EAFYIDPET

Park Ridge East Park

2011-07-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Today Adam, Jessica, Kaela, Siarra, and I ventured to the park in Park Ridge East to test out some more Greek yogurt as well as several new Cascade Fresh flavors. It was a reasonably nice day, and Siarra brought her dog, Trask, to share in our yogurt-fueled festivities. Trask entertained us all by consistently wrapping his leash around poles and other similar objects so that he was unable to move. These weather- and pet-related occurrences meant that this yogurt session was one to be remembered.

Cascade Fresh delivered a few winners this session, including Green Apple Pie, which tasted exactly as it should have and was pretty tasty, to boot. Mostly, however, Cascade Fresh's ratings were fairly mediocre across the board, but this could have been due to the fact that some of them had been sitting outside in the heat for a while before we tried them. Still, I think we could all say there are better options in different brands for many of the flavors that we tested today.

We also tried two stray flavors from brands that we thought we had already exhausted: one from Archer Farms (Cherry Vanilla) and one from Chobani (Vanilla). Cherry Vanilla brought in fair to good ratings from all of us, but we were disappointed by Chobani's Vanilla, which was too bitter for all of us.

Finally, we tried Fage yogurt, which got good ratings for each of us. Both the cherry and the peach were delicious. Most of preferred the cherry, but the peach was also very good. We also thought that, although this yogurt was delicious, it would also be good spread on a bagel!

All in all, a pretty good day for yogurt and clumsy dogs! Hope your day has been just as great, too, and thanks again for reading!

Ratings:

Cascade Fresh

Fat Free

Key Lime- 10.6

Green Apple Pie- 13.2

Vanilla- 8.2

Raspberry- 11.4

Peach- 11.2

Marionberry- 11.6

Strawberry- 11.2

Orange Cream- 9.6

Apricot Mango- 11.6

Low Fat

Cherry- 10.2

Blackcap- 11

Strawberry- 11.2

Raspberry- 9.8

Archer Farms

Cherry Vanilla- 12

Chobani

Vanilla- 5.8

Fage

Cherry- 14

Peach- 13.4

Olcott Park!

2011-07-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

For our third round of EAFYIDPET this summer, Jessica, Hannah, Adam, and I ventured to Target where we bought 14 cups of the house brand, Archer Farms (actually only 13 flavors, we accidentally purchased two cups of Apple Raisin Bread), and 6 flavors of Chobani Greek yogurt. We then relocated to Olcott Park to eat and rate.

In the past we haven’t had great luck with Greek yogurts. However, we realized that this might have something to do with the fact that we always save them for last, meaning that they’re a not-so-pleasant room temperature when we finally get around to eating them. So today we switched things up and ate our Chobani yogurt first while it was still cold. This turned out to be an excellent decision, as our highest rated yogurt of the day was Chobani Nonfat Pomegranate. I’m picky about my Greek yogurt. I’m not a fan of the chalky, thick texture found in some brands, but I was impressed with Chobani. The fruit pieces seemed fresh and the texture was highly palatable. The Lemon was a bit of a letdown for me, though. I’m usually a fan of lemon yogurts, but this one was a little strange. Adam commented that it had “too much lemon zest”, and I think he might be right.

The Target brand (Archer Farms) pulled in some pretty mediocre ratings across the board. Most of the averages fall between 8 and 11, though the Fat Free Boston Cream Pie clocked in as the worst of the day at 6.5. It was super sour and left a lot to be desired in the flavor department. We also bought a few of the flavors in both the fat free and low fat styles and ate them side by side to optimize our comparisons. Our findings were not what we expected, however. We observed drastic changes in the taste of the Apple Cobbler and Strawberry Cheesecake flavors between the fat free and low fat versions. It was a surprising discovery that led to a few puzzled looks and some label reading. Overall it was a pretty middling brand, and I much preferred the Chobani.

Now that Jessica has returned from South Africa we should be on a more regular schedule, so be on the lookout for updates! Thanks for reading!

Ratings:

Archer Farms

Fat Free

Apple Cobbler - 9.5

Banana Cream Pie - 7.25

Black Cherry - 8.25

Blueberry - 8.5

Blueberry Pomegranate - 10

Boston Cream Pie - 6.5

Honey Almond - 8.75

Strawberry Cheesecake - 10.25

Vanilla - 10.5

Low Fat

Apple Raisin Bread - 8.75

Apple Cobbler - 8.75

Blueberry Pomegranate - 9.25

Strawberry Cheesecake - 9.5

Chobani

Nonfat

Blueberry - 12.5

Lemon - 10.5

Pomegranate - 14.75

Raspberry - 12.25

LowFat

Mango - 11

Pineapple – 11

Hello New World!

2011-05-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back to a brand new summer of yogurt ratings! Kaela, Adam and I kicked off the summer with a rating session last Sunday with yogurts from Bloomingfoods. This is yogurt we've never eaten before and that has come on the market since we last rated yogurt. This summer, we will work our way through these new yogurts (or in some cases, newly discovered yogurt) at a sort of haphazard pace. As various members of our group trickle in and out of town, we will be fitting in a rating session when we can get the chance. Hope you all can stick with us as we soldier through new yogurts in different places every time.

This time, we didn't journey too far away from Bloomingfoods because it was raining. We sat outside the storefront at the tables that were sheltered from the rain. We were pleased that so many people approached us about the yogurt and I hope that we can eat yogurt in more public places from now on.

As for the yogurt, we ate 11 new kinds of yogurt from Brown Cow, Wallaby and Kalona Super Natural. The Brown Cow yogurts all rated very highly, with Boysenberry (my favorite) and Lemon Twist (Adam and Kaela's preferred yogurt of the brand) as the frontrunners of deliciousness. Wallaby garnered more, excellent ratings with its new line of Down Under yogurts. These are very similar in concept to fruit on the bottom yogurts, but were only slightly more difficult to eat due to the elongated shape of the container. The Caramel Apple was very true to its name and would hold up respectably to anyone looking for a caramel apple in convenient yogurt form . However, I am told that if you love grapefruit (something that I don't) then Wallaby's Pink Grapefruit is the yogurt to end all yogurts. Adam and Kaela practically devoured this yogurt and I admit that this yogurt certainly was grapefruit-y, if that's your thing. Finally, both Peach and Strawberry Guava were very good but were outshined by the Pink Grapefruit yogurt and the Boysenberry yogurt (Brown Cow).

