Yogurt Expert Guesses Cheap vs Expensive Yogurt

My name is Jenny Ammirati, and I'm a yogurt expert.

[bright, jaunty music]

Ooh.

That's good.

[ding] [whooshes]

So looks like we have unstrained yogurt here.

This is the traditional type of yogurt

that we grew up eating that you

would've had in your household every morning for breakfast.

Yogurt is the bacterial fermentation

of milk and cultures, or bacteria.

So when you make a strained yogurt,

you would start out with three gallons of milk and end up

with one gallon of yogurt for your finished product.

With traditional yogurt, you start out with three gallons

of milk, and you end up with two and 3/4 gallons of yogurt.

Traditional yogurts like these

are generally more affordable for that reason.

Looking at these two yogurts in front of me,

yogurt A has a nice off-white color,

has a very smooth texture with a few bubbles

that tell me that this is actual yogurt.

That's a tell-tale sign.

Yogurt A looks pretty good.

Yogurt B has a little bit of a bluish tinge.

I would expect a traditional yogurt

that's not strained to be a little bit more yellow

because it still does have the whey in it.

It's this bright yellow neon liquid,

and it does give traditional yogurt a little bit

of a yellowish color.

These colors don't tell me very much,

but the yellow tint is what I would expect in the yogurt.

It's gonna come down to taste on these two.

I'm gonna give this a little stir.

It has a nice viscosity, this yogurt.

These little granules are from the actual yogurt cultures

that are used in the yogurt.

This is just something that happens when you make yogurt.

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This yogurt has a little bit of acidity

and a little bit of sweetness.

It has a nice, smooth mouthfeel.

It's a nice, balanced traditional yogurt.

So when I take a taste, I'm really gonna look for

is there a tang in this yogurt,

and can I tell anything about the milk that they used?

B has slightly more of a tang.

It's a little bit more acidic,

so I taste more of the sourness.

And I taste less of the dairy and less

of the sweetness in yogurt B.

This is tricky, you guys.

I'm pretty much basing it on the color.

The bright whiteness

in B doesn't seem as natural to me

and makes me think that A

might be the more expensive yogurt.

[drum roll] All right, guys,

the big moment, let's see.

15 cents an ounce, eight cents an ounce.

I was a little nervous for a second there, guys,

but it's gonna be okay now.

The more natural product is almost always going

to be the more expensive product

because it's going to take longer to produce.

The more highly manufactured product

is always gonna be the cheaper product

'cause it was produced more efficiently.

They're both good products.

They're both yogurts that you could enjoy with your granola

and strawberries for breakfast in the morning.

I am a huge frozen yogurt fan.

I make frozen yogurt, and I think one of the ways

that larger manufacturers go wrong with frozen yogurt

is that they try to make it taste like ice cream.

I like frozen yogurt to be yogurt,

frozen, to have that same tangy,

tart freshness that regular Greek yogurt has

but with a little bit of sweetness

and some flavorings, possibly.

I'm looking at yogurt A, and it's white.

I see a little bit of some bumps

that remind me of regular yogurt.

Looking at yogurt B, I see some inclusions

in here, some specks.

This might be vanilla bean specks,

which would be a sign of a high-quality ingredient

if there's actual vanilla bean included in it.

It's a little bit of a yellow color.

I assume that's because of the vanilla used in it.

A seems to be melting a little bit faster.

B seems to be keeping its shape.

I think there may be some stabilizers in B.

These are starting to melt, so I should probably dig in.

[subdued fast-tempo chiming music]

It's pretty creamy and smooth,

and it's got a nice amount of tang.

You can really tell that you're eating great tart yogurt.

Someone took the time

to make real yogurt

and then turn this into

real frozen yogurt.

This thing is the real deal here.

B tastes a lot like vanilla ice cream.

There's now tanginess in this frozen yogurt.

This is creamy, it has really nice notes of vanilla.

Fro-yo B is probably larger manufacturer

trying to appeal to a larger audience.

