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I have completely gone bonkers now. You know why? I just went on yet another yogurt shopping spree, this time at the Shop N Save supermarket at my place! I bought myself 2 cups of yogurt, one of which is a kg tub! Yup, I think that yogurt has completely taken over me and I have no control over my body. Everything I pass by some store, I must go in and check for new brands of yogurt. Yes, it is getting a bit boring when searching for yogurt. There don’t seem to have any new variety of yogurt coming into Singapore anymore. However, with that said, overall I still enjoy yogurt a lot. And while waiting for the Kefir to be ready, I will continue to eat my delicious yogurt.

Here are some of the photos of the yogurt I purchased.

That 1 kg of yogurt was on offer, so I bought it. It is the Marigold Mixed Berries Yogurt.  So looking at the receipt, it was supposed to be S$6.10 but was on offer for S$5.60 but there is yet another discount of S$0.50, so the price of that 1kg tub of yogurt was S$5.10!  Cool. Yet, I bought another Emmi plain premium yogurt. This is for me to make my next batch of yogurt.

Yes, the Emmi Swiss Premium Yogurt – plain. Low fat and is made in Switzerland! Cool, I love stuff that is Swiss made. However, I am very worried about the transit time for it to arrive from Switzerland to Singapore. But as you can see from the expiry date on the yogurt, it’s expiry date is 18th Feb 2009, which is about 2 months from now. So, it should be pretty fresh, I hope. Don’t you just love the white daisies?

Yet another view of the Emmi Swiss Premium Yogurt. The white daisies are making me feel dreamy and sleepy.

The ingredients of the yogurt! Contains milk, cultures like s.thermophilus, l.bulgaricus and l.acidopilus and preservatives. In the past, I often worry about the preservatives and what effect it would have on the yogurt cultures. But after some reading, I found that some of the preservatives are merely inhibits fungal growth and have no effect on bacteria growth, so the E202 is actually Potassium Sorbate which has not effect on bacteria. But still, I would prefer no preservatives in my food. However, as you can see this yogurt does not contain any stabilizers or fillers, so it is pure yogurt! And this is hard to find in Singapore.Thanks Emmi!

Oh, as you can see, the cultures includes l.acidophilus and the other common lactic bacteria, so that is why I chose this yogurt as my yogurt starter. Most other yogurt brands found in the Save N Shop supermarket only contains l.bulgaricus and s.thermophilus, without the l.acidophilus.

This is the whooping big tub of yogurt! The Marigold Non Fat Yogurt – Mixed Berries with calcium and fibre! Wow, I must be in yogurt heaven! I also like the plastic tub, which is unlike the other brands that looks very flimsy. I am planning to use this plastic tub to store my homemade yogurt. The cover seems rather air-tight which should be enough for me to keep the yogurt fresh in the fridge for a few days at least.

And please accept my apologizes for the photo. My hand-eye coordination failed badly.

Wooohooo! The ingredients of the Marigold yogurt. It contains Milk solids, Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, Inulin (prebiotic fibre), sucrose, tricalcium phosphate, permitted stabilisers, permitted flavouring and live cultures. Too bad it doesn’t state what type of cultures they have in the yogurt. However, in my experience, it should be just s.thermophilus and l.bulgaricus and not those other probiotic cultures like l.acidophilus. If they have l.acidophilus, they would have written in on the label somewhere.

Hey, this yogurt also contains inulin (prebiotic). This is indirectly good for you as it provides nutrients for the good bacteria in your body.

Sorry about the missing wordings on the top. It should say, Made in Singapore (Malaysia Dairy Industries has a manufacturing plant in Singapore). That means that if you buy a Marigold yogurt, you are actually supporting Singapore’s manufacturing industry. Hooray for Singapore. As for the rest of the wordings, it states that live probiotic cultures help to maintain a healthy digestive system. And so, now you guys know that I am not making this up. These are the wise words from Marigold, the company that has tons of advertisements everywhere in Singapore. So go and eat some yogurt, just make sure that it has Live & Active Cultures! Check for the LIVE & ACTIVE CULTURES label.

And so, after looking at that huge tub of yogurt, I can’t stop myself from trying the yogurt. The above photo is supposed to be a bowl of the mixed berries Marigold yogurt. But as you can see from the pathetic quality of the shot, you will know that the person who is taking the photo is some sort of a moron. Please forgive that someone.

Ah, as for the taste of the Mixed Berries Yogurt, well I can say that it is quite delicious. What can go wrong with Mixed Berries flvaoured yogurt?I enjoy the small bits of fruits in the yogurt, but seriously, it is nothing special. And as with most of the commercial yogurt, it is just a tad too sweet for me. As you guys know, this is a non-fat yogurt, so it is rather watery and lacks the sort of firmless which I like. But if you are looking for a healthy snack that taste good, then go for it.

This is the end of my little photo-review of the yogurt I just purchased. I wish you guys a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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The main reason why I chose this milk powder is because it contains Lactobacillus Paracasei Protectem which I assume is the fancy word for a strain of the casei culture. And since this is a lacto-bacteria, it means that the culture can consume milk sugar (lactose) in the milk and form into some sort of curd and whey, just like yogurt. However, I am not sure whether the resulting curd will be yogurt since there are no real yogurt bacteria present if I use purely this milk to make yogurt. So what I am planning to do is to just use this milk powder to make my yogurt. So for the next batch of yogurt(hopefully it becomes yogurt), I will not be using any yogurt starter.

Anyway, before I do that, I have taken some photos of the Nespray milk powder. It is the Nespray Original 1+ ActivProtec Milk Powder which comes with some pretty fortified nutrients and vitamin. It is like taking steriods with milk. It is meant for growing children, hence the word “1+” which states that it is suitable for children 1 and above. Please take a look at the photos below.

The receipt. I bought this from NTUC Fairprice at Tampines Mall. And it was on offer! If I am not wrong, the usual price is about S$10.30 but I got this from S$9.75. Yes, it is more expensive than others due to the fact that it is a children formula which comes with more nutrients and vitamins. If you remember my previous batch is made from Fernleaf Family Milk and that costs about S$6 for 600g of milk powder.

This is the photo of the actual milk powder. It comes with ActivProtec, which means that there is Lactobacillus Paracasei Protectem (a good bacteria), prebiotic as well as DHA, ARA & SA. I have no idea what the DHA, ARA & SA are but the prebiotic acts as a stimulant for the growth of good bacteria in the body. Thus this prebiotic is indirectly good for your body as it helps to strengthen the good bacteria present in your intestines. And look at how cute the little kid is!

The back of the milk powder package. It says that maintaining good hygiene and creating a clean environment for your child acts as a form of protection throughout the foundation years. Yes, I agree. It is like saying that if you don’t have any bad bacteria around, you won’t get sick. If you can’t read what is written on the right side, not to worry I have taken another more detailed photo for you.

Okay, it states that the Nespray  ActivPortect contains millions of Lactobacillus paracasei Protectem count, a lactobacillus strain, developed by Nestle Research Center Switzerland. This Lactobacillus Paracasei Proectem helps to increase beneficial bacteria, decrease harmful bacteria, improve intestinal environment and maintain intestinal health. Hooray! This is just great for me. And since the milk contains millions of such bacteria, just imagine if I ferment the milk and allow these bacteria to grow, what would be the bacteria count of this lactobacillus paracasei after a 24 hour fermentation period? Billions or even trillions! And if we were to believe what is written on the package, this would ensure that anyone eating such cultured milk will have very good intestinal health! Well, that we can all hope because I have no way of knowing whether the cultured milk will turn out to be some great probiotic food or it could turn out to be some poison.

And oh, this milk powder also contains DHA, ARA, SA and Taurine. DHA (Omega 3 Fatty Acid) and ARA (Omega 6 Fatty Acid) are important bulding blocks for brain and eye development. The Taurine helps to support overall mental and physical development. Great stuff.  Looks like if I drink enough of this milk or eat enough of yogurt made from this milk, I will become smarter and have a better looking body like those body-builders. Again, we can all hope.

Ahhh….now it is the time for the ingredient list. Made from Skimmed milk, corn syrup, milk fat, corn oil, lactose, low Eruic Rapeseed Oil, Palm Olein, Prebio 1 (Oligolactose, inulin), Calcium Carbonate, Soya Lecithin, Fish Oil, Vitamin C, Taurine, Vanilin, Ferrous Sulphate, Bifidus Culture, Lactobacillus paracasei Culture, Zinc Sulphate, Nicotinamide, Vitamin E, Clacium Pantothenate, Vitamin A, Vitemin B1, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin K1, Sodium Selenate and Vitamin D3. I think they miss the kitchen sink and my single golden sabre tooth.

The very important ingredients are the bifidus and the lactobacillus paracasei cultures, which hopefully will ferment the lactose and make me some yogurt (or Yakult also can). Without these cultures, the milk will not ferment and all will be for nothing. And yes, the milk is from Australia. For that I am glad.

Some more information about the milk. Sometimes, we do get information overload that we don’t even read the labels anymore. I guess that is properly why they provide us with so many mind-boggling and confusing stuff. However, for the informed, this is probably very useful when choosing what milk to give to your kids. I also think that this is fortified milk is very good for even adults. However, it smells a bit gross probably due to the fish oil present in the milk powder. I can’t imagine myself drinking fish oil “tainted” milk.

This pack can make 4.17 litres of milk! So, that means that 600g of milk powder is equal to 4.17 litres of milk.

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This brand is very famous in the United States and is one of the leading brands there for yogurt. But in Singapore, nobody cares and since they don’t advertise much or even at all, Singaporeans can hardly bother to remember them. We only remember Marigold and Nestle. Of course, this definitely does not mean that their products are of poor quality. In fact, from my experience they are one of the better ones out there and as you guys know, I have tried quite a few.

However, although they don’t advertise a lot, the Yoplait products do occupy a significant amount of shelf space in NTUC stores. In Tampines NTUC, about one quarter (or a bit less) of yogurt shelves are filled with Yoplait yogurt products(that includes kids’ yogurt). I guess this is because they are have many varieties of yogurt available and in different sizes. But judging from the dates on those Yoplait yogurt cups, it looks like they don’t sell very well. The problem with Singaporeans is that we seldom read labels and we are very resistant to new brands. And we seemed to know only Marigold (due to the countless advertisements on TV and print) and those are the ones that usually sell well. As you can see from my numerous reviews on yogurt, I never did once review the Marigold brand though.

Anyway, I had bought two cups of Yoplait yogurt – Strawberry and Fruit Salad flavoured.

Total damage of S$1.95.  Sad to see that the total amount of yogurt is merely 250g and it cost about S$2 already. And unlike homemade yogurt, commercial yogurt usually come with stabilizers (mainly consist of starch) and I believe that they made up about 30% of the total weight of the yogurt.

The two Yoplait yogurt cups. I bought the “lite” type of yogurt. This means that there is low fat content. Not good, I want yogurt made from full cream milk to make it thick and delicious. If you saw how skinny I am, you would agree. However some of you guys might appreciate low fat yogurt. From what I see on the shelf, most of the yogurts are indeed low-fat / no-fat varieties. And I apologize for the blurred photos, something crawled up my butt when I was taking the photo.

Yes, low fat yogurt with fruit. Looks tempting right?

Yes, low fat yogurt with strawberry.

Just look at the ingredients list.  Contains low fat milk, non-fat milk solids, sugar, fruits, fructose, thickeners, halal gelatine, flavours, lemon juice concentrate, natural colours, preservatives and live yogurt cultures like s.thermophilus, l.acidophilus and bifidobacterium. Wait a minute, no Bulgaricus culture? Without the Bulgaricus culture, would it be really a yogurt? And why does it come with preservatives? I think all yogurt manufacturers should NOT put any type of preservatives in their yogurt as the preservatives might kill of the live cultures. Or at least significantly reduce the amount of such good bacteria in the yogurt.

It is also good to see yogurt manufacturers start putting l.acidophilus into their yogurt. This culture do provide some important health benefits to the consumer liked enhanced immune system among others. Please read this wiki about the l.acidophilus bacteria for more information.

Oh, this yogurt is made in Australia and imported to Singapore by F&N Foods Pte Ltd.

Wooohoooo! 99% fat free, if you are worry about the fat content in this small cup of yogurt.

This is a photo of an opened cup of Yoplait yogurt. Quite thick and creamy isn’t it. Just imagine the amount of thickeners is need to get that kind of texture using low-fat milk. Even with using full cream milk, I couldn’t get the kind of creaminess as in what you see being sold in the stores.

Yet another picture of the yogurt with a spoon scooping up yogurt. Doesn’t this make you hungry for yogurt?

For the Yoplait Lite yogurt, I found that it taste pretty decent. But it taste just like any of the commercial yogurt we find everywhere. Nothing special. You will never get the sour taste of yogurt here either. The thickeners and stabilizers did a very good job in masking away any sourness that might be present. Best of all, I didn’t find the yogurt too sweet. The level of sweetness is just right. Don’t you just hate it when you eat yogurt only to find it tastes like candy?

I like the strawberry flavour better. The fruit salad yogurt taste very bland and uninteresting. Surprisingly, the fruit pieces in the yogurt do not do much to help enhance the yogurt. I guess the amount of fruits in the yogurt is just too little to make any difference at all. Perhaps they should follow the Meiji brand which comes with big chunks of fruits in their yogurt.

Okay, this is the end. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures and remember to eat healthy food to stay healthy.

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Alright, here is yet another pictorial on my yogurt making adventure. Just like my beer brewing adventure, if you guys had been following this blog (which means you are pretty free), it is going to be just same old same old. But from what I know, it is still very interesting for some. So for those who appreciates yogurt making, please continue reading. For those who don’t think that it is interesting, I understand, please endure for I have become one with the yogurt. That means I am sour.

Okay, today we are going to make Banana flavoured yogurt. The Easiyo sachet I bought just last weekend and I have finished my peach flavoured yogurt already. Easiyo yogurt making is really addictive and of course, most of the flavoures are quite nice. There are some exceptions like Mango and Nectrine. The Mango flavoured yogurt tastes like the cheap mango sweets you get from your downstairs convenience store which the Nectrine smells like 2 day old Papaya. Not too say that they are really really bad but it is indeed off-putting when eating homemade yogurt. I would recommend you against getting these two flavours. But the rest like raspberry (I tasted this from the Phoon Huat lady who made her own yogurt), Boysenberry, Peach and Sweet Greek, they are great. I just love the semi-sweet and delicious peach flavoured yogurt. If only the Easiyo sachets are cheaper, I would be making even more yogurt. But with the economy going down, I guess I will have to cut down on sachets and buy my own milk to make yogurt.

Now, let’s begin the yogurt making adventure!

The stuff you need to make the yogurt. The yogurt container and lid, the heating flask, baffle and cover, the sanitizer (Iodophor) and finally the Easiyo Yogurt Sachet (Banana flavoured!). The Iodophor is optional as it is normally used in beer brewing the sanitize the equipment, killing all the bacteria present.

Please note that this is a clean yogurt container. But even with it looks clean, there might be some bacteria present and when making yogurt or any fermented product, you will need to ensure that there is as few bacteria competing against the yogurt cultures as possible. You can do this by applying sanitizers on the container.

After I have poured some water into the container, I add the sanitizer(Iodophor) to the water. Just one or two drops should be enough, do not pour too much. And once the container is covered and shaked to cover the entire interior of the yogurt container with the diluted Iodophor, please it for 2 minutes for the sanitizer to do it’s work. After the 2 minutes is up, pour away the diluted Iodophor and quickly rinse the container with water. This is to make sure that very little sanitizer remains on the container. As there are live cultures in the yogurt base, you don’t want to kill them with the sanitizer.

The picture of the IO Star Iodophor sanitizer I bought from iBrew Marketing. They supply beer brewing ingredients.  Beer brewing is a bit like making yogurt, you will need to let the cultures ferment. Beer brewing requires the fermentation of malt by beer yeast.

Okay, this is a picture of me cutting the Easiyo Sachet. Pretty interesting, no?

This is a picture of me pouring the contents of the Easiyo sachet into the yogurt container. You should make sure that you pour every ounce of powder into the container. Don’t waste. Wasting is not good.