And, oh, what shall I write about the mysterious, new Kalona Super Natural yogurt? Well, what can I say that would be kind and place this yogurt in a not bad light? I shouldn't mention that this yogurt tasted of soured milk. And I shouldn't mention that it had a grainy texture. Perhaps I could say that this yogurt might have been better when it was fresher -- we bought it in the sale section for 29 cents. Though, I probably shouldn't mention that this yogurt wasn't worth the 29 cents and that its rating was a 4, which falls between Complete Crap and Slightly Better Than Crap on our rating scale.

All in all, we had a very excellent time eating these yogurts and it was a nice way to start the summer. Check out the list below for the full ratings and click on over to our picture gallery to check out the latest images from our sessions. As always, you can find us on twitter and facebook (see the sidebar for links) or you can drop us an email at eafyidpet@gmail.com if you have any questions. Stick with us this summer as we round up those pesky, new yogurts and compare your ratings with ours!

Ratings

Kalona Super Natural
Vanilla - 6.67

Brown Cow
Low Fat
Strawberry - 11.67
Black Cherry - 10.33
Boysenberry - 13.67
Lemon Twist - 13

Wallaby
Down Under
Caramel Apple - 11
Pink Grapefruit - 13.67
Low Fat
Dulce de Leche - 9.33
Peach - 13.67
Non-fat
Strawberry Guava - 13.67
Mango Lime - 11.33

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry, Cherry, CAKE!

2010-12-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

Hey people! It's been a while, but the EAFYIDPETers haven't quit just yet. We were all back in town for break so we decided to get together and try some new flavors. We decided it was only fitting for this winter EAFYIDPET to be held in the great outdoors while there was an abundance of snow, so we bundled up, grabbed the yogurt, and headed to a shelter in Bryan Park.

As what is probably typical, the flavors surprised us. We feared the wacky new Kroger Carbmaster dessert flavors (including Carrot Cake, which made us giggle, and Spiced Pear, which was so much like simply eating pureed pear that it blew our minds), but they were surprisingly pleasant. Yo'Crunch's Cheesecake Graham Cookie was a miss. The cheesecake flavored yogurt wasn't a very good base and the graham cookie pieces looked like dry cat food. And though Silk had previously proven to be the best soy yogurt, their Cherry flavor should simply not be consumed, and O'Soy was like eating slime with a slight fruity aftertaste. However, Liberte surprised us by making more of their flavors available in Bloomington. Coconut, though not a favorite amongst us, had good texture and tasted just as coconut should, with minimal bits. And lemon was a crowd pleaser.

All in all, we had an excellent session, albeit cold. Be sure to check our Twitter for a play by play of zany quotes from the day, and come back to the blog every once in a while - I predict we aren't quite done, yet.

What!? New Ratings!?

2010-12-21T22:30:00.000-08:00

We all came back from college at the same time and decided to honor this serendipitous arrangement (usually called Winter Break but known to us only as the gap in college clearly intended for yogurt consumption) by rating new yogurt. Some of the stores even seemed to anticipate us, displaying many a yogurt with labels of "New!" and "Oh, please rate me!" and "I'm gosh darn tasty!" Well... I might have made those last two up.

I'll let Siarra do the real blogging though; I'm just here to say the following:

Dannon
Light and Fit
Caramel - 10

Stoneyfield
Super Smoothie
Wild Berry - 9.3

O'Soy
Blueberry - 3.8
Raspberry - 6

Liberte
Mediterranee
Coconut - 8.5
Lemon - 13.7

Silk
Live
Black Cherry - 3.7

Kroger
Carbmaster
Carrot Cake - 10.8
Spiced Pear - 14.7
Raspberry Yumberry - 13.17
Vanilla Chai - 9.17
Tropical Fruit - 10.3
Strawberry Colada - 7.7

Brown Cow
Fruit on the Bottom, Cream Top
Peach - 8.17
Fruit on the Bottom, Low Fat
Blueberry - 8.5

Yoplait Light
Black Forest Cake - 11.7
Triple Berry Torte - 10.17

Stoneyfield
Oikos - 8.5

YoCrunch
Original
Vanilla with Chocolate Cookie - 10.7
Cheesecake with Graham Cookie - 8
Fruit Parfait
Blueberry - 8.5
Peach - 10.17
Strawberry - 10.3

-Dennis

Master List updated

2010-10-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! So... I went to college. And they have homework. And I didn't update the Master List.

And the world was sad.

But! I snagged a few hours free from the Evil Homework Monster and updated the list. Link here. Enjoy! Eat yogurt! Comment with your own ratings!

EAFYIDPET Follow-up

2010-09-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when dining at the Wright Food Court at IU, Jessica and I (Adam) finally located Yoplait Pina Colada yogurt. Since we had never been able to find it at a grocery store to taste, I insisted that we buy it then and rate it. It's flavor was not very strong, though it did have bits of coconut (and possibly bits of pineapple?) mixed in. It was not overwhelmingly unpleasant and it received eights from both of us. Apologies for the lack of pictures from this unexpected yogurt session.

Yogurt by the numbers

2010-08-22T23:52:00.000-07:00

The moment you've all been waiting for!

