Yeo valley Organic, Fat Free Yogurts > Reviews (6)

Being a yogurt addict, I jumped at the oppotunity to take 4 different flavours of Yeo Valley Low fat fruit yogurts from work (hotel/ returant) after my breakfastshift as they ran out of date. I found myself hoping that no more customers would eat the yogurts so that I could sample them. Fortunately, no one did, despite them being usually very popular.

I picked up the Strawberry, Cherry, Toffee and Peach. Each pot is 125g; the same as my Danone Shapes, execept they are 'low fat', not 'fat free' thus the fat and calorie content is higher per 100g. Each yogurt comes in a 7cm high circular pot, progressively widening slightly as it travels upwards. The lid consists of a thin peel back plastic covering. These yogurts are all probiotic, organic and approved of by the soil Association according to little logo's on the pot, which is also recyclable.

All the pots have the manufacturer 'Yeo Valley' + 'organic' in green text on a very pale cream sky against a blue field with the outline of blue cows. 'Low fat' and 'probiotic' are also witten in blue beneath 'Yeo Valley'.

*Toffee
- The only toffee yogurts I have ever sampled are the weight watchers ones which I find deliciously smooth, creamy and sweet. If Weight Watchers could be this good, I figured Yeo Valley would be even better. The border running around the top of the pot is brown to denote the toffee flavour, which is also written and symbolised by thick chunks of CG (computer graphic) brown toffee pieces. Not the most mouthwatering front due to the CG element of the picture but it effectively stands out none the less.
Peeling back the lid to expect inside, I'm greeted with a nice subtly sweet toffee smell just like gooey toffee sauce. The yogurt is a very very pale brown, verging on skin colour which promises to not be overly sweet.
For me, yogurt is as much about thickness as taste, especially since the fat and calorie content is higher; I want to justify this by indulging into a satisfying texture. Okay, tilting the pot I am fairly disappointed to note that the yogurt moves, proving that it isn't really thick set. In spite of this, is definately isn't a runny mess, like the Muller lights or cheap branded yogurts. It does run slowly over the sides of the pot, thus, the thickness is somewhere inbetween. Dipping my spoon in and then gently lifting it out leaves me with a satisying dollop still stuck on the spoon.
Taste - Well, lefts cut to the facts; I don't think it is as good as the Weight Watcher one. For all the promises of not being overly sweet, it is. It definately has a toffee taste but it's not the nicest in the world; a bit like a cheap toffee sauce. It's far too sweet and leaves a really unplesant lingering taste on my tongue and makes my tongue feel quite dry. Nah - I actually can't finish the pot. I'd be wasting calories on a product I don't enjoy. The texture was pleasing in that there was a slight thickness but it wasn't creamy.
At around 100kcal per pot and 1.5g of fat it's hardly worth it. I'd rather have 2 of the WW toffee yogurts anytime.

Organice low fat yogurt makes up 91% of the product, followed by organic Toffee Sauce at (9%), several varieties of organic sugar (hense the sweetness); natural flavouring (oh there's positivethen) and what is this? Lemon juice (ah, that's the bitter after taste in my mouth!).

*Strawberry
Moving on to the most popular yogurt flavour of Strawberry. The rest of these flavours are going to be up against some stiff competition compared to my beloved Danone Shape Lasting Satisfaction range. Perhaps if I had not been spoilt by Danone, I would be less bias towards these and might find them absolutely amazing.
The strawberry yogurt looks the same as the toffee albeit, a red border around the top of the pot with a big CG picture of a strawberry.
Hmm, on opening the lid I'm already not impressed by the smell. It smells very artifically sweet. The colour again is very very pale pink with the odd dark spots which must be strawberry dots. The thickness is the same medium as the toffee, despite these 'bits'. The flavour disappoints too. There is no real strawberry taste at all. All I can say is that it is a bland sweetness if that is possible with the same bitter aftertaste in my mouth. Apart from the bitterness, there's no taste in my mouth at all. Sigh.
Yogurt makes up 88% of this, with 5% strawberries (they must be really tiny strawberries that weren't ripe then). Sugar, lemon juice blardy blar. Oh Natural flavouring (must have meant just natural yogurt).

*Peach
Same oh same oh; bright orange border only with a slightly more real looking plump peach. The smell this time is promising; very sweet but not of artifical sugar; of actual peaches. The colour is nearly the same colour as the pot; very pale cream but there is evidence of juicy bits of peach in there; considerably more than the strawberry bits. It's a lot thicker aswell. Dipping my spoon in and out result in a big heap still left on my spoon. It wobbles gently and on tilting the pot to the side, barely moves. Tasting it is pleasurable. It's sweet but not too sweet and there is the nice taste of peaches, which remains unchanged on your tastebuds after swallowing. The peach peices aren't at all juicy however and aren't something you can really chew on. In spite of this, I could happily eat the entire pot and probably enjoy each mouthful.

*Cherry
Woo this has a challenge. Cherry is my favourite and Danone have aced it, with Muller Light a good second. How does this compare?
The fruit shows CG deep purple cherries with a deep purple border. Ok, I'm guessing the yogurt itself will be really pale...
Ok I was wrong; it's not really pale but paler than the cherries on the front. The texture is thinner than the peach and in fact, all of the other flavours. Unfortunately, there's no prominent cherry smell to invite me in so I'll dive in with my spoon instead.
The taste doesn't deliever either. This is the oddiest tasting cherry I've ever sampled. Danone's verges on theblack cherry taste which is my favourite type. Muller is a bit more of a sweetened version of ordinary cherries which is fine but this flavour is sort of nowhere.

I can't even describe it. It's definately cherry but...not cherry as I've know before. It's sweet but not oversweet as I like my cherries to be and the texture is quite watery once in my mouth, and distictly lacking in flavour despite the tiny cherry pieces. The yogurt to fruit content is the same as the peach (minus 1%) and there's that lemoin juice again to create the weird bitter taste afterwords. Yeo, get rid of that lemon!
No I can't finish the pot.

Overall these yogurts leave a horrid bitter lemon aftertaste. You get a bit of overly sweet or overly bland flavour and then the bitter hit, which just lingers on your tongue.

I wouldn't purchase them again, even if they are probiotic; I think I'd rather buy live natural yogurt and add fruit compote or jam. Out of all of them, Peach was dinfinitely the best for flavour and texture and strawberry the absolute worst of the bunch.

A plus side is that the ingredients are organic; the downside is that organic sugar doesn't make sugar any better for you and the pot doesn't even say how much is in them. I'm struggling to justify 100kcal and 1.5g of fat per pot really. I think I need a cuppa to wash away the tastes now.
But lets remain optimistic. They are suitable for vegetarians and are low fat. They are also gluten free and of course, probiotic for digestion. The pot warns there may be traces of fruit stones - ha, no chance! Also, they aren't suitable for those with nut allergies as they are produced in a factory that handles nuts.

Because I got these from work, I'm not sure if they are avaiable everywhere to buy. I've seen a couple in Asda at about 49p each but I've not seen them anywhere else.

Yeo Valley does a whole range of other products, mainly yogurts, which I am not detered from trying. I just wouldn't buy these and I certainly won't be buying any of there products is I see the word 'lemon extract in the ingredient list!