Okay, after I have poured the contents of the Easiyo sachet into the container, I top up with water and cover tightly. The next step would require vigourous shaking of the yogurt container to dissolve all the milk powder. Check that all the milk powder have been dissolved before opening the yogurt container. You can see that the milk level has dropped and you will need to top up with even more water to the level indicated on the Easiyo Yogurt container.

There, make sure it is re-filled to the top after shaking the yogurt container like mad.

Now, let’s put the baffle into the heating flask and pour some boiling water into the flask. You will need to get the water level to that of the red baffle top. If you are living in Singapore, I would recommend NOT to fill it to the top but about 1cm below. Our weather is warm unlike those in New Zealand, so you should be fine. In fact for all my yogurt I made, I didn’t fill the flask to the top of the Baffle and they turn out fine. Well, at least I am still alive right now after eating so much homemade yogurt. lol

Now, let’s put the yogurt container into the flask and ensure that the container rests firmly on the baffle. You are almost done. Two more steps to go.

Now it is time to cover the flask. This is to prevent heat from escaping. As you know, yogurt cultures need a certain temperature for them to convert the lactose (milk sugar) present in the milk to lactic acid and this will form curds and whey (yogurt). Let the flask rest for 12-16 hours in a corner of your house.

Well, that took about 15 minutes tops? Was that easy? Making yogurt is probably one of the easiest thing I ever done, except for making Kefir. Man, that was even easier since Kefir ferments at room temperature!

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Yes, I bought yet another Easiyo Yogurt sachet yesterday. Could  not help myself. I think that Easiyo has cast a spell on me and I am now at Easiyo’s mercy to buy and buy Easiyo yogurt stuff. The only advantage is that I think that I am getting healthier since yogurt is indeed a good healthy probiotic food. I believe that everyone should eat yogurt. The old, the young (above 4 years old should be okay) and what-not should at least take 1 cup of yogurt per day. It provides you with proteins, calcium, vitamins and for some yogurt, live cultures to maintain a good health. Of course if you don’t believe me, you could read about the health benefits on the forum regarding yogurt. Most experts agree that yogurt is indeed nutritious and a wonderful substitute for cream and milk. Plus if you have problems consuming milk due to lactose intolerance, you can try taking yogurt instead. This is due to the cultures breaking down some of the lactose to lactic acid and most lactose intolerant people have no problems eating yogurt.

Anyway, I have purchase the Easiyo Yogurt Base & Cultures – Banana flavour. Have you guys eaten banana flavoured yogurt before? I have not. Probably one of the most interesting flavours from Easiyo. Yes, they do have a variety of yogurt but most of them are still pretty boring. I am looking for fusion flavoured yogurts now. I have seen what the yogurt makers in Europe and the United States have and those are really cool and interesting. Sadly, you can hardly find those in Singapore. Usually in the stores, you get the boring ones.

Yes, it is S$5.60 per sachet. Kill me, somebody please kill me. The flavour is Banana Creme Sweet!

Yes, the Easiyo Real Base & Culture – Banana Flavour. Oh, this is for use in the Easiyo Yogurt Maker and makes 1kg of yogurt. So for the 240g of yogurt base and culture, you can make 1kg of fresh delicious yogurt!  Yes, like all Easiyo yogurt base, they come with Acidophilus cultures which from what I read, is very good for your intestinal health. I just wonder how it will taste.

The back of the Easiyo Yogurt Base Sachet. Nothing special yet again. I think you guys are probably very bored with looking at these kind of pictures anyway.

Hey, looking at the ingredient list I can see that they never state that it is natural flavouring! So this could mean that the banana flavour is artificially created! Hmmm….what thou art say now Len Light! And thank god, they don’t have the Beetroot colouring in the ingredients this time. I hate to see my banana flavoured yogurt looking like peach or strawberry yogurt! Even the previous Mango flavoured Easiyo yogurt I swear looks like a strawberry flavoured yogurt.

You guys remember the previous batch which I have done, the peach flavoured yogurt? Well, it tastes great. Unlike the mango flavoured yogurt, which tastes a bit too sour and  funky to be a real mango flavoured yogurt, the peach one is just perfect! Think that I will be making more of the peach yogurt in the future, if I can find the money that is.

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