Overall

Highest Rated
Yoplait - Original - French Vanilla 17
Yoplait - Original - Lemon Burst 16
Yoplait - Thick and Creamy - Vanilla 16

Lowest Rated
Kroger - Light - Pina Coloada 0.25
Dannon - All Natural - Coffee 2.5
Dannon - Light and Fit - Blueberry 3

Averages ..........AVG.....NUM

Active Lifestyle 11.85...... 7

Breyers ..........12.14....... 9
Brown Cow .....11.29...... 11
Cascade Fresh 9.00....... 3

Chovani ........11.00....... 1
Cool Squeeze 6.90......... 6
Dannon ........10.06........ 58
Food Club .....9.00.......... 18

Frusion .........11.50........ 4
Greek Gods ...11.44........ 4
Kroger .........10.12........ 49
La Crème .....10.50........ 2

Liberte ..........13.38........ 4
Redwood Hill Farm 8.90.. 2

Silk .............9.58.......... 4

Stoneyfield ...10.01.......... 42
Wallaby ......11.63.......... 8
Weight Watchers 10.52..... 9
Whole Soy and Co. 8.92.. 6

Yoplait .........10.86........ 83
TOTAL ........10.37....... 330

Kaela

Highest Rated
Yoplait - Light - Strawberry Shortcake 17
Yoplait - Original - French Vanilla 17

Yoplait - Original - Lemon Burst 17

Yoplait - Thick and Creamy - Vanilla 17

Lowest Rated
Kroger - Light - Pina Coloada 0

Total 265

Compatibility
Jessica 91.60%
Hannah 71.45%
Adam 38.51%
Dennis 68.42%
Siarra 71.39%

Averages
Mean 10.29
Mode 11

Jessica

Highest Rated
Yoplait - Original - French Vanilla 17

Yoplait - Light - Strawberry Orange Sunrise 17

Lowest Rated
Kroger - Light - Pina Coloada 1

Total 330

Compatibility
Kaela 91.60%
Hannah 76.64%
Adam 40.67%
Dennis 58.92%
Siarra 76.73%

Averages
Mean 10.31
Mode 8

Hannah

Highest Rated

Yoplait - Light - Strawberry 15

Yoplait - Light - Harvest Peach 15

Breyers - Yo Crunch - Strawberry with M&M 15

Lowest Rated

Dannon - Light and Fit - Blueberry 3

Total 156

Compatibility

Kaela 71.45%

Jessica 76.64%

Adam 65.61%

Dennis 45.43%

Siarra 98.83%

Averages

Mean 10.39

Mode 10

Adam

Highest Rated

Yoplait - Original - French Vanilla 17

Yoplait - Original - Lemon Burst 17

Brown Cow - Cream Top - Apricot Mango 17

Lowest Rated

Yoplait - Whips! - Orange Cream 3

Total 222

Compatibility

Kaela 38.51%

Jessica 40.67%

Hannah 65.61%

Dennis 20.37%

Siarra 64.21%

Averages

Mean 10.51

Mode 12

Dennis

Highest Rated

Kroger - Light - Vanilla 17

Lowest Rated

Kroger - Light - Pina Coloada 0

Total 210

Compatibility

Kaela 68.42%

Jessica 58.92%

Hannah 45.43%

Adam 20.37%

Siarra 45.41%

Averages

Mean 10.18

Mode 10

Siarra

Highest Rated

Kroger - Blended - Cherry Vanilla 17

Lowest Rated

Kroger - Light - Pina Coloada 0

Total 212

Compatibility

Kaela 71.39%

Jessica 76.73%

Hannah 98.83%

Adam 64.21%

Dennis 45.41%

Averages

Mean 10.39

Mode 10

“Huns are my parents!…growl…support group”

2010-08-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hello world,

Well, today was our very last yogurt session. I’d say we had a strong finish, as all 6 of us attended, and we ate our last 18 yogurts while doing one of our most adventurous activities yet – canoeing. That’s right, we ate yogurt in canoes on Griffy Lake. How? Well…that’s a good question.

We arrived and rented two canoes, and split into two groups of three: Adam, Dennis and I (Kaela) in one, and Jessica, Hannah and Siarra in the other. The spoons, crackers, and lunch boxes full of yogurt were loaded into the canoes and we pushed off from the bank and headed to the middle of the lake. Once we were convinced that we had found the perfect spot, we pulled our canoes side by side (with much effort, I might add) and a few of us held the sides of the boats together. And there you have it – we were a floating yogurt-tasting headquarters in the middle of Griffy Lake.

We had a plethora of yogurt brands and flavors to finish up today, and we started with the Yoplait Splitz. These were very sweet, and had flavors like Strawberry Banana Split, and Rainbow Sherbet. The Strawberry Sundae was the strangest of the three, and a few of us thought it tasted oddly of pasta. We finished up the Yo Plus yogurts, which we all agreed had better aftertastes than their “during” tastes. The remaining Yo Kids flavors were bland, and brought in pretty average ratings, while the last two Yoplait Lights (Raspberry Cheesecake and Banana Cream Pie) were slightly deterring. Even Hannah (who seems to be drawn to banana flavored yogurts) rated the Banana Cream Pie at a 10.

The Activia Dessert yogurts were next, and for the most part, tasted like what they were supposed to, and received average ratings near the 10-11 range. We had one Active Lifestyle Yogurt to eat (Strawberry), and it was pleasant, getting an average of almost 12. We also drank our last smoothie today, and thankfully it was a good one. The Kroger Strawberry smoothie had a nice consistency and didn’t taste like soured milk, like some of the other brands we’ve tried.

We rounded out our last session with a few Greek yogurts, which started out badly, but ended up being tolerable. Our first brand was Yoplait Greek, Strawberry. This was possibly the thickest, chalkiest yogurt we’ve eaten (it rivaled the Dan-o-nino yogurts in this respect). The next was Dannon Greek Strawberry, which was an improvement on the Yoplait, but kind of bland. The last (Chobani Greek Strawberry) was the most palatable of the Greek Yogurts, and the only one to bring in a reasonable rating (11).

About halfway through our yogurt eating, we noticed that our canoes had drifted dangerously close to the bank. We quickly paused our passing of the yogurts, stuck our spoons in our mouths and grabbed paddles. Hannah and I held the two boats together and the others frantically tried to direct us back to the center of the lake. This resulted in a lot of water sloshing over the walls of the canoes, drenching the paper with the ratings, and causing a lot of laughter at the thought of how ridiculous we must have looked.

Once finished with the yogurts, we separated the canoes and paddled to the end of the lake, enjoying the weather and scenery. As we turned around in the cove near the dam, it was evident that a switch had been flipped in every one of our minds. What happens when you put 6 competitive teenagers in two canoes at the far end of a lake? They will race back to the dock – every time. And so we did. Jessica, Hannah, and Siarra took the lead early in the race, but Dennis, Adam and I were not far behind. As we reached the final stretch before passing under the bridge to the dock, the aforementioned leader canoe ran into a bit of trouble, as they found themselves stuck on a mud island. My canoeing team had seen this island far earlier in the race, and planned a course that would avoid it, leading us straight to the dock while our friends poked and prodded at the mud beneath their canoe in the middle of the lake. Victory was ours!

