One of the things I love most about travelling to the US is being able to try specialty food items that we don’t yet have available to us in Canada!
I love going to Whole Foods, Sprouts, and other markets with specialty grocery items, browsing the aisles (for hours), and treating myself to some “new to me” items!
For the last half of September, I travelled to California and spent some time in both Rancho Cucamonga, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah, so I was able to hit up several Whole Foods and Sprouts and treat myself to some of the items I don’t have access to back home!
For a while now, I have been wanting to taste test the different types of dairy-free yogurts. Although I can tolerate dairy and enjoy it on a pretty regular basis (cheese is one of my favourite things!), I still love trying dairy-free products, such as coconut, almond, and cashew based yogurts.
So, I took advantage of my time spent in the US and tried all of the dairy-free yogurts I could get my hands on while I was there and here are my thoughts on what I tried:
Forager Project Creamy Dairy-Free Cashewgurt: Unsweetened Plain
What it is: Cashew-based yogurt.
My review: I love cashews, so I really wanted to love this yogurt, but I’m just not that into it. I like a thicker yogurt, which this is not. It’s pretty watery and does taste a lot like cashews, but not in a good way/the way I was hoping. I thought it would be more sweet like a cashew, but I got more of a flat cashew aftertaste instead. I wasn’t super impressed with this yogurt, mainly because of how watery/thin it was so it wouldn’t be something I would buy on a regular basis. It comes in several sweetened flavours, but I tried the unsweetened plain variety.
You can read more about this yogurt here.
GT’S COCOYO Living Coconut Yogurt: Pure
What it is: Coconut-based yogurt
My review: I was really not expecting how intensely tangy this yogurt would be, so at first I wasn’t too sure what I thought about it. It’s extremely tangy and almost “fizzy” because it’s so tangy. When my friend asked me how it tasted after I took my first spoonful, I said it tasted similar to apple cider vinegar. It was that tangy, but I kind of grew to love it! It is thicker in consistency, but not overly thick. It’s thicker than a regular yogurt, but not as thick as a Greek yogurt, so I did enjoy the consistency. I also like the fact that since it is tangy, you could enjoy it savoury-style, but you could also still enjoy it with fruit, for an example, which is exactly what I did! Overall, I did enjoy this yogurt, but it was definitely different than what I had expected and you would have to like sour foods to appreciate this yogurt. I tried the pure flavour, which is unsweetened and plain, but it does come in other flavours, which you can see here.
Suggested serving: One of the ways I enjoyed this yogurt was a bowl of this yogurt, topped with a handful of fresh blueberries, with unsweetened vanilla almond milk poured on top. It was delicious and I highly recommend trying that combination!
COYO Coconut Yogurt Alternative: Mango
What it is: Coconut-based yogurt flavoured with unsweetened mango puree
My review: I had been wanting to try this brand of coconut yogurt for over a year now, so when I saw it at Whole Food in Salt Lake City, Utah I was overjoyed, but then I got even more happy when I saw the mango flavour wasn’t sweetened with any added sugars! Not that I’m demonizing sugar here, but it’s very rare that you see a flavoured yogurt without added sugar or sweeteners, so I was very excited and new I had to try this mango flavour and I am so happy I did because it was definitely my favourite of all the dairy-free yogurts I tried! I basically have no words to describe how delicious this yogurt is. To put it simply, it tastes like heaven. The mango puree is on the bottom and the coconut yogurt is on the top. And did I mention the coconut yogurt is thick? Like thiiiiiiiick! It was perfect and heavenly and one of the best things I have ever tasted. If I had this yogurt readily available to me in Canada, I would be eating it all of the time! You can read more about this yogurt here.
Suggested serving: As is! I gave it a little swirl to mix it up a little bit, but not to fully combine the two flavours and enjoyed it with a side of soft boiled eggs for breakfast!
COYO Coconut Yogurt Alternative: Mixed Berry
What it is: Coconut-based yogurt flavoured with unsweetened mixed berry puree
My review: Once again, I was so incredibly excited to see yet another flavour from Coyo that didn’t have any added sugar to it! The mixed berry flavour was also delicious, but I liked the mango flavour just a little bit better. Unlike the mango flavour, when I opened my cup of Coyo mixed berry yogurt, the fruit pure was not on the bottom, it was already mixed, but I’m not sure if it was supposed to be like that or if it got tossed around a little too much at the grocery store? Having said that, it was delicious and if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I was eating a yogurt cup from my childhood. It was seriously so delicious and the consistency was on point, once again. I can’t recommend these Coyo yogurts enough! They are delicious and you can read more about this flavour here.
Suggested serving: As is! I enjoyed a cup of this yogurt along with soft boiled eggs for breakfast!
Silk Cultured Coconut: Unsweetened Vanilla
What it is: Coconut-based yogurt
My review: To my luck, I can actually purchase this yogurt here in Canada, so I have been for the past month. Although I would prefer it to be thicker, it tastes delicious, so that totally makes up for the fact that it’s a little more thin in consistency than I would like it to be. Overall, I really enjoy this yogurt, was truly impressed by the flavour, and have been really enjoying it at breakfast time, but it also makes a great dessert or snack, too! The unsweetened vanilla flavour is great and I have yet to try their unsweetened plain flavour, likely because this unsweetened vanilla flavour is so yummy! You can read more about this yogurt here.
Suggested serving: My favourite way to enjoy this yogurt is with a handful of berries (I’ve been using raspberries from my garden) and a handful of toasted coconut smiled (such as these). It’s like a nutrient-dense version of my old favourite, Special K Red Berries!
Kite Hill Greek-Style Almond Milk Yogurt: Unsweetened Plain
What it is: Greek-style almond milk based yogurt
My review: Kite Hill offers both a European-style yogurt and a Greek-style yogurt, but I decided to try their Greek-style since I prefer a thicker yogurt. I also decided to taste-test their unsweetened plain variety. I was shocked at how thick this yogurt was! I was not expecting an almond milk based yogurt to be so thick, even if it is marketed as “Greek-style”, so I was very impressed with the consistency, however, the taste was not enjoyable. I was expecting it to taste like almond milk, which I love, but it didn’t taste like almonds at all to me! Rather, it tasted like chalk, if I were to guess what chalk tastes like. The texture and consistency were good, but the flavour was not, so this yogurt definitely requires added fruit and or mix ins like granola or something.
Suggested serving: Even though I did not enjoy this yogurt on its own, it was good once I added blueberries to it. I took a handful of blueberries, warmed them up, and swirled them into the yogurt, which naturally flavoured and sweetened the yogurt. Another way I enjoyed it was with a handful of fresh blueberries (not warmed) and a handful of walnuts, as well. Both versions were great, but I strongly advise you to add some type of fruit to this yogurt if you are going to try this unsweetened plain option!
You can read more about this yogurt here.
There are many more dairy-free yogurts out there, but these were the ones I’ve tried so far! Clearly, my favourite was the coconut milk yogurt from Coyo and have a hard time imagining anything more delicious than that! If you see the mango flavour from Coyo, please do yourself a favour and buy it immediately! You can thank me later.
If you have taste tested dairy-free yogurts, I would love to hear from you! Which is your favourite? Have you tried other types than the ones I’ve reviewed in this post? Share your thoughts with me!