So comparing frozen yogurt A to frozen yogurt B

is like comparing apples to oranges.

One tastes like yogurt frozen,

and one tastes more like vanilla ice cream.

But I'm gonna say that frozen yogurt A

has that small batch quality that makes me think

that it's more expensive to make; let's see.

It's A. [laughs]

A is 56 cents an ounce, where B is 26 cents an ounce.

A is the clear winner, and it's the only frozen yogurt I

would eat, but this one also might be a little bit

of a taste preference, so there's somebody out there

who definitely prefers B.

Greek yogurt is the type of yogurt

that they are known for making in Greece

where they traditionally use a straining bag

to strain out the whey.

Greek yogurt is the most popular strained yogurt,

but there's many thick strained yogurts

throughout the world.

My company, Culture: An American Yogurt Company,

we've been making fresh Greek yogurt

from scratch for the past seven years,

so I feel pretty confident about this category.

Looking at A and B right now,

they're both very white in color.

B is much, much thicker.

The thicker it is, the less shiny I might expect it to be.

The shininess of yogurt A could be a sign

of a gelling agent in there.

Yogurt A might be a more commercial product,

certainly might be the more economical one of the two.

Okay, I'm gonna give yogurt A a little stir

and see what happens.

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It's very thick.

This is not as thick as I would like a Greek yogurt to be.

For me, this is something in between Greek and traditional.

All right, I'm gonna give it a taste.

Very tart.

It's probably more tangy than I

would have thought it would be.

It tastes like there may be some kind of thickener in there,

and you can taste that aftertaste.

It's probably

a nonfat Greek yogurt

because I don't taste a lot of creaminess in here.

It's a very simple tangy Greek yogurt.

B is definitely a thicker, creamier, tart Greek yogurt.

I'm hit by the thickness and creaminess of it.

So all of these things together

give me a really balanced bite of yogurt,

and, for me, it's much more of a pleasurable experience.

I would say that the complexity of flavor B,

to me, would signify that this

is probably a handcrafted yogurt.

This is probably made in small batches

by a craftsman or an artisan.

If they're using grass-fed milk or organic grass-fed milk,

that is going to cost them a lot more money.

And if they're making this in small batches

using traditional yogurt-making methods,

that labor-intensive process is gonna be hugely expensive.

A is probably a national brand; it's probably mass produced.

Because they are making a large volume of yogurt,

they benefit from economies of scale,

they benefit from purchasing power,

so they can sell their yogurt for a lower price.

All right, B is my choice. [drum roll]

I think B is going to be our more expensive yogurt.

Let's see.

All right, yes, I was right!

[claps hands and laughs]

With yogurt B, you're paying for the craftsmanship

and the quality ingredients.

And if you're buying Greek yogurt,

spending a little bit more money for a thicker,

creamier Greek yogurt is going to be worth it.

So traditionally, Icelandic yogurt is made

with nonfat milk or skim milk,

and it's a thick, strained, protein-rich, fat-free yogurt.

I would say Icelandic yogurt and Greek yogurt

are very similar.

The main difference would be the fact

that Icelandic yogurt typically only uses nonfat milk

where Greek yogurt is typically made

with whole milk or reduced-fat milk.

So my initial observation looking

at both of these yogurts is that I'm shocked

that these are both the same kind of yogurt.

Yogurt A is very, very thin.

It doesn't look like a strained yogurt at all to me,

and yogurt B is very thick,

almost as thick as a typical Greek yogurt.

They're both a similar color.

Flavor A is a more intense blue color.

Maybe that's indicative

of a stronger flavor, but we'll have to see.

So there's two basic ways that yogurts are flavored.

One way is where the flavor is put

at the bottom of the yogurt cup,

and then the unset yogurt is put

at the top of the yogurt cup.

The yogurt is capped and then put

into an incubator to incubate the yogurt.

The second way to flavor yogurt,

which is sometimes referred to as Swiss style,

to make things more confusing,

is when the flavor of the yogurt is stirred into the yogurt.

