We Tasted It: Tillamook's New 0% Farmstyle Greek Yogurt Parfait
As you might imagine, we get a lot of foods sent to us for taste tests. And by a lot, I mean some days I can't even walk into my office for all the boxes stacked so high with samples. We taste test almost every single one of them (what's not automatically eliminated because of nutritional considerations, that is). But few make it to this blog. That's because we are a notoriously picky crowd. Just because a food tastes good doesn't mean we want to put our stamp of approval on it. Sure, taste is important. But does the food actually meet a "need" in the food world that another product isn't already fulfilling? Is it better than anything else out there? Will our audience really enjoy this? In other words, we want to make sure you, dear readers, see only the best of the best. We're picky because we care.
So when yet another yogurt came into the office, you can imagine that I kept expectations low for the taste testers. I simply put these yogurts out on our tasting table with a note: "new from Tillamook, has Bob's Red Mill granola toppings." It didn't take long for word to spread that some really tasty treats were available for testing. Soon, half the office was standing over the six cups of yogurt we had to split among the entire office.
Eating healthy should still be delicious.
Everyone had a personal favorite, but one came out on top: the Oregon Dark Cherry 0% Farmstyle Greek Yogurt Parfait. "This is the first time I've ever liked something that was cherry flavored that wasn't an actual cherry!" wrote one taste tester. "The cherry flavor is a dark horse. I didn't expect this," another taste tester wrote.
"These taste like you went outside, picked some fruit off your tree, chopped it up, and just added it to your Greek yogurt," wrote another. "Very clean and fresh"
Other taster comments:
"The blueberry is a bit fake for me—I wish the flavorings came only from the actual fruit, instead of mystery 'natural flavorings.'"
"Glad to have a granola that doesn't add tons of unnecessary sugar." (Add the granola topping to your yogurt, and you'll only go up 2 - grams of sugar.)
"I wish they sold the vanilla in larger sizes. This might be the only vanilla yogurt I've ever liked. It's very natural."
"Very surprisingly creamy for a no-fat yogurt. Like shockingly creamy!"
"Marionberry is odd. It's not my favorite, but the others are all great!" [A Marionberry is an Oregon blackberry variety. Tillamook is headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. Our mostly-Southern-born tasting pool didn't know this exotic fruit.]
As we've documented before, many yogurt makers are trying to jump on the whole grains + yogurt train. After all, we snackers are demanding that our snacking calories count for the most possible nutritionally, so in that fashion, Tillamook partnered with Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods to add "whole grain, stone milled, rolled oats" in the form of flavored granola with each yogurt cup.
All together, each cup of 100% preservative free yogurt snack has between 110 - 170 calories, 0 - 1.5 grams of fat (1.5g if you add the topping), 12 - 16 grams of sugar, and 11 - 13 filling grams of protein.
Want to know where you can pick up some of Tillamook's Farmstyle Greek Yogurt Parfaits near you? Use their Store Locator.
Tell us: What new snacks should we taste test? We're always looking to try new things!
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