but natural flavours have made a bit of a come back recently. So I was pleased to receive a pack of Good Heavens drinking yogurts to try this week. 

Each 250ml bottle contains 25% of an adults RDA  and the yogurt drink is probiotic and low fat.   They are completely natural, free from additives and packed with real fruit.  My husband is a fan of drinking yogurts and has one every day, so his opinion on these is probably more valid than mine, here is what he said about the new Mediterranean-style 'Good Morning'  drinking yogurt blended with finely milled oats and blueberry puree:

"It really tasted of blueberries and oats, blueberry porridge in a bottle, a satisfying start to the day."

I tried the Good Heavens luscious strawberry and it reminded me of those first yogurts we used to buy in the 1960s, they had real fruit and real sugar in them and tasted just like this. They were also much runnier than the yogurts we get now, so really very similar to drinking yogurt!  Sadly for us, these lovely little bottles of fruity yogurt have only made it to stockists as far north as Stockport! You can see details of stockists on the Good Heavens website 

Each bottle costs £1.79

If that is a little too rich for your taste, then do you fancy making your own yogurt? This is a very simple system with no electronics or messing about with starters.  The EasiYo makes a litre (1kg) of yogurt overnight using EasiYo sachets of dried lactic cultures. Yogurt Direct  can provide you will all you need to make your own yogurt.

I've been making my own yogurt since I was 15 years old.  I started making it in a wide necked vacuum flask, moved on to one of those heated yogurt makers with the 6 little pots.  We currently have an electric, one litre yogurt maker which we used to make the yogurt for our Bircher Muesli, but found that it was cheaper to buy the basic low fat yogurt in the supermarket and less chance of failure.

I opted for the full fat greek yogurt sachets to trial the EasiYo.  The process is very easy, half fill the inner tub (the one with the red top) with cool water, add the sachet of powder, put on the lid and shake then fill to the measure with more water.  Fill the the outer tub up to the mark with boiling water and place the inner tub inside.  Close the lid and leave for 8-12 hours until the yogurt has set.

Price comparison
One sachet of Greek Yogurt Base costs £1.99 for 1kg (3 sachets for £5.49) from Yogurt Direct
Well-known brand of Greek Yogurt cost £2.39 for 500g
Supermarket own brand Greek Yogurt cost  £1.75 for 1kg

 I had some of the Greek Yogurt from the EasiYo with my breakfast cereal this morning and topped it with a few berries.  The yogurt compares well with shop bought greek yogurt, it has a firm texture and had a tangy flavour.  If you want it to be a bit milder you can stop the process at 8 hours rather than leaving it longer, as long as the yogurt has set.  Confession time now, I made the yogurt on Thursday night and completely forgot to put it in the fridge on Friday morning, so it was 6pm Friday night before it was refrigerated.  It has come to no harm and the instruction booklet does say that it will come to no harm being left for 24 hours. 

I think this would be an ideal way to start making your own yogurt particularly if you eat a lot of it.  It's easy to do and kids would enjoy seeing the liquid go in and the solid yogurt coming out the next day.  In terms of price there isn't much in it, but the yogurt does taste more like the premium brand Greek Yogurt than the very bland supermarket own brand type.  There are many different types of starter sachets and even some fruit squirts to add a fruit puree to the finished yogurt.