I’ve loved yogurt since high school. Back then it was usually white and it required stirring. That mixed the fruit back into the yogurt. IIRC there was water that separated and needed stirring to blend it in.
Yogurt today doesn’t require stirring. I buy Yoplait peach or strawberry. Its pink or orange and never needs stirring.
How did manufacturing change?
Back in the day, they’d actually culture it in the cup- they’d put the fruit jam in first, then the milk & cultures on top, and they’d incubate it and let the germs do their thing.
Why? Something to do with food safety and antiquated laws. Nowadays I think the laws must have changed, because they sell both fruit on the bottom and pre-mixed yogurt. I’m guessing they just make the yogurt and mix it, then put it in tubs.
The biggest change that I recall though, is that now a lot of yogurt is Greek-style, meaning that a lot of the liquid is strained out, leaving the yogurt thicker and richer than otherwise. That’s a huge change since the 1970s/1980s, when very little to none was Greek style in your average grocery store.
I avoid Greek yogurt. I would eat it if Yoplait wasn’t available.
It’s been 40 plus years. But I remember yogurt had a different texture and taste in high school. That makes sense if it was made differently.
I bought Danon Activia for many years until it was revealed to be nothing special.
Maybe, or it might be because your taste buds have changed. Children are more sensitive to certain tastes than adults.
One thing I find impressive about yogurt is the rise of Chobani. It was founded only eighteen years ago by a Turkish immigrant and is now one of the largest brands in the country. I remember when Dannon was dominant, with advertising about how people in Soviet Georgia ate yogurt and lived to over a hundred years old.
I really dislike Chobani. The natural flavor they add to (some of?) the fruit varieties smell terrible to me and I can smell it the moment anyone in the office opens one up.
I remember watching The Frugal Gourmet in the 80’s, and for some of his international dishes and yogurt recipes that he taught, he would recommend taking the only type of yogurt available at the time in America, which was watery yoplait, and draining it overnight in a strainer lined with coffee filters. At that point, we called it yoghurt cheese…but now they call it greek style. “Greek Style” meant something different back then 
.
I was eating Dannon in the US in the 1980s. Much better flavor and texture than the vile Yoplait.
Yea, there were only two players in th American Yoghurt game for like 40 years, Dannon and Yoplait. And it is/was the thin and watery and fruity sweet. Big Sour Cream had no competitors.
Hell, I might even use greek-syle yoghurt on a baked potato, if i had bacon, butter, and chives.
But the dairy game is also lifting some of my personal Northern European fan favorites like Skyrr and Quark into the limelight. Best cheesecake.
In the sixties, the two brands I bought were Johnston’s and Knudsen’s. Some had
fruit already mixed in, like Knudsen’s blueberry flavor, and some were “fruit on the bottom” sundaes.
In 1972 someone introduced a frozen yogurt product which I believe
was called fruit bouquet (boket?) It tasted literally like regular yogurt that was frozen.
I eat a lot of yogurt, almost all of it homemade. Very easy to make, and I enjoy knowing that all of the ingredients are very low-calorie (powdered milk, water, and less than a teaspoon of yogurt culture). Takes about six to eight hours sitting in my sunroom, plus a few unnecessary minutes warming in a pot on my stovetop first. Costs about half or less than storebought, and I don’t need to go to the store.
You USED to get it in an eight-ounce container. I miss those.
Yeah, and wasn’t it wax-covered cardboard back then? That’s what Dannon was, I think. That’s all we had growing up, Dannon fruit on the bottom.
I was going to mention the waxy cardboard too, though I don’t think we had Dannon or Yoplait. The biggest thing I remember is that it was much sourer (or maybe it just contains more sweetener now). My favorite was strawberry and I recall the feeling of biting on bits of seeds.
We make yogurt using whole milk and a tablespoon of the prior batch of yogurt. We make it in the instant pot. Back in the day we made yogurt in the oven, back when the oven had a pilot light. But the instant pot yogurt is better. In retrospect, i think we left it growing in the oven too long.
We make it mostly because my husband doesn’t like “Greek” yogurt, and that’s what dominates the market these days.
You can, but powdered milk tastes just the same plus doesn’t require heating before you begin the process.
I first learned of yogurt in 1974(?). What I remember is the tangy taste, and the need to mix the fruit in, but it still was tang forward in flavor. Soon after we started making our own at home. Soon after Dannon was big in the market and there was a bit of thing with collecting the cardboard disks from the top of the containers.
The change I noticed was the movement away from the natural tang and into a sweeter product, more desert like. I noticed the same thing with granola bars, they started out as healthy and turned into candy bars. I attribute both of those changes to corporate ownership pursuing greater market share and profit (sweet sells more!).
And then, as others noted, the whole “greek style” took over for some reason.
I buy whole milk plain yogurt in 32 ounce tubs, and recommend that if you don’t like flavored or sweetened yogurts. The one I’ve been buying lately contains just milk, buttermilk and several yogurt cultures.
I just looked and my local Whole Foods has at least 20 brands of yogurt, not counting non-milk and non-cow brands. Most aren’t Greek yogurt.
I alternate between Fage and Stonyfield, and sometimes make my own. I prefer to make my own; haven’t tried using the Instant Pot yet.
We will have to agree to disagree. I don’t eat nonfat yogurt. It tastes like chalk. I don’t really even enjoy low fat yogurt. The stuff that’s 4% or 6% best tastes great, but at 6% is a bit rich. 3-4% butterfat is perfect for general use.
I guess that’s another reason we make our own. It’s easy to but whole milk. Sometimes it’s hard to find unflavored whole milk yogurt. (Or flavored anything but vanilla and banana, neither of which i want.)