Sainsbury's Fizzy Drink Style Yogurts

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Poor
Product Quality	Poor
Product package	Good
Taste	Quite nasty
How loyal are you to this brand?	Not at all

Advantages:	Innovative .  .  .
Disadvantages:	.  .  .  but vile

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I’d have to be honest and admit that I am a TERRIBLE impulse shopper when it comes to groceries. As I meander along the supermarket aisles, I find my attention drawn to anything colourful or new and it won’t take much persuasion for me to drop things into the trolley. After the Christmas festivities, I haven’t really fancied anything sweet – all those chocolates seem to have overloaded my system! Nonetheless, I do tend to have yoghurts in my fridge at all times, because they are light, tasty and perfect for snacks.

ABOUT THE BLUE PARROT CAFÉ

A little while ago, Sainsbury’s introduced a new range of products under the branding of the Blue Parrot Café. All the products are packaged in a very similar way, with the emphasis on bright, bold colours and a green jungle-like pattern in the background. The Blue Parrot Café range is actually Sainsbury’s version of a healthy eating selection for kids. Blue Parrot Café products tend to be the sort of thing that children will be drawn to, but without all the artificial flavours and colourings normally associated with such products. This policy was implemented in the light of all the publicity surrounding hyperactive children and how food additives could be a contributory factor. The product range is therefore a good idea in principle – it’s a way of encouraging the kids to eat slightly healthier versions of their favourite foods.

The main disadvantage to these products is that everything comes in “kiddie-sized” portions – which to you and I means small. It’s worth bearing in mind that not all children have small appetites – I never did – and I would imagine that in certain households, the kids would get through these products in no time at all, because they’d eat twice the basic portion. It also means that the products are not likely to be very filling for adults.

MY CHOICE

So why on Earth did I buy these yoghurts, given that I don’t have any children? Well, do you remember those ice lollies that you used to be able to buy called Lemonade Sparkles? They were very cheap, but very tasty and were made from this very slightly fizzy liquid that stayed fizzy even when frozen. They were also very tangy, and had a lovely flavour. When I saw these fizzy drink style yoghurts in Sainsbury’s, I immediately thought of those ice lollies and the idea of having a fizzy, fruity bit in a yoghurt seemed very appealing at the time. I’ve grown rather tired of the deluge of Muller Corners that seem to grace the shelves these days, and these seemed like an interesting substitute. They were also on special offer – reduced from the normal price of £1.19 to 89p, so I could barely resist.

POTS AND WHAT NOTS

The fizzy drink style yoghurts currently retail in packs of four. You get two orangeade flavour and two lemonade flavour. The plastic tubs are wrapped in a bright green cardboard sleeve that makes them really stand out and with a tumble of freshly sliced lemons and oranges they also look very tangy. The pots are quite small – each one only contains 90g, and outside of the cardboard sleeve they are very bland in their plain white pots.

Because the Blue Parrot Café range is targeted at kids, there is all sorts of nonsense all over the sleeve, including some of those “Did You Know?” facts that nobody is interested in. The key focus, however, is on nutritional advice with alerts about the good stuff and the not so good.

In terms of the good stuff these yoghurts contain:

 Only natural flavours
 No added colours
 No artificial sweeteners
 No added flavour enhancers

They are also suitable for vegetarians – which makes them very versatile indeed. The only problem with them would be for dairy allergists as they obviously contain milk.

CONSUMPTION

When you peel off the lid, the only smell you will find is the dairy smell of the yoghurt. This is because the fruity sauce is contained within a small layer at the bottom of the pot, with the yoghurt dollop on top of it. Despite the fact that the yoghurts had over two weeks until the expiry date was due, there was some slight separation on top of the yoghurt and a thin layer of milky liquid – which didn’t look particularly appetising. I’m not quite sure how you are supposed to eat them – I suppose you could just mix them all up, but I thought this would weaken the taste of the fruit. I simply ate some of the yoghurt on its own, then started to combine it with the fruit as I got nearer the bottom.

The yoghurt itself is fairly pleasant, with a mild, creamy taste and a smooth texture – it’s not unlike the yoghurt that you get in one half of those Muller corners. On its own, however, it is a little bit dull, and I was keen to get down to the fruity bit. After a while, the yoghurt started to leave a nasty aftertaste in my mouth too.

Initially, the fruit layer provides a welcome contrast to the yoghurt and has a nice sharp taste to it. My first major disappointment, however, was to find that the fruit sauce wasn’t fizzy at all – it was just like a layer of marmalade without the bits. I can only assume that the fizzy drink association is supposed to be the flavour alone, but the use of the word fizzy suggested to me that the fruit sauce would be fizzy too. After a couple of mouthfuls, I started to find the combination of the fruit and yoghurt less and less appealing. The orange one tasted like lemon to me and the lemon one tasted much the same. I won’t disagree that the flavour was quite natural, but it tasted more of the rind of the fruit rather than the nice juicy bit. The lemon one tasted faintly reminiscent of traditional-style lemonade, but both flavours were far too tart. I think it highly unlikely that children would enjoy these flavours, as they would probably prefer a much sweeter dessert. The flavour of the fruit is fairly strong, but I still found that the yoghurt overpowered it, and as a combination the two things didn’t go together very well at all.

THE BOTTOM LINE

I don’t think this product works at all. Whilst I applaud the sentiment of trying to reduce the level of artificial ingredients in children’s diets, these yoghurts go too far the other way. The flavours are no way sweet enough and I imagine most children would curl their nose up at these. Adults may find them slightly more palatable, but the pots are very small and the aftertaste from one would certainly put you off having another. I wouldn’t recommend these to either children or adults – most of mine have gone straight in the bin.

Not recommended