From the ‘refined and unradical’ to ‘mild, emotionless’ mouthfuls, Nicholas Jordan samples 17 unsweetened, unflavoured yoghurts – and experiences culture shock.
‘Yoghurt is like music: there’s so much variety’: Nicholas Jordan and friends conducted a blind taste test of plain and Greek yoghurts.‘Yoghurt is like music: there’s so much variety’: Nicholas Jordan and friends conducted a blind taste test of plain and Greek yoghurts.and told the world why I hated it . 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.
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 yoghurts, then Greek or “Greek-style” yoghurts . Yoghurts were scored on taste and texture , then scores were averaged to give a final score out of 10.
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.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.