During lockdown, I started a short-lived project where I ate a different muesli every few days and told the world why I hated it (sometimes I had nice things to say too). During that time, I tried more than 10 brands of yoghurt. By the end of it I thought I had yoghurt all figured out – which were the best and worst, and which were the best muesli companions. Last week I found out I didn’t know anything about yoghurt at all.
My humbling came at the hands of a monstrous blind taste test of 17 yoghurts, all Australian-made, unsweetened and unflavoured. Along with eight other yoghurt-loving reviewers, we tested the yoghurts in two rounds: plain (often labelled as “natural”) yoghurts, then Greek or “Greek-style” yoghurts (traditional Greek yoghurt is strained, resulting in a thicker, fattier and higher-protein yoghurt; Greek-style is thickened with extra ingredients, usually cream). Yoghurts were scored on taste (out of 10) and texture (out of 5), then scores were averaged to give a final score out of 10.
What I learned is that unlike chips or hash browns, there are few universal markers of quality for yoghurt. What is the right amount of sourness or creaminess? Should it have a clean dairy taste or a full-on barnyard funk? The answer is often subjective, but there are a few general claims I’m confident to make.
Organic yoghurts are generally stronger (sometimes pungently so) and more distinct in flavour. Greek yoghurt is almost always superior to plain – it’s thicker, creamier, no more expensive and generally, the sour flavours are punchier and more complex; and there’s no big difference between Greek and “Greek-style”. Otherwise, I encourage you to find out what you like and use this taste test to guide you.
We also tasted Chobani Greek, St David Dairy, Evia Greek, Gippsland Smooth & Creamy, Jalna Greek, Paris Creek Farms and Tamar Valley Dairy Greek, but they were not good, bad or interesting enough to share notes on. Or in the case of Gippsland, I mistook it for being a “plain” unflavoured yoghurt, when it is actually sweetened with sugar.
Best overall and best Greek yoghurt
Farmers Union Greek Style Natural Yoghurt 1kg, $6.50 (65c per 100g), from major Australian supermarkets
Score: 8/10
When we started tasting the Greek yoghurts there was a chorus of wows. It felt like we’d made a group decision without speaking: Greek yoghurt is better. But, confusingly for me, the top scoring of all the Greek yoghurts tasted considerably less Greek than the others. My conclusion for this is that yoghurt is like music: there’s so much variety, but what rises to the top in the court of public opinion is the refined and unradical. It’s thick but not the thickest, tangy but not mouth-puckeringly sour, and tasty in the same way good bread is – it’s not a big flavour but it’s just enjoyable to eat. Their promise that it “goes on, in and with everything” is apt.
Best value
Lyttos Greek Style Natural Yoghurt 1kg, $3.99 (40c per 100g), available from Aldi
Score: 7.5/10
Similar to Farmers Union, this is a polite yoghurt. But while the winning yoghurt had quite a long, dairy-forward aftertaste, this is more of an upfront sour hit that did not linger; like a yoghurt-flavoured sour Warhead, one reviewer wrote. Weirdly, considering the ingredients are just dairy and cultures, it also gave me a bit of a dry mouth, like the feeling when you eat underripe fruit. This came third which, considering it was more than $2 cheaper per kilo than any other yoghurt we tried, is surprising and extraordinary.
Best plain yoghurt
Jalna Biodynamic Whole Milk Yoghurt 1kg, $8.80 (88c per 100g) available from major Australian supermarkets
Score: 6.5/10
The fact that the best-rated plain yoghurt only scored 6.5 shows how divisive funky, full-bodied yoghurts were for our tasters (I would put Paris Creek Farms, Meredith, St David Dairy and maybe Barambah Organics in this category too). Of all of them, Jalna had the biggest personality. It’s thick, sour, savoury and powerfully fermented. Next to the other regular yoghurts, it’s like eating cottage cheese. One reviewer wrote: “It’s very delicious but would I buy it?” I wouldn’t, but I know there’s a role for it in the world. I’m just not sure what it is.
And the rest
Attiki Greek Style Natural Yoghurt 1kg, $9.99 ($1 per 100g), available from Harris Farm
Score: 7.5/10
I feel like Attiki yoghurt wants to prove how Greek it is, loudly, and it does that via a creamy, lemony and salty slap in the face. It’s so affronting that many of us questioned whether there was citric acid or actual lemon in it. Others guessed the intense flavour was simply from added salt. The latter group seems to be closer to the answer. The only irregular ingredient in the yoghurt is potassium sorbate, a water-soluble salt used as a preservative in many yoghurts and other products. It’s an exciting yoghurt – I’d love to cook with it, but it might be a bit hectic over muesli.
Bulla Australian Style Natural Yoghurt 900g, $7 (78c per 100g), available from Coles
Score: 6.5/10
One reviewer described this yoghurt like an Instagram babe you meet in person, only to find out they prerecord all their content and in reality, they have no vibes. What personality this yoghurt does have is oddly sweet – one of the sweetest-tasting yoghurts of the day. Bulla describes this as a “uniquely Australian yoghurt”, “smoother than Greek yoghurt and thicker than regular yoghurt”. Some reviewers were suspicious of how glossy and thick it was compared with the other plain yoghurts – they described the appearance and texture as “almost too perfect”, and “this cannot be good for me”. No surprise to find Bulla was the only plain yoghurt to list cream in the ingredients.
Barambah Organics All Natural Full Fat Yoghurt 1kg, $11.49 ($1.15 per 100g), available from Harris Farm
Score: 5.5/10
This was one of the most expensive yoghurts of the day, but what you’re paying for isn’t extra flavour, it’s Baramabah’s ethical and sustainability standards – extra space for cows, organic certification and regenerative agriculture practices. Like all the organic yoghurts, Barambah was divisive. Some, to my surprise, did not think it was particularly sour or flavoursome; one reviewer described it as “like a comforting hug”, while another described it as weird, gloopy and metallic in taste.
Meredith Dairy Natural Goat Milk Yoghurt Probiotic 1kg, $13.99 ($1.40 per 100g), available from Harris Farm and Woolworths
Score: 5.5/10
It was a blind taste test but the barnyard smell and – there’s no other way to put this – goat-y flavour was strong enough that almost all the reviewers guessed this was not a cow-milk yoghurt. While it had a bit of savouriness and a good tang, it scored poorly overall because it was thin and watery. Many reviewers said they’d consider using it in their cooking (over roasted sweet potato was one suggestion), but never eat it on its own. One reviewer simply wrote: “Too much animal for my unsophisticated baby mouth.”
Yoguri High Protein Greek Strained Yoghurt 900g, $5.49 (61c per 100g), available from Aldi
Score: 5/10
Yoguri tastes boring until it doesn’t, when the subtle yet entirely unwelcome pungent, slightly bitter farmyard aftertaste kicks in. One reviewer described it as “vomitty” and another wrote it “inspires the same facial expression as when being interrogated”. The only good thing I have to say is that it’s not very expensive.
Five:AM Organic Natural Yoghurt 1kg, $9.50 (95c per 100g), available from Woolworths
Score: 5/10
The green-and-white packaging is plastered with claims including “nothing artificial”, “never GMO” and “1 billion probiotics per serve”, and a spiel about grazing cows, organic milk and “the organic difference”. When other yoghurts make half those claims they generally deliver sour yoghurts with big, distinct flavours but the most common description of Five:AM was “boring” and weird looking. It’s the yoghurt equivalent of real estate marketing interior design – mild, emotionless, yet strangely and noticeably glossy.
