Snack Review: Fage Yogurt

As you may recall from previous installments of Linda vs Yogurt, my life-long horror of fruit-flavored yogurt was temporarily banished by Rachel’s Wickedly Delicious Yogurt, but then a tragic relapse was caused by Trader Joe’s Black Cherry Yogurt.

So when I saw that this Fage yogurt came in honey flavor, this seemed like a good thing: a new flavor I could try that was nothing like fruit. It’s better not to think too hard about honey, which is basically insect vomit, but on the bright side, that is definitely not a kind of fruit, right?

The package says that this is “Greek strained yogurt.” I assume they mean that the excess moisture is drained off, as you can do with normal yogurt if you put it in a strainer lined with cheesecloth. Which is not exactly what I would call ’strained’ even though a strainer is involved, but I can’t discuss this further at this point because now I’m having that thing happen where you know how you write a word too many times and it stops losing its meaning? Strain strain strain. Is that really English? We’ll just have to move on.

The result, in any case, is that this stuff is crazy thick. Absolutely motionless on the spoon, with no thought of dripping or pouring or any of those other activities that your more typical yogurt indulges itself in. It’s somehow both thick and light, like a mousse or meringue. This is probably a good thing, but it’s so unlike regular yogurt, I find it takes some getting used to.

The fussiness of the presentation also put me off at first. The yogurt and the honey come in separate cups attached together – their fruit flavors are packaged in the same way too – so you have to spoon one into another. This seemed like a silly gimmick.

However, it turned out that this is actually a good thing, because it lets you control the amount of honey. Only half the honey supplied was plenty for me – if it had already been premixed, it would be too sweet. This might have something to do with the fact that the yogurt when tasted alone was not as tart as other plain yogurts.

I really liked the combination of honey and yogurt. This is much better than fruit – I don’t know why I thought for a moment that fruit yogurt might be the way to go. Obviously some kind of temporary madness. The only downside is that the honey is quite thick when taken out of the refrigerator, so I have to leave it out on the counter for a while to get the best out of the whole experience.

As far as the presentation, another thing it says on the package is “Suggestion: Please do not stir.” I have no idea what damage they imagine will be done by stirring, and while I was touched by the “Please,” I am sorry, Fage, but if you want me not to stir your yogurt, you’re going to have to put a little bit more effort into the argument than that. It was OK at first to take little bits of honey and yogurt on the spoon for each bite, but it got tedious after a while, and as far as I was concerned there was really no problem caused by stirring it in.

I bravely tried some fruit flavors, peach and cherry, as well, and while not a horror, they were nothing to write home about. I also tried the plain mixed with grated cucumber as an Indian raita when I had no other yogurt in the house, and I don’t recommend this either – it’s not tart enough. But the honey flavor has become a regular part of my snacking schedule.

A final note on the packaging – which I now realize is really quite opinionated for such a small surface area – is that it also says that Fage is pronounced “Fa-yeh,” to which I say, again, I am sorry, Fage, but while that may be how it is pronounced in Greece, in this country, dream on. It’s just not going to happen. I also have no idea why the word “Total” is featured so prominently: “Total 2%” seems contradictory - since 2% means that we don’t have the total amount of fat that the milk started with - and their other variety “Total 0%” is even more inexplicable.

But don’t worry, we’re more concerned with what’s inside the package than the reading material on the outside – so I may pronounce it wrong and even, horrors, STIR it, but I’m going to keep buying it, so both of us should be happy.

• Fage Website

18 Comments

Leave a Comment

Username (required) :
Email (required) :
Web Site :
Comment :

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment may take some time to appear.