Best Greek Yogurt Brands: Fage, Chobani
We taste-tested our way through 8 popular tubs to find the best
Equally at home in dishes both hot and cold, sweet and savory, Greek yogurt is good for more than just your morning breakfast bowls. You can use yogurt in baking for extra-velvety cakes or as a sub for Hellmann's when the thought of wandering down the mayo aisle triggers your gag reflex. And that's why we can't get enough of the stuff.
But finding a good one can be a challenge, especially with the endless lineup of cartons staring at you from behind the glass dairy door. So we took it upon ourselves to taste-test eight of the most popular brands to see which ones deserve a coveted spot on your weekly grocery list.
Criteria
Our blind tasting was composed of six plain, whole-milk Greek yogurts, with two low-fat (2 percent) varieties thrown into the mix to see how they'd fare against their fattier brethren. Our testers rated each on the qualities of an ideal Greek yogurt: its consistency, which should be rich and thick as opposed to runny; how it tastes, which should be clean and milky with a nice tang that doesn't venture too far into sour cream territory; and its texture, which should be ethereally smooth. Tasters were then asked to give a general, overall score for each yogurt.
Our Top Picks
① Fage Total Whole-Milk Yogurt
With a consistency straddling the line between pleasantly loose and thick enough to have some bite, Fage has a subtly sweet flavor balanced by a slight tartness our tasters enjoyed, earning it top marks. If for some reason ice cream wasn't an option, we wouldn't be upset digging our spoons into a carton of this for a midnight snack, though we could see it doing just as well blended in a morning smoothie or mixed into a bowl of summer potato salad.
② Siggi's Plain Whole-Milk Yogurt
OK, so while it's sold and billed as yogurt, Siggi's is technically Icelandic skyr—a type of cultured cheese. All labels aside, we couldn't stop gushing at how incredibly smooth this player was—just consider Siggi's the James Bond of yogurts, if Bond left MI6 and joined the Icelandic intelligence committee. Wonderfully thick, with a texture almost like softened cream cheese or mascarpone, it lost out to Fage only by a tenth of a point in its overall score.
③ Fage Total 2% Yogurt
Consider this the dark horse of the taste test—editors could hardly tell the difference between Fage 2% and the whole-milk version that took home first place, thanks to a surprisingly thick consistency. The only main differentiator between the two was a lower score when it came to taste, which wasn't as rich, due to the lower fat content.
Runners-Up
Wallaby Organic Whole Milk Greek Yogurt
This kangaroo-adorned label won over some tasters with a naturally sweeter taste and a "pleasantly fluffy" (but still luxurious) texture. However, the extra sugar means Wallaby isn't as versatile as other plain yogurts when it comes to cooking.
Trader Joe's 2% Plain Greek Yogurt
An extra-tangy and sour flavor makes Trader Joe's yogurt a bit more difficult to eat straight out of the container, but as one taster eloquently put it, this sour cream-like quality makes it "perfect for a Crunchwrap Supreme." And like all other Trader Joe's products, the bang-for-your-buck aspect is hard to ignore.
The