We ended the afternoon with a trip to 5 Guys for lunch, where Jessica brought us a celebratory cake for successfully finishing our summer project, just in time for me to start school tomorrow. It should be noted that Jessica attended EVERY yogurt session of the project, and is the only one of us who can truly say they ate every flavor we catalogued. A special congratulation is in order for her.

I’m a little sad to say that we won’t be meeting to rate more yogurts. But we will be having a “Victory Lap” session, where we will revisit our highest rated yogurts of the project. Dennis will also be writing a post that summarizes some of our final statistics, so keep an eye out for that!

Well, we’ve done it. 334 yogurts- eaten and rated. Congratulations EAFYIDPET’ers! This was definitely a summer well spent.

Last Averages EVER!

2010-08-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here are the averages from our last round of yogurt eating. My blog of our experiences will be posted shortly:

Yoplait Splitz:

Rainbow Sherbet - 11.5
Strawberry Banana Split - 12.33
Strawberry Sundae - 8.833
Dannon Activia Desserts:
Blueberry Cheesecake - 10.167
Peach Cobbler - 10.333
Strawberry Cheesecake - 10.167
Vanilla Bean - 11.167
Yoplait Yo Plus:
Blackberry Pomegranate - 12.83
Strawberry - 9.5
Kroger Smoothies:
Strawberry - 11.67
Yoplait Kids:
Strawberry - 9.67
Strawberry Vanilla - 9.67
Active Lifestyle:
Strawberry - 11.67
Yoplait Light:
Raspberry Cheesecake - 9.5
Banana Cream Pie - 10.5
Yoplait Greek:
Strawberry - 6.83
Dannon Greek:
Strawberry - 6.83

Chobani Greek

Strawberry - 11

"This acorn was in my pants!"

2010-08-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

Today, I rejoined EAFYIDPET after a few weeks of being away. It was nice to get back in the yogurt swing of things. Adam, Kaela, Jessica, and I met at the east side Bloomingfoods for our second-to-last yogurt tasting of the summer. It's amazing how quickly time has gone.

We then traveled to the IU campus for this yogurt tasting, and sat at the raging rapids of the Jordan River (really just a stream). It is a very nice spot, and the river is filled with tiny fish, who greatly enjoyed the palate-cleansing oyster crackers we broke up and threw to them. It was also shaded, which is important considering the insanely hot weather we've been getting in Bloomington recently.

Because we are running so short on yogurt flavors to eat, we had to have several different kinds, though the day was definitely focused on Stoneyfield. We had our first encounter with Yo Baby yogurt since the disastrous time at the B-Line trail. True to this last time, it received pretty low ratings. The liquidy consistency was still a concern, and in addition, the flavor was just not good enough. However, the Yo Kids squeezers were on average better than their cup counterpart. The flavor was good enough to earn the squeezers respectable ratings from 11.5-13.5. The cherry squeezers were definitely the standout for all of the Stoneyfield of this session.

The second-best type of Stoneyfield for this session were the probiotics. The French vanilla as well as the strawberry were reasonably tasty, though there are other kinds of yogurt with these flavors that were better-tasting. However, as far as organic yogurt goes, these flavors were fairly good.

Stoneyfield O'Soy yogurt was similar to other soy yogurts which we've tried in that the flavor disappeared after the first few seconds of eating it. However, the flavor which replaced the (fairly tasty) yogurt flavor was really gross, causing all of us to reach for the oyster crackers. Adam didn't seem to mind as much as the rest of us, though, saying that if you ate the strawberry fast enough, you didn't have the chance to catch the bad flavor.

The Stoneyfield smoothies are variable in flavor. The raspberry had a very bad taste, not anything like raspberries at all. However, the strawberry was good, earning a rating of 13. Since I had been absent for the previous sessions at which smoothies had been consumed, I found the liquid texture disconcerting.

The limited edition yogurt had changed since we started cataloging, so we ate mango honey yogurt instead of vanilla maple. The mango honey didn't deserve to be a limited edition at all. Jessica said the yogurt tasted like fish, but to the rest of us, the flavor was so hard to detect it was almost invisible. What's the point of a limited edition yogurt that doesn't taste like anything?

After all of the Stoneyfield, we moved on to other brands. To round out the Liberte brand, we had their blackberry flavor, which was the taste highlight of this yogurt outing with a rating of 14.5. The texture was thick but not disgustingly so, a big relief from Stoneyfield's too-thin consistency. Then we moved on to Greek Gods yogurt, bought due to Jessica's amusement at the concept of "Fig on the bottom" and follower suggestions to try more Greek yogurt. Almost all of these yogurts earned above a 10, but each of them was in some way idiosyncratic. The honey yogurt tasted so strongly of honey it was startling and even slightly unsettling. Fig on the bottom tasted just like figs but was mostly funny because of its name and concept. Pomegranate was the least singular of these yogurts, not having much of a taste. Vanilla cinnamon orange was strange for obvious reasons. It tasted of each component of the yogurt for a short time, making all of us experience a kind of "flavor whiplash". It was very strange and would have been better if the flavors had been more blended.

And with that, we wrapped up our penultimate yogurt foray. Make sure to check out our Picasa album for pictures of this adventure. We will be meeting on Tuesday for our final yogurt-eating experience (except for our as-yet unscheduled victory lap, of which coming later), so don't miss it!!!

Sunday's Averages!

2010-08-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Here are the averages from today's session! Hannah will be blogging about the experience soon.

Stoneyfield Probiotic:
French Vanilla - 12.75
Strawberry - 12.5
Stoneyfield O'Soy:
Peach - 8.5
Strawberry - 8.5
Stoneyfield Yo Baby:
Banana - 6.75
Vanilla - 8
Stoneyfield Yo Kids Squeezers:
Berry - 12.5
Cherry - 13.5
Strawberry - 11.5
Stoneyfield Smoothies:
Peach - 10
Raspberry - 7.25
Strawberry - 13
Strawberry Banana - 10.5
Stoneyfield Limited Edition:
Mango Honey - 10.75
Liberte:
Wild Blackberry - 14.5
Greek Gods:
Honey - 12.75
Fig on the Bottom - 12.5
Pomegranate - 11.75
Vanilla Cinnamon Orange - 8.75

Just a reminder: We upload pictures from each session, so don't forget to check out the photo gallery. Also, we want to thank our newest followers for joining the EAFYIDPET community! We love knowing that people are reading our posts, so keep leaving comments!

