Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The more than one million active cultures (of Italy)

I have always enjoyed a good yogurt. 

My first yogurt-consumption related memory dates back to when I was probably six years old: peeling back the red-foil-topped Strawberry Banana Yoplait, then licking the lid the way my mama instructed me to (never waste anything!). My fascination for lid-licking was later usurped by the squeezable Gogurt (the dairy version of the delectable OtterPop), then frozen Gogurt, then Yoplait Whips, then greek yogurt with honey, then frozen soft serve,  then homemade yogurt, then greek yogurt with honey again, and so-on. 

Of late, my favorite flavor has been of the full-fat and plain variety. Still, I love cruising the dairy aisle at the Pam and admiring the diversity of flavors that function to meet the needs of the Italian palate. Over time, I've managed to successfully exhaust the entire Activia family for taste-testing, and even gone so far as to make a single-portion pseudo-gelato by freezing the "Golosi" flavors [which means "greedy/gluttonous" in reference to a person but "decadent"/"voluptuous"/"indulgent" as it relates to food] and saving them  for an after dinner delight. 

Aside from the regular genres like Vanilla or Berries of the Woods, I've found Hazelnut, Coffee, Prune, Fig, Wheat & Walnut, Coconut ("con fiber"!), Wheat and Honey, Pear (+fiber), and Fiordilatte (akin  to sweetcream). Wheat & honey is probably my favorite, though I'm still holding out for the day I find Tiramisu







(...my favorite part about the yogurt is still, (and always will be) licking the lid.) 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oddly, I only really like yogurt that I get abroad. At home, I hate it, and none of my friends understand why. I've taken to chugging kefir because it's over faster than having to endure an entire carton of yogurt.

But yogurt in Europe is... different. Better. Maybe because it's almost all full-fat. Whatever it is, I love it here, and can't stand it in the US. I'm glad you appreciate it as much as I do. xo

Anonymous said...

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