Dairy and Gluten Free Yogurt

Soy Milk Yogurt

Silk Soy yogurt is smooth, creamy and has a strong strawberry flavor.

Oat Milk Yogurt

Silk Oat Yeah Yogurt vanilla yogurt alternative is too creamy to the point of being watery. Although it did not taste like oats, it was sour.

Pea Protein Yogurt

Ripple is a unique dairy-free yogurt in its own class, made with pea protein. This is a great choice for those who may not like or are allergic/intolerant of other milk alternatives. I did not taste peas, just a creamy strawberry flavor.

Coconut Milk Yogurt

Daiya is synonymous with dairy free. From vegan cheese to cheesecake, they have a wide variety of dairy free foods. Their yogurt is made with coconut milk but does not taste like coconuts. It is very thick and slightly sour with chunks of real fruit. The strawberry and cherry flavors have mild fruit tastes. Also, Daiya has the thickest consistency of the 7 brands reviewed.

So Delicious, the brand that gave us ice cream and whipped cream made with coconut milk, has a coconut milk yogurt alternative. The yogurt is creamy, and you taste the fruit but not coconut milk. I sampled peach, strawberry and blueberry. Blueberry has the boldest fruit flavor with real chunks of fruit.

Chobani is well known for their Greek yogurt and has a coconut milk based yogurt. I tried the strawberry flavored one and found it to be nice and firm with the right balance of thickness and creaminess. I did not taste the coconut milk, but a bold strawberry flavor.

Siggi’s Coconut Blend Mixed Berries is Icelandic style yogurt. This yogurt is like Greek yogurt because it is sour and does not have a lot of sugar. In fact, the 5.3 oz. container only has 8 grams of sugar. I’ve never had Icelandic yogurt, and although it is healthy, I found it to be too sour. I remembered that some Greek yogurts include a little honey on the bottom of the container so I added honey to give it sweetness.

Yoplait’s Oui – Because France is the country that consumes the most yogurt (https://www.yogurtinnutrition.com/11-countries-that-consume-the-most-yogurt/) it’s not surprising that they know how to do yogurt well. Yoplait’s Oui is a French style yogurt that comes in a nice glass container. I sampled the strawberry and mango flavors – the yogurt tastes like coconuts and has real fruit on the bottom. This is the best yogurt I tasted. It is creamy with just the right amount of thickness and has the best real fruit flavor of all the yogurts sampled. The yogurt was tasty on its own even before being mixed with the fruit.  Also, another nice feature is that we can recycle the glass.

In Summary

I am happy to find so many alternative milk varieties and brands of dairy and gluten free yogurt.  What you may like depends on your alternative milk preference, and how thick and sweet you like yogurt. It is great to select from coconut, oat, soy and pea protein.  There are also yogurts made with almond milk, but since I dislike the taste of almond milk, finding it very bitter, I don’t feel like I can review them objectively. These brands also sell alternative milk, which I reviewed in an earlier post  (https://liveglutenanddairyfree.com/review-of-gluten-dairy-free-alternative-milk/ ).

My favorite dairy free yogurt is Oui for its creaminess and real fruit. If you like your yogurt thick, Daiya is the thickest, Oui is the creamiest, and Chobani falls in between. By contrast, Silk Oat Yeah was watery. If real fruit flavor are important, Oui contains real fruit. In addition, Silk Soy, So Delicious (blueberry flavor) and Chobani follow behind with strong fruit flavors while Daiya and Ripple have light fruit flavors.  Siggi’s was the most sour yogurt with the least amount of sweetness which might appeal to those who are watching their sugar intake or don’t  like sugary yogurt.

Why are Allergy Free Foods Expensive?

 A final word on dairy free yogurts is they can be very expensive. The cost of a container (around 5 oz) is close to $2.00. By contrast, a 6 pack of dairy yogurt can cost a dollar or two more. Gluten and dairy free foods usually cost more. According to an article from BBC (https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190130-why-its-so-expensive-to-eat-with-a-food-allergy), reasons for allergy free foods being more expensive is because their facilities are expensive to develop and maintain:

1. Every ingredient must be free from contamination from the field to processing to packaging the final product
2. There are high costs for recalling a product or being sued if a consumer gets sick
3. Allergy free foods may not be as easy to sell or as in demand in large quantities (a reason why gluten free bread is often sold frozen)
4. Allergy free foods usually contain more ingredients. For example, gluten-free bread may have more than 20 ingredients, to compensate for the lack of wheat

However, I find the yogurts are often on sale at Jewel, Mariano, Whole Foods and even Target so they are definitely worth checking out.

Fun Food Fact

Soy yogurt is approved as meat alternative in USDS regulated schools because of its high protein content

Did you know?

The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes at least a dozen spellings of the word “yogurt,” including but not limited to yoghurt, yogurd, yahourt, yahourth, and joghourt (https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63073/12-tangy-facts-about-yogurt )

Quote

“Life is half delicious yogurt, half crap, and your job is to keep the plastic spoon in the yogurt” Scott Adams