Mediocrity at its Middling

2010-08-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday four yogurt eaters (Adam, Kaela, Siarra and myself) met for our second yogurt-eating session of the week which also happened to be the antepenultimate yogurt session of the entire project. Adam and I went to the East-side Marsh while Kaela and Siarra met at the West-side Marsh. Because we are so close to the end, with increasingly fewer and fewer choices of yogurt that we haven't eaten, it has become necessary to go to two different stores to ensure that we can acquire enough yogurt for the session to meet our quota.

And so, we managed to buy enough yogurt (25!) with only minor confusion and a couple of phone calls. Then we headed out and went to our location for the afternoon - my Grandma's porch. We arrived and went about our usual business: cataloging, photo-taking, spoon-readying etc.

Our yogurt spoils for the day was a fairly eclectic group; we had smoothies, Gogurt, fruit on the bottom, and some really thick-textured yogurts. We started off with Raspberry Fruit on the Bottom, which was good enough. Siarra appreciated that it did not have very many seeds. Next came another Dannon - Cherry Light and Fit. We didn't know then that these would be some of the highest averages of the day, earning an 11.75 and 12, respectively.

Then came the smoothies, or rather, the liquefied yogurts. The DanActive yogurt was not a hit among the crowd, except for me. I enjoyed its vanilla and milky taste to a degree, but the others thought it tasted too much of spoiled milk. I certainly would have finished mine, but would not have bought again. I think my immune system is strong enough without buying a 3 fl oz bottle of probiotic drink to fortify it....

The Frusion smoothies were a welcome change from Lake Monroe's assortment of smoothies. The texture this time was much more satisfying and the flavor was better. The highest average of the day went to Frusion Banana Berry with a 13.5.

I had high hopes for the La Creme yogurts but both fell flat. Neither met our expectations, but both were palatable. They just left an odd aftertaste that did not merit a higher score. What followed next was a blur of rainbow-colored, kids-oriented yogurts. Unfortunately for us, the Gogurts that we needed to buy were SpongeBob SquarePants and Scooby-Doo themed. We "feasted" on yogurts with names like Rawberry and the poorly-named Bikini Bottom Berry. All the flavors were not satisfying and tasted more like their color than their flavor. However, the worst of the day was the Watermelon Burst from Yoplait Trix.

There were several more normal yogurts that we ate, but they were nothing to write home about, or I suppose, to blog about. Just average. That pretty much sums up the entire experience. Average. Please stay tuned for our last two sessions plus a wrap-up victory round as well as our final data.

Check out our Facebook Group, Twitter page and Picasa gallery for the latest updates. Send us an email or just drop us a comment with your thoughts!

Miscellaneous Averages

2010-08-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here are today's averages. Jessica will be blogging about the experience shortly, so check back soon!

Dannon Fruit on the Bottom:

Raspberry Marsh - 11.75

Dannon Light and Fit:

Cherry - 12

Danactive:

Vanilla - 6

Frusion:

Banana Berry - 13.5
Peach Passion Fruit - 10.75
Strawberry - 11.5
Wild Berry - 10.25
La Creme:
Strawberry - 10.75
Vanilla - 10.25
Yoplait Kids:
Peach - 8
Strawberry Banana - 8
Yoplait Light:
Apricot Mango - 10.25
Lemon Cream Pie - 10.25
Yoplait Light Thick&Creamy:
French Vanilla - 8.25
Key Lime Pie - 12
Yoplait Trix:
Strawberry Punch - 10
Watermelon Burst - 7
Yo Plus:
Blueberry Acai - 7
Yoplait FiberOne:
Peach - 8.25
Gogurt:
Berry Blue Blast - 7.25
Bikini Bottom Berry - 9.75
Rawberry - 9.75
Shaggy's Cool Punch - 8.25
Strawberry Riptide - 9.5
Strawberry Splash - 8.75

It's Like a Bird Dancing on a Subwoofer

2010-08-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

Hello, yogurt eaters everywhere. Yesterday, we had a wonderful yogurt experience in the Indiana University Student Union. Aaaaand, when I say "wonderful" I mean it. This (one more time, now) wonderful experience was brought to us by Bloomingfoods, and included such succulent brands as Brown Cow, Stoneyfield, and Wallaby. The five of us, Adam, Dennis, Kaela, Jessica, and myself (Siarra), were pleased to be back to realy yogurt and away from yogurt smoothies.

Favorites of the day were Stoneyfield Creamtop Chocolate Underground (win for Stoneyfield - full of deliciousness), Brown Cow Cream Top Apricot Mango, and Wallaby Orange Passion Fruit (you don't find too many orange flavored yogurts). However, the day was really good in general, with only five yogurts, Redwood Hill Farm Blueberry and Strawberry, Silk Key Lime Pie, and Wallaby Black Cherry and Maple, rating below a ten. Even so, Adam and Dennis enjoyed the Redwood Hill Farm flavors, which are made from goat's milk, and Dennis also enjoyed the Silk Key Lime Pie (probably because it was more lime and less pie than other key lime pie flavors). Another good word for Silk - It continues to be the only soy yogurt brand so far whose flavor does not disappear. Even furthermore, I really like maple flavors, though they are sweet, and I think we all agreed that the Wallaby Maple would also be good on something.

So, the moral of the story is that yesterday was a great day for EAFYIDPET.

After, we all went out to lunch (crazy idea, all stuffed full of yogurt). We wanted somewhere close (it was HOT) so we went to Chipotle and were serenaded by the smooth stylings of what must have been zombies raving to birds on subwoofers. And a good time was had by all.

I promise to get pictures up on facebook tomorrow, so keep your eyes out!

