Greek Yogurt vs Regular
 

Crazy sorry if this has already been addressed and I missed it, but I didn't really find what I was looking for when I searched. Alright, so I really hate yogurt. The thing is, I understand how beneficial eating it can be and I really want to like it. I've tried tons of flavors, but unfortunately I just can't get around the taste. That being said, I've never tried Greek style yogurt before. The only kind of information I can fin on it is a compare/contrast of the nutrition labels and the fact that the texture is a lot more thick and creamy than regular, but no one talks about taste! So here's my question: is the taste difference between Greek style yogurt and regular enough that it's worth trying, or is it just the texture?

i don't think the taste is much different, mostly thickness and texture. I like it less thick but get the greek yogurt because its so high in protein. It's thicker than I care for and does have just a bit more yogurty taste. If u don't like yogurt u prolly won't like greek yog any better but its worth a shot!

If you hate the taste, I agree that you probably won't like greek yogurt any better.

You might like homemade yogurt with a short incubation time, but making your own yogurt is a lot of work to go through only to possible determine that you don't like it any better.

I'm not a big fan of plain yogurt, but do like it sweetened. I like greek yogurt better, but it's more of a texture thing than a taste difference. I LOVE my homemade yogurt and my first batch only incubated 5 hours, it was the best darned yogurt I'd ever tasted (though it was a bit thin). I've been continuing to experiment, and the shorter the incubation time, the mellower the yogurt (and the runnier). Finding the perfect balance between flavor and thickness has taken me several batches.

Except for my own yogurt, I can't stand unsweetened yogurt, but with my own, I use little if any sweetener. It's that yummy (to me), but it does still have a "yogurt" flavor, just a more mild one.

If you can't stomach the flavor of yogurt, you might consider other fermented probiotic foods (like live cultured sauerkraut - though that's harder and harder to find. Not all bagged sauerkraut is life-culture sauerkraut, but you won't find live-culture sauerkraut in cans or jars).

Or you could use a probiotic supplemnt (usually in capsule form).

I have to say though, as a person diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), that regularly eating yogurt dramatically improved my symptoms.

Alright, thanks ladies! I think I'll pick up a small one just to try, hopefully the texture difference might be enough to make it a little easier to handle. If not, I'll definitely look into the supplement - didn't even know that was an option!

The Chonabi Greek Yogurt with Granola is amazing.
The Yo Plait Yogurt with Oreo cookie crumbles is freaking amazing
The Danamials with the chocolate graham crackers is also delish!

I don't really like yogurt either, but these three are the most delish and I will happily eat them no problem!

I have never liked regular yogurt, but I do eat greek yogurt 4 to 5 times a week. I do have to put one splenda in it. My favorite food is ice cream and the greek yogurt is a subsitute for ice cream for me.

I prefer Oikas brand to Chobani although I have both in my refrigerator, that is just my preference, I do not like plain yogurt at all.

Ksquared - You know, considering all of the flavors I've tried, I've for some reason never bothered with the kind that has the stuff you add in. I think I'm going to give that a shot as well just to see. :)

lewden - See, that's what I was thinking, that it might be more like ice cream. I don't have a problem with frozen yogurt (Sadly, freezing yoplait doesn't cut it for me. Funny story, the chocolate whipped kind tastes like strawberry when frozen, my sister and her friend thought so too. So bizarre.) So I was hoping the texture might do the trick, we'll see I guess. Have you ever tried freezing it?

bargoo - So you don't like regular, but you like Greek? Ahhh there is hope! haha

missjean, I think yogurt might be an acquired taste when I first tried it years ago, I tried plain favor and hated it, too tart. The dog didn't even like it. It was a while before I dared tried the yogurt with fruit and to my surprise liked it . You might try Dannon Lite and Fit or Activia. It has only been a few months since I started eating the Greek Yogurt and I do like it but not the plain, too tart again. You have many flavors to choose from with both Chobani and Oikos it is richer and thicker also more expensive and more calories than either Activia or Dannon Lite and Fit. Yoplait also has some good ones.

To me: greek yogurt is bitter and too think and just gross. I demo food at Sam's Club so I've tried it many times...I can barely swallow the stuff.
But most people claim that the fruit ones are great, (I tried it and didn't like it either, but maybe I'm weird) check out Chobani or Okios. The first one is our best seller though, so everyone can't be wrong.

Edit: just scanned through the replies to find almost everyone mentioned those brands lol
Go for the Chobani with fruit though, I think Starbucks or somewhere similar sells them by the cup so you don't have to buy a whole case if you hate it. Just keep an eye out...or even take a trip to a hospital food court! lol the last 2 hospitals I was at had them haha

i like to eat plain greek yogurt with some splenda and eat cherries with it, or mix in some granola...i like that it has alot of protein and also doesn't have the sweeteners in it that other flavored yogurts have

I didn't like the plain yogurt.. but the yogurt with stuff to add to it.. like granola made it tolerable until I developed a taste for it.

