Culture club: Eight breakfast yogurts put to the test
THE breakfast roll is back. A sign that the recession is finally over. I won’t even start on the reasons why we should not eat large, poor quality, salty bread rolls filled with fatty, salty sausages and rashers, topped with sugary sauces.
Ireland has 10,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease each year and it’s hard to believe that large breakfasts such as these don’t contribute. For your heart and waistline, it’s best to make them occasional treats and enjoy them guilt-free.
Instead, why not pick up one of these tested pots of yogurt and granola.
Of course, anything we make ourselves is better value. Deliciouslyella.com has a good recipe for granola with nuts and seeds flavoured with cinnamon, maple syrup, and coconut oil. Added to natural yogurt, it is nutritious and satisfying. But for rushed days, ready assembled pots of yogurt and granola make a pretty good start to the day, delivering enough protein to take us to lunchtime.
Granola is usually made from oats roasted with oil with a number of sugar types, so it’s not perfectly healthy, especially when made using cheaper forms of sugar, including less desirable gluco-fructose syrup, which is often oversweet. Cheap oils can be used for roasting. However, good yogurt encourages healthy gut function, so a change from breakfast rolls to yogurt, granola, and fruit is a welcome first step.
The most delicious yogurt of all samples, its creamy texture made from organic skimmed milk and skimmed milk powder with yogurt cultures. Invert sugar syrup sugar (a mix of glucose and fructose) and cane sugar are used on the organic cereals and 10% added honey brings sugars up to a high 14%. Protein at 5.5% is average, but the purity of taste and texture won tasters over. Good price.
8.75
A decent sized portion has a good balance of fat-free Greek-style yogurt, blackberry, raspberry and blackcurrant compote with a separate top portion of crunchy, oaty granola with coconut, sunflower and pumpkin seeds to mix in or sprinkle on top. The fruit is not too sweet and the yogurt is rich. 6% protein is average and sugars high enough at 10.3%. The verdict was ‘delicious, more please’.
8.5
Weight not listed and no nutritional given, as freshly made, this creamy yogurt has chunky, granola with dried fruit, fresh grapes, strawberries, chia seeds and dried goji berries for a decent breakfast. You can order your own mix too. This was made in-house in the Patrick Street, Cork store. Tasters liked the variety of texture and clean flavours. Expensive.
8
Low-fat yogurt has oat flakes, cereal crisp, coconut, honey, good chocolate chunks and rolls resulting in a high 14% sugars. The yogurt was quite runny and could be difficult to eat at a desk. Tasters thought it better for dessert than breakfast. The granola didn’t feel sustaining, at 4.9% protein, less than some other samples. Tasters found it too sweet, but wanted to finish it. We bought in Costcutter.
6
Toasted granola with low-fat yogurt, this one flavoured with raspberry, has added dietary fibre and wholegrain bran flakes. Sugars from added sugar, syrup, baker’s honey and the fruit compote bring sugars to 8.1% and protein is a fair 5.8%. This runny yogurt had no fresh raspberry flavour and the crunchy granola was unremarkable.
5.75
Low-fat yogurt flavoured with 4% honey has no vibrant honey flavour. Cereal clusters have some oat flakes, and more sweetness from added glucose fructose syrup brings sugars to a high 14.1% with no special flavour to compensate. Protein is 4.9%.
6
Deliciously creamy yogurt is intense and contrasts well with the oats, pumpkin seeds and coconut flakes.
Protein is a decent 7.9%, and sugars low at 3.6%. Testers liked the flavours and textures, and the price.
8
This simple blend of creamy yogurt with a topping of oatflakes, coconut, extruded rice, wheat flakes and hazelnuts appealed to tasters. Invert sugar (a mix of glucose and fructose) and cane sugar used on the topping brings sugars to a reasonable 7.8%, with protein a fair 5.6%.Palm oil — not labelled as coming from sustainable sources — is used. Tasters happy with quality for the price.
7
