[Sca-cooks] Why...chocolate yogurt AND other yogurt thoughts

[Sharon Gordon]

Stonyfield seems to have found a way to do the chocolate yogurt.  They have
one called Vanilla Truffle:
http://www.stonyfield.com/OurProducts/WholeMilkYogurt.cfm#javascript:void(0)
According to the ingredient list the cultures are live.  However given what
Dannon said perhaps Stonyfield put in live cultures into the ingredients and
then heat treated them at some point.  On the other hand their Chocolate
Underground yogurt, which I haven't tried, lists various cultures, but
doesn't specific any live ones.  (If you find out, would you let us know?)
On the other hand, I've had the occasional container of their vanilla
truffle  that tasted like the yogurt had continued to sour past what they
were probably intending.

The tastiest strategy might be to swirl some chocolate syrup into one of the
flavors that's chocolate compatible such as
vanilla or french vanilla
cherry or black cherry
raspberry or strawberry
banana
peach or apricot

If you like spicy foods, a tasty addition to yogurt is about 1/4 teaspoon of
toku (indian pickle with a lemon or lime pickle being a favorite of southern
indians) mixed into a cup of yogurt which is in turn mixed with a 1-2 quarts
of cooked rice.

In looking for historical information on yogurt, generally I find info
relating to its origins in the middle east.  I've been looking for yogurt or
yogurt-similar foods in Europe.  So far the main thing I have found is a few
references to skyr in Iceland, and Nanna also has spoken of it on the list.
>From the descriptions it sounds as though it is fermented a bit longer
and/or perhaps drained a bit more than the average modern day US or European
yogurt.

What else have people come across for yogurt or similar or perhaps something
stradling the yogurt-very fresh cheese line in Europe?

Sharon
gordonse at one.net