You guys are awesome! I'm going shopping tomorrow morning. Since you can buy single servings I think I'm going to get a few of the different kinds mentioned above and give 'em a shot. I've also got splenda, so I'll make sure to try adding that if I don't like it. I'll let you guys know how it goes! Thanks again :)

I love Greek yogurt. It pretty much tastes and resembles sour cream because it's so thick and tart. I use the fat free plain as a substitute for sour cream most of the time.

My four year old daughter eats it with a little bit of honey and sometimes fruit mixed in.

If you don't mind the sugar, Stonyfield has a chocolate Greek yogurt that is like dessert to me. I really like Chobani, especially their honey and vanilla flavors. They also have a vanilla chocolate chip, but I haven't tried it yet.

Kaplods, aren't you the one who mixes sugar free pudding mix into plain Greek yogurt to make a cheesecakey-like dessert? That probably tones down the yogurt flavor a bit, right?

Yep, and it really does. My favorites are Sugar Free Pistachio (store brands ok) and sugar free chocolate fudge (which I've only found in Jello brand, and I think it's much better than the regular chocolate flavored puddings).

It works great with regular yogurt too (I just tried that for the first time with my own homemade yogurt). It has more of a pudding than a cheesecake texture if regular yogurt is used, though. I used the Jello brand sugar free cheesecake flavor (which wasn't my favorite) but added some Torani sugar free raspberry syrup to the pudding, and OMG really amazing raspberry cheesecake flavor. I'm going to try the raspberry syrup with greek yogurt and the chocolate fudge to get a really cheesecakey flavor and texture.

The greek yogurt/pudding mix does give the most cheesecake-like texture (and sometimes I'll stir in a bit of whey protein isolate to make the texture even MORE like cheesecake... though usually when I do that I have to add extra sweetener, so usually I don't bother).

Some flavors I think are perfect (like the pistachio) but some I think need a bit more sweetener to counterbalance the yogurt's tartness.

I don't mind small amounts of yogurt, but I don't like having it very often. I find greek yogurt has a stronger taste than other yogurts so you probably won't like it. I'm not sure if you can get it, but have you heard of Yakult? I think it has similar benefits to yogurt, but it tastes a lot better. It's a drink.

Sauerkraut is really easy to make.

Alright, belated update time! I got four different kinds: raspberry oikos, apple cinnamon chobani, light orange creme yoplait w/ granola, and yocrunch greek raspberry acai & almonds. Sadly, those of you who said the greek has MORE of the 'yogurt' flavor were insanely right. The chobani was like apple cinnamon sour cream haha. The flavor of the yocrunch was actually really good if you can ignore the distinct yogurt flavor but that might have just been because I love almonds. I tried adding splenda to all of them, but no dice. I think I'm just gonna have to accept that yogurt is not for me, but I'm glad I made an effort to try. Thanks for all your help and suggestions anyway guys!

I never eat yogurt at all. Tried the greek yogurt, all brands and still dont like it....greek or regular...sorry

Greek yogurt tastes a little like sour cream to me. I can only stomach to Chobani blueberry kind.

Fage is my favorite, though I'm not a big fan of it undoctored either. I love to mix it with one serving of sugar free syrup and some almonds or a nice nut and fruit trail mix. Delicious! I really don't detect the sour creamy taste of it. It's worth a shot if you're still looking to find something. I'd really like to try it with coffee syrups as I have read that is really tasty too.

A friend convinced me to try Greek yogurt. I love the Chobani vanilla Greek yogurt!!! Thicker and creamier than regular yogurt

I decided to try plain Greek yogurt with chocolate pudding. SO GOOD! I want to try the pistachio, but the store didn't have sugar free. It is now officially my breakfast of choice. And I just did regular store brand chocolate. Gonna try the jello chocolate fudge and pistachio soon. Thanks for helping me mix things up a bit. I am getting tired of egg whites and chicken breast over and over. :-)

Oh there's so much more healthy foods (including proteins) available than egg whites and chicken breasts. I'd go stark raving bonkers if I could only eat the same foods over and over, even if I had 20 or 30 foods to choose from.

Although hubby says I'm a bit freakish in my need for variety. He eats the same meal for lunch almost every day (some variety of asian style noode soup).

I'd also recommend chicken thighs. They do have a tiny bit more fat and calories than chicken breasts, but the difference is actually very small. Not only are thighs cheaper (even boneless) they're much more flavorful and are more forgiving of overcooking.

I like to simmer my chicken (and other proteins) in low-calorie simmering sauces. One favorite is petite diced tomatoes with green chiles, or any flavored canned tomatoes (checking the label to avoid those with added fat or sugar). There are chili flavored tomatoes, italian flavored tomatoes, garlic flavored tomatoes. Spicy V-8 also makes a great simmering sauce. Low-calorie soups like french onion also work nicely, as do low-calorie salad dressings (or a mixture of low-cal salad dressings and tomatoes).