Organic averages

2010-08-11T10:17:00.001-07:00

These averages weren't even sprayed with pesticides:

Stoneyfield Fat Free:

Black Cherry - 11.4

Blueberry - 10

Peach - 12.8

Pomegranate Berry - 13

Stoneyfield Low Fat

French Vanilla - 13

Stoneyfield Cream Top:

Chocolate Underground - 14.6

White Chocolate Raspberry - 12.2

Redwood Hill Farm:

Blueberry - 8.4
Strawberry - 9.4
Silk:
Key Lime - 9.8
Brown Cow Cream Top:
Apricot Mango - 15.2
Creamy Coffee - 10.8
Raspberry - 12.2
Brown Cow Low Fat:
Vanilla Bean - 13
Wallaby:
Banana Vanilla - 11.4
Black Cherry - 9.6
Blueberry - 11
Maple - 9.8
Orange Passion Fruit - 14.4
Raspberry - 12
Strawberry - 13
Vanilla - 11.8

Siarra should have a blog post soon about the session.

Yogurt != Smoothies

2010-08-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we journeyed to the beautiful waters of Lake Monroe to eat our yogurt by Fairfax beach. Hold on, quick modification. Drink our yogurt by Fairfax beach. We decided to dive into the world of smoothies, and we were not pleased. Here are the results:

Active Lifestyle - Smoothies
Acai Blueberry Cherry - 9.75
Peach Cranberry Pomegranate - 12.5
Strawberry Pomegranate Cherry - 12
Dannon - Activia
Raspberry - 10
Dannon - Dan Active
Blueberry - 7.5
Strawberry - 9.5
Dannon - Danimals Smoothie
Strawberry Explosion - 9.5
Strikin' Strawberry Kiwi - 9
Swingin' Strawberry Banana - 9.75
Dannon - Dan-o-nino
Banana - 6 (chalky and hard to swallow)
Raspberry - 4.50 (chalky and hard to swallow)
Strawberry - 9.75 (chalky and hard to swallow)
Dannon - Light and Fit
Strawberry - 13
Kroger - Light
Lemon - 9.75
Peach - 10.75
Vanilla Cranberry - 11.25
Kroger - Smoothies
Peach - 8
Raspberry - 10
Weight Watchers - Original
Strawberry - 7.5
Yoplait - Delights
Cream Caramel - 9.75
Yoplait - Delights
Lemon Torte - 12.25
Triple Berry Cream - 10.5
Yoplait - Fiber One
Key Lime Pie - 13.5
Strawberry - 11.5

As you can see, the yogurts with "Smoothie" in the title or brand name did not do very well (neither, might I note, did those named after dinosaurs). Most of the smoothies were not very thick and tasted either like nothing or like nothing we wanted to be drinking. When we finally reached the creamy and jellulous (it got one Google hit. I can use it) grounds of real yogurt once again, we were so enthralled we cheered and sang. Well maybe not "we." But I did. The conclusion was thus: smoothies are smoothies and yogurt is yogurt. While yogurt may go into smoothies, it should not be the only ingredient. I don't know if I would even say that it should be the main ingredient. But we are not smoothie experts; we are yogurt experts.

The actual yogurt of the day turned out to be average. We finished off the Weight Watchers brand with Strawberry, which turns out to be their worst flavor, in our opinion. Their best was the Black Cherry, which is a personal favorite of mine. The best yogurt of the day was Yoplait FiberOne's Key Lime Pie, which I happily took home. In fact, the Key Lime Pie was so good (in my opinion - Jessica gave it an 11) that I made an actual key lime pie after dinner. And there was much rejoicing.

Averages for August 6, 2010

2010-08-06T22:42:00.001-07:00

Dannon Light and Fit:
Blackberry - 11.75
Cherry Vanilla - 11.5
Key Lime - 11.75
Pineapple Coconut – 9
Raspberry - 12.25
Bryers Inspirations:
Chocolate Chip - 9
Mint Chocolate Chip - 9
Natural Strawberry - 15.75
Yoplait Original:
Blackberry Pomegranate - 11.25
Key Lime Pie - 11.75
Mixed Berry - 10.5
Red Raspberry - 10.5
Strawberry Cheesecake - 6.75
Yoplait Thick and Creamy:
Strawberry – 10
Food Club Light:
Blackberry – 9
Blueberry - 7.25
Cherry - 8.75
Cherry Vanilla - 8.5
Raspberry - 9.25
Strawberry - 10.75
Vanilla - 9.5

“At the corner of Glenwood and the 3400 East Block of Polly Grimshaw Trail”

2010-08-06T22:41:00.000-07:00

(Written by Kaela, Posted by Adam)

Four of the regular Yogurt Eaters assembled today at Park Ridge Park were we (Jessica, Dennis, Adam, and myself, Kaela) sampled 21 different flavors, spanning 5 brands/types of yogurt. Overall, it was a fairly boring session. We didn’t purchase any outstanding flavors, and our ratings reflected the mediocrity of our choices. The Dannon Light and Fit flavors were mostly normal, and brought in averages around the 11-12 range. The Pineapple Coconut was clearly our least favorite Light and Fit of this round, but with an average of 9, it wasn’t too bad.

The Yoplaits were also pleasant, but none of them were particularly dazzling. The Strawberry Cheesecake was slightly distressing, as I am not a fan of “desert” yogurts. The others agreed, and that flavor received the lowest average of the set. I would also like to point out that Yoplait isn’t kidding when they say THICK and Creamy. It was so viscous that when I put it in my mouth I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. It took a fair bit of swishing - and dare I say - chewing, for me to feel comfortable swallowing it, which is an experience I’ve never had while eating yogurt.

Next up were the Food Club yogurts, which were…odd. I don’t think many of us found their taste to be repulsive, but the flavors didn’t quite mimic the fruits they claimed to be impersonating. Most of them had a distinctly sweet taste, but if I were blindfolded and asked what flavor of yogurt I was eating, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have come up with a plausible answer for any of the Food Club flavors. All in all, they were bland and unappealing.

We saved the Breyers Inspirations for last, hoping they would swoop in and save the day, mesmerizing us with brilliant yogurt flavor. The first two we tried were a disappointment (Chocolate Chip and Mint Chocolate Chip). Both had a surprisingly sour taste, accompanied by obviously artificially created chocolate bits. However, once away from the chocolate, the Strawberry was a stand out. It was the perfect consistency, and full of delicious flavor. All agreed that it was our best yogurt of the day.

Newsflash! EAFYIDPET will be meeting this weekend! In an effort to finish all of the flavors of yogurt in a timely manner, we are going to start meeting more than twice a week. So look for another post this Sunday!

"It wasn't shenanigans, it was dire panic!"

2010-08-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday's EAFYIDPET session took place at my house--more specifically, in my hall closet. Attendees were Jessica, Dennis, Siarra, Kaela, and me (Adam). We tried a variety of yogurt brands, including Activia, Danimals Coolision, Trix, Kroger Blended, and Kroger Fruit on the Bottom. It was overall a very positive yogurt experience, enhanced by the fact that we were crammed into my closet in the dark. The flashlight fell on Dennis once and burned his arm, but otherwise there were no darkness-related mishaps (other than Dennis getting yogurt all over the journal where we were recording the ratings).

Activia yogurts were okay, but the "cereal" part of vanilla and cereal is rather strange. It reminded me more of the definition of cereal that is along the lines of "grass whose starchy grains are used as food" than actual breakfast cereal. The wheat on the package added to this concept. It was weird. Probably would not buy again (but Siarra would).

Danimals Coolisions are totally awesome. It's two separate tubes of yogurt which you are meant to consume at the same time. The yogurts are delicious individually and together. It's great. Part of me doesn't want to like them, since they're clearly marketed to elementary-schoolers, but it's impossible to resist the gimmick and the deliciousness. Would buy again. And again.

I find Trix yogurts to be generally pretty unpleasant. Kaela remarked that the Strawberry Kiwi flavor tasted like Amoxicillin and I found the Cotton Candy flavor to be very unpleasant, though it may just be because I don't like cotton candy. The cloying sweetness of all of the Trix flavors is hard to escape. They're just not that good. I think we should let the Rabbit have them after all.

The Kroger brand yogurts were boring, generally. The texture of the cherry pieces in the Cherry yogurt was very off-putting. It was very much like the mouthfeel of a maraschino cherry. Not so great. The Peach Fruit on the Bottom received such a low rating because it was very runny and really just tasted like water. It was not good. An unpleasant end to our yogurt session, unfortunately.

EAFYIDPET is now meeting three times a week! We will now have yogurt ratings Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays! We are trying to finish our yogurt-eating campaign before Kaela goes back to school, which means that a lot of yogurt must be eaten in a short amount of time. So look out for us an extra time every week! We'll be back on Friday!

Assorted Dannon and Kroger brand ratings

2010-08-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

We are starting to get to the point where we can no longer go with just one brand, which is very exciting. Adam was appointed the position of Blogger for today's yogurting session, but here are the averages.

Dannon Activia:

Strawberry - 11.8

Dannon Activia Fiber:

Vanilla and Cereal - 8.8

Danimal's Coolision:

Berry Punch/Cherry - 15.6 (Finished entire tube)
Strawberry/Very Berry - 13.4 (Finished entire tube)

Yoplait Trix:

Cotton Candy - 9.4
Strawberry Kiwi - 10.25
Triple Cherry -11.6
Wild Berry Blue - 9.2

Kroger Blended:

Black Cherry - 12
Blueberry - 9.2
Cherry - 8.4
Cherry Vanilla - 12.4 (Tastes like chocolate)
Peach - 13
Raspberry - 12.6
Strawberry - 12.2 (Tastes like jam)

Kroger Fruit on the Bottom:

Blueberry - 10.6
Peach - 6.6
Raspberry -10.8

Gravity-defying yogurt

2010-07-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made the long trek out to the beautiful Brown County State Park.

As you can see, it was probably the most gorgeous yogurt eating thus far, perhaps not even in our journey but in the world over. At least on the scale that we eat yogurt.

The one downfall of eating yogurt there is that near wonders, one must often make compromises about one's wooden tables. The table we sat at, while being in the shade, was at about a nine degree slope, assuming Siarra is good at balancing her camera.

Both Yeesoo and I felt a little carsick after sitting so precariously, but we were determined to not let such odd gravitational feelings detract from our yogurt ratings. As it turned out, the yogurt we picked was perfect for this askew situation, as it was possibly the thickest yet, with the exception of Yoplait Delights.
I must say, Yoplait knows thick. Their Thick and Creamy varieties, both Light and not Light, were almost pudding-like. While Jessica enjoyed that consistency, I tried to imagine mixing such yogurt with granola, which is how I like my yogurt, and came up very puzzled. Would my wrists get sore after mixing such thick yogurt? Would the granola be able to soak any of the yogurt up, as I like it to? Would the consistency of the yogurt force me to occasionally resort to YoBaby and YoKids to balance consistencies? Lastly, can Thick and Creamy really be Light? Such questions perturbed me throughout the experience.

In terms of flavor, though, the day was lovely. Yeesoo did not enjoy Cinnamon Roll at all, but Siarra and I, who are dessert yogurt fans, found it lovely and 12ish. Yoplait Thick and Creamy merited a 17, the highest yogurt has ever gotten, from Jessica, though the rest of us found it only in 16 or 15 range. Jessica is known for her love of Vanilla, though, and she didn't have my consistency issues.

It was a beautiful day of yogurting, followed by excellent board games. I highly recommend Jumanji to anyone who likes to get really really stressed out and then have a wonderful cathartic release of fear once a teammate calls "Jumanji!!!" Truly, the game is not about surviving, but is instead about winning. Here, as always, are the averages:

Dannon Activia
Blueberry - 12
Cherry - 11.33
Mixed Berry - 10.33
Strawberry and Cereal - 10.67
Dannon Light and Fit
Peach - 10.67
Strawberry - 11
Vanilla - 12.67
Yoplait Light Thick and Creamy
Blueberry Pie - 10.33
Cherry Chobbler - 9.33
Cinnamon Roll - 10.33
Lemon Meringue - 8.67
Strawberry - 13
Yoplait Original
Coffee - 10.33
Harvest Peach - 10.67
Yoplait Thick and Creamy
Vanilla - 16

We are two.

2010-07-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

Hello World.

Today Siarra and I partook in 6 different varieties of yogurts that we bought from Bloomingfoods: Cascade Fresh, Silk, Whole Soy and Co., Liberte, and Brown Cow Low Fat and Cream Tops.

