Sunday, September 7, 2008

The Key Lime Yogurt Challenge

I often wonder about the subtle differences in food and beverage. This interest previously inspired my "Coke Challenge", where I had folks try 4 different types of Coke and Diet Coke to see if anyone could discern the difference.

In addition to drinking a lot of Diet Coke, I also eat a lot of yogurt. Lately I've been eating a lot of Key Lime-flavored yogurt for some reason. While shopping for yogurt the other day, I saw 4 different types of no- or low-fat Key Lime yogurt. So I bought all of them. And ate them. And now I'm here to blog about 2 of them: The Archer Farms Target Key Lime Yogurts.

When shopping, look for the colored bar! They look so similar.

Not only does Target make a low-fat Key Lime yogurt, they also make a NO-fat Key Lime yogurt. I ate both at the same time to compare. The results are interesting:

I'll start out with the essential 3 C's of yogurt-grading:

Consistency: Surprisingly, the low-fat had a slightly runnier consistency than the no-fat version. I was expecting the no-fat version to be runnier like the Light and Fit yogurt, which is basically like water. Winner = No-Fat

Low-fat sticks to the spoon...

But not like No-fat does!

Color: Both are a shade of green, but the low-fat is a more Key Lime shade of green. Winner = Low-Fat


Calories: No-fat has far fewer calories. 80 vs 180. Winner = no fat.

Ingredients: Well, since the low-fat version doesn't have ingredients that give lab rats cancer, I'll give the nod to low-fat.

Low-Fat's key to taste victory = real sugar and lime juice. But 100 more calories? (click on the photo to zoom in on the ingredients)

And most importantly, TASTE: No contest here. While both are quite tasty, low-fat has that traditional tart lime taste. And somehow it's a little sweeter too.

So the clear winner is Low-Fat Key Lime. HOWEVER, when consumed BY ITSELF, No-Fat Key Lime tastes good too. Let's call it the Diet Coke principle. Diet Coke is pretty good until it is consumed side-by-side with Coke or Coke Zero. Then Diet Coke starts to taste like a$$.

So what will I buy? Probably a little of both, tending towards the no-fat. I like massive quantities of yogurt, and the lower calorie option allows me to eat twice as much!

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Wow, had I known you were this bored, I definitely would've given you a call!