Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Jicama-Gooseberry, anyone?


When I was a wee lass, yogurt came in varieties such as peach, lemon, or blueberry. The release of such an exciting flavor as marionberry was pretty exciting at my house. 

As years have passed, yogurt has apparently felt the need to get a little fancier.  Peach has become Harvest Peach or Peaches n' Cream. Rather than plain ol' lemon, we now have Lemon Chiffon or Lemon Burst.  Blueberry is now Blueberry Cobbler or Mountain Bueberry.  Vanilla Bean or French Vanilla instead of vanilla.  You get the idea.  I don't fault yogurt for desiring more flair.  Appealing to the palate is powerful marketing.  But when yogurt started manipulating not only the names, but the actual flavors, it got a little weird. Have you seen White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse yogurt? Green Tea yogurt? Decadent Cherry Cheesecake yogurt? I have.  Perhaps it's all going a bit too far. 

My local grocer is currently displaying these intriguing varieties available from Lucerne: 


Apricot Mango--not too strange.  At least the other three on the top row are "Limited Edition" seasonal flavors, but still: Caramel Apple, Cranberry Orange, and Gingerbread. To me, yogurt is a fresh and fruity matter. I'm uncomfortable with cookies and caramel entering the equation.  Along the bottom we have Passion Orange Pineapple--that's a lot for one yogurt, but at least they are all fruits we've heard of.  Next comes Yumberry Grapefruit, Bartlett Pear Mangosteen, and Apple Goji.  What? I have to admit, it would be fun to be the one throwing the darts at the wall of strange fruits to create new flavors. I could totally do that: Papaya Plum Pie. Apricot Kumquat. Coconut KiwiFig.  Avocado.

So yes, I did buy some.  I tried the three on the bottom right.  I did not care for the apple flavor much, the pear one was okay (being Bartlett pear made all the difference -rolling eyes-), and grapefruit was surprisingly decent as a yogurt flavor. I still don't exactly know what a yumberry, mangosteen, or goji are however.  I guess it's one way to stand out among all the pomegranate and acai products out there.

Here's a fun yogurt flavor you should check out because it's delish and not embarrassing: Tillamook Cherry Vanilla. Yum!

4 comments:

Sarah Rose Evans said...

Eddie eats goji berries constantly-- they're like red raisins. Don't get him started on the health benefits of them. He's very enthusiastic. And I've had freeze-dried mangosteens from Trader Joe's. they're good. I haven't heard of a yumberry, though.

I get suckered into buying teas was names like chocolate caramel dream, becase they sound good. They SMELL good, but then you drink it and it turns out to be tea. No chocolate or caramel to be found.

Anita said...

The next time I pass by the yogurt at the grocery store, I'm going to think of you! :)

Enjoyed your post - I'll be back to read more.

Annie said...

I. Hate. Yogurt.

It makes me gag.

Miss S said...

Where do you shop? Dominicks?

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