So if you wanna be technical,

this is a Swiss style Icelandic yogurt.

The only reason that I could think of

that yogurt A would be thinner

is that maybe they wanted to increase their yield

in yogurt A and they didn't wanna strain off all the whey.

I'm gonna have to dig into this to learn more.

I'm gonna start with yogurt A.

So actually, it is a little bit reassuring to see

that it has some thickness to it because they

are marketing themselves as an Icelandic yogurt.

All right, I'm gonna try it.

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It tastes like a blueberry yogurt.

It has a little bit of an aftertaste that I don't love.

It tastes like there's some other additional flavor added in

to give it that unique flavor profile.

I am not sure what that flavor is,

but it is certainly unique, and it probably costs more money

to put in whatever flavor it is that they added to flavor A.

I'm gonna move on to yogurt B.

I like the thickness.

I like how I could flip it over

and it doesn't fall off my spoon.

All right, I'm gonna give it a taste.

Yogurt B is also not an overly sweet yogurt.

It has a lot of tang to it.

Yogurt B might be more mass produced.

It has less depth of flavor.

Yogurt A seems like it has more premium-quality ingredients.

Even though these flavor combinations didn't work out,

I'm gonna say [drum roll]

that A is the more expensive yogurt.

All right, fingers crossed.

I'm right, yes. [laughs]

Yogurt A is 56 cents an ounce,

and yogurt B is 30 cents an ounce.

We're gonna say that yogurt A

is probably a small craftsman testing out new ingredients,

and it costs more to be innovative and test things out.

It takes a lot of effort for a company

to put out a new product.

So if you see a new product out there

from a small maker, give it a shot.

Drinkable yogurt is usually delicious.

Typically, when people think about drinkable yogurt,

they think about kefir,

which is a specific type of drinkable yogurt

with about seven different cultures in it.

Drinkable yogurt is a great way to get probiotic cultures.

It's easy, it's quick, it's portable.

It's a great way for adults and kids

to get their probiotics.

The trade-off may be that a lot of drinkable yogurts

on the market are huge sugar bombs.

Naturally, none of the whey is strained off,

so there's the natural sugar that occurs in the milk

plus there's a lot of added sugar

in a lot of these drinkable yogurts.

So it's just something to be aware of

and something to look out for.

Visibly, there's a lot of differences

between these two yogurts.

So this one I can assume

that there's probably real fruit in here.

I could tell by the little specks

of seeds that I see in this product.

This one I can't tell from looking at it

whether there's any real fruit in it.

I don't see any seeds.

It may have been strained or it may

have been blended very, very well.

But, just from looking at it, I can't tell.

B smells not that tangy.

There is a strawberry smell, but it's a little bit

of an artificial strawberry smell.

It's very common in food manufacturing

to add scents to food.

Because so much of taste is scent,

it is a little bit of trickery

to make you think that there is more

of that flavor in what you're consuming.

Let's give it a taste.

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It's not very tart at all.

I don't get a strong yogurt flavor.

It tastes a little bit like drinking cotton candy to me,

and it's probably something that's marketed to kids.

I don't think yogurt needs to be this sweet.

I'm gonna give this one a try.

This one has a really nice, tart flavor.

You get that tang of the yogurt along

with a little bit of strawberry flavor.

It's sweet but not too sweet.

I really like this one.

I could drink a whole bottle.

So I think that yogurt A is the more expensive one.

It's more expensive because it probably has real fruit.

It tastes like a more natural product.

Yogurt B

tastes like it's made with artificial flavorings

and tons of sugar.

So I think A [drum roll]

is the more expensive product.

All right, let's find out.

Yay!

Yogurt A is 23 cents an ounce,

and yogurt B is 15 cents an ounce.

You should always go with yogurt A

if these are your two options

because it's just a much more high-quality product.

It's something that is going to be much more enjoyable

and probably healthier.

I'd be happy drinking this every morning.

Yogurt is a healthy and delicious food enjoyed all

around the world.

With so many different varieties,

go out, try them all, and find the one that's right for you.