I have tried to many Greek yogurts and have wasted so much money. In my opinion, ALL of the greek yogurts are HORRIBLE!!! I prefer regular yogurt.

While I love (and miss) Greek yogurt, the sugar just doesn't work with my current plan. I'm usually too lazy to mix something in plain yogurt, but I'm going to start attempting it sometimes. I have found a non-sugar sweetened Greek yogurt - Sophie is the brand. It's xylitol and stevia sweetened. So far I've tried vanilla, chocolate, and banana - yum! I'm saving it for my serious workout days when I need a little more protein.

I see Dannon now makes a sugar free Greek yogurt. My mom bought some and I tried a taste - it tasted like....Dannon. While the texture was right, the flavor was just NOT there for me.

Since the Sophie is inconvenient (20 minute drive) and expensive ($2 a cup), I'll probably just start buying plain Chobani and sugar free jam.

The first greek yogurt I tried (a very expensive fruit-flavored one), tasted absolutely horrible to me. The second one (don't remember the brand) was absolutely amazing. I started tasting several brands and loved some, and hated others.

That's been my experience with all yogurts (some I love, some I hate, and most are mediocre), I DO find that fat and sugar tends to improve the flavor of yogurt (but hey, no surprise there, right?)

I've been wanting to make yogurt ever since I found a yogurt maker in a Goodwill store (but didn't buy it). Finally a few months ago, I decided to make yogurt. I've experimented with different recipes I've found online and finally settled on using my crockpot to make my own yogurt.

OMG, the difference is absolutely night and day. Every batch has been amazing, compared to store bought yogurt (my homemade yogurt is the only yogurt I can eat plain without gagging, though I still do sweeten it a bit, just less than I did store bought).

At first I thought it was because I was using whole milk, but that's not it, because I've used reduced fat milk and it tastes just as good (though I've never used less than 1%).

I've used Oikos and Fage as starters, and while they're both good, they do make a different tasting yogurt.

Then I discovered that all the different yogurt bacteria species taste different (there are charts online describing the different tastes and textures of the different bacteria strains).

I always use a multiple strain starter (greek yogurt) because I figure that the more types of bacteria the better chances that at least one type will flourish (though some yogurt makers online say that single strain bacteria actually works better for beginners... what I didn't know didn't hurt me).

In hindsight I think the sites that argued against using multiple strains were actually arguing that a beginner might be put off or intimidated if their yogurts had a different flavor and texture every time they made it, so using a single strain yogurt insures that the flavor/texture is going to be more similar from batch to batch.

Using a crockpot, making yogurt is crazy easy... easier than making jerky (which I also love to do) and even easier than making fridge or freezer jams and pickles (also love).

If anyone does want to try making their own yogurt, shorter incubation time and using a smaller amount of starter, and the highest quality milk, make the sweetest, least sour yogurt (almost a creme freche flavor - like a not-sour sourcream).

You only need a couple teaspoons of starter to start a 2-3 quart batch. If you use more than a quarter cup of yogurt as a starter, it can make a stronger, more bitter flavored yogurt. Less is more when it comes to starter.

I prefer a thicker yogurt, but rather than straining, I use a better quality milk and heat it slowly to denature the milk proteins to make a thicker yogurt (by heating the milk to 190 degrees in the crockpot, then cooking to 110, adding the starter, wrapping in a thick towel on a heating pad set on low for 4 to 5 hours).

I never thought I'd make yogurt, let alone be so enthralled by it that I don't think I'll ever buy yogurt again (except as starter).

So Kaplods, I haven't made homemade yogurt yet, but I finally tried pudding mix in Greek yogurt. Oh. My. Yum. I did the Jello Chocolate Fudge in Chobani. So good! I definitely need to by another flavor of pudding. Thanks again for sharing!

Could not find Chobani so tried Zoi vanilla Greek yogurt. It is fantastic!!!

I have tried sooooooo many Greek yogurts and all of them are horrible. I guess it's my taste buds. :'(

Not a fan of greek yogurt, but the one that was pretty decent was the Chobani blueberry. Other than that I go for regular yogurt, if I have any at all. Not a huge fan but I try :lol:

Since you are not a huge fan (like myself) and since you said the Chobani blueberry is pretty decent, I will try that one too. LOL.

I'll let you know.

I buy the Fage non-fat yogurt -- but only to use a a substitute for sour cream. I find that it tastes very much like sour cream.

I guess sour cream is not the flavor you might be looking for in a yogurt to eat straight up, but good to know for substituting :D

I like chobani, some people have suggested straining regular yogurt to get the consistency you might like something that's in between regular and greek. I find that I like only certain flavors of certain brands, so maybe trying a different brand might help.

but hey, if you don't like it, think of the calories you save by not eating it! :D

:sunny: