GLENILEN FARM YOGHURT €2.65 for 500g, €5.30 per kg:THE WEST Cork producers of this wonderful product attribute its fabulousness to their cows but we think they're downplaying their own yoghurt-making skills.
It has recently started appearing on the shelves of Selfridges of London and in our opinion will easily hold its own there against the finest yoghurts in the world. It has a fantastically pure ingredient list containing just four things – milk, yoghurt cultures, fruit and sugar – and is made with 23 per cent raspberries which have the look, texture and taste of real fruit. The natural yoghurt has a wonderful sharpness that you will struggle to better anywhere. It’s also surprisingly cheap.
VERDICT: Top notch
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RACHEL'S RASPBERRY YOGHURT
€1.81 for 450g, €4.02 per kg
THIS IS AN organic product with tiny flecks of raspberries dotted throughout the creamy yoghurt. It is fresh tasting and has a lovely fruity kick despite being made with just 7.7 per cent raspberries, the lowest percentage of any of the yoghurts we tried. It has a lightness that some of the other brands reviewed lacked. While the other yoghurts are fairly thick set, this is very liquidy and might be a little sweet for some. Yoghurt is one of those products that should probably be produced locally – and there are a number of very good Irish-produced yoghurts on the market – so the fact that this has been imported from Wales counts against it in our view.
VERDICT: Fresh and fruity
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DANONE ACTIVIA
€1.95 for 500g, €3.90 per kg
THIS PRODUCT, from a big multi-national, is one of the most well-known and long established yoghurt brands on our supermarket shelves. In truth, we can’t see the appeal. It is thick but remarkably bland. It lists stabilisers, flavours, colouring and glucose-fructose syrup among the ingredients which did not scream freshness at us. On the, er, plus side maybe, it also has bidfidus acti-regularis, something which Danone goes to great lengths to assure us has been “scientifically proven to improve slower digestive transit”. This is, we assume, a good thing – although it doesn’t do much for the flavour.
VERDICT: Dull
ALDI SPECIALLY SELECTED YOGHURT
€0.69 FOR 150G, €4.60 PER KG
ANYONE WHO still thinks that Aldi sells inferior quality food on the cheap really needs to try this product from its fairly upmarket Specially Selected range. While it’s not the best yoghurt reviewed - the Glenilen is hard to beat - it is pretty wonderful. It is incredibly thick, creamy and luscious and made with 18 per cent raspberries. It also comes from Clonakilty so you’re buying Irish too. It is not particularly cheap mind you.
VERDICT: Special
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EXCELLENT * * * * *
GREAT * * * *
FINE * * *
BELOW PAR * *
AWFUL *