After buying our yogurt, we went to the Mall Food Court where there were plenty of open tables for us to use. After stacking and taking the usual pictures, we got right down to business. First came the Whole Soy and Co. yogurts which boasted the same disappearing flavor as the other yogurts from the same brand. The texture was acceptable, but the fruit flavor disappeared very quickly and we were left with just the soy. Peach was the best of the three - just managing to nab a score of ten. (Any score above ten means that we would finish the yogurt if we were eating it normally. Anything higher than about 12 means that we would not only finish but purchase again.)

Next came the Silk yogurts. Strawberry was the standout in the category, while Blueberry was the worst. It was noted that the Silk yogurt (also soy) had a longer lasting flavor than the Whole Soy, but that was not necessarily a good thing. Siarra pointed out that the aftertaste was almost that of bathroom cleaner. Not exactly delicious.

Brown Cow Lemon Twist got high markings just for being what it said it was. It tasted like yogurt ought to and was pleasantly lemon-y. The chocolate, on the other hand, was really, really bad. It was bitter and tasted more like black coffee than anything else. We even checked the container to make sure that it wasn't coffee by mistake.

The Cascade Fresh yogurts followed, where Boysenberry was the clear winner. I had never heard of boysenberries before, but the container had a picture of a fruit that was akin to a blackberry. On the whole, it was very refreshing and a thoroughly delightful yogurt.

And now, for the real winning brand of the session: Liberte. This yogurt is more of a greek-style yogurt. It was really thick and rich. It boasted unique flavors which were well developed and consistent. All three of the yogurts that we had were really good. The Strawberry was the best of the three, but the Plum Walnut had a really good, nutty flavor. Siarra and I discussed how eating the yogurt made us happy. That is something that I hadn't come across yet. I truly enjoyed eating these.

After we cleaned up our mess, we played a Harry Potter board game which we had brought. There are lots of fun pictures - take a look when Siarra posts them.

On a whole, today reinforced the idea that soy yogurts just aren't that good and that Greek yogurts triumph. Stay tuned for the latest pictures and for Friday's yogurt sessions. See the below post for complete ratings.

A Bunch of Bloomingfoods Yogurts

2010-07-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Brand new yogurt ratings from this afternoon! Enjoy. Or rather, don't. We didn't.

Cascade Fresh (Fat Free)
Blueberry - 6
Boysenberry - 12
Cherry Vanilla - 9

Silk (Live)
Raspberry - 10.5
Blueberry - 6
Strawberry - 12

Whole Soy and Co. (Original)
Peach - 10
Strawberry - 7.5
Vanilla - 8

Liberté (Méditerranée)
Strawberry - 14
Plum and Walnut - 13.5
Peach-Passion Fruit - 12

Brown Cow (Cream Top)
Chocolate - 7

Brown Cow (Low Fat)
Lemon Twist - 12.5

Yogurt by Firelight (with a little help from a flashlight, too)

2010-07-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Siarra again, with the update:

Saturday night, the yogurt eaters assembled in my backyard for a special edition late night EAFYIDPET by firelight. As if this summer hasn't been hot enough, we had to create our own heat source. Luckily, the sun was down, so it was actually pretty nice. However, the sun being down created problems of its own when we had trouble seeing the yogurt. Jessica in particular was quite disturbed, and we passed around a flashlight to make sure we could see what we were eating.

We started with a round of Kroger Fruit on the Bottom, where the flashlight immediately proved its use, since otherwise I'm sure we would have failed miserably at getting all of the chunks and fruit goo stirred in properly. Peach was particularly strange, however, as there wasn't any fruit goo . . . simply chunks. Furthermore, the flavor was very subtle, and also had a hint of pineapple.

After Fruit on the Bottom, there was Kroger Blended. As a group, Blended has a nice texture, though as Jessica said, "They aren't blended very well" as some of them still have fruit chunks. Cherry was quite disappointing in this type, and we gave it a unanimous 7. However, Cherry Vanilla is my new personal favorite. It has a very interesting flavor that Kaela identified as chocolate. I'd highly recommend, though Kaela and Jessica disagree.

Blueberry was our only Kroger Lite flavor of the night. I'm pretty sure that this was the odd blueberry flavor (our third of the session) in that it "whispered". The flavor simply wasn't very strong.

As a matter of fact, all of the aforementioned yogurts (aside from the wonderful cherry vanilla) were pretty bland. They weren't particularly bad, and are definitely acceptable for passive yogurt eating as a quick breakfast or with lunch, but nothing remarkable.

Then we come to Dan-o-Nino. Don't get excited. These tiny yogurts targeted at children don't fit into the bland category because they were delicious. No. The three flavors we had today, strawberry banana, vanilla, and peach, were probably the thickest and heaviest yogurts I've ever eaten, as well as being extremely chalky and otherwise unpleasant. Plus, the flavor was not at all a redeeming quality. The only upside was the fact that the package came with a cute magnet. However, we do not look forward to the six or so more flavors.

That was it for our yogurt rating, but the fun was not over quite yet. We weren't going to let the fire go to waste so we made s'mores. And even though Jessica dropped her marshmallow on the ground and a new one had to be toasted, a good time was had by all.

Keep your eyes out for the next blog post!

EAFYIDPET

Park Ridge East Park

Olcott Park!

Hello New World!

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry, Cherry, CAKE!

What!? New Ratings!?

Master List updated

EAFYIDPET Follow-up

Yogurt by the numbers

“Huns are my parents!…*growl*…support group”

Last Averages EVER!

"This acorn was in my pants!"

Sunday's Averages!

Mediocrity at its Middling

Miscellaneous Averages

It's Like a Bird Dancing on a Subwoofer

Organic averages

Yogurt != Smoothies

Averages for August 6, 2010

“At the corner of Glenwood and the 3400 East Block of Polly Grimshaw Trail”

"It wasn't shenanigans, it was dire panic!"

Assorted Dannon and Kroger brand ratings

Gravity-defying yogurt

We are two.

A Bunch of Bloomingfoods Yogurts

Yogurt by Firelight (with a little help from a flashlight, too)

“Huns are my parents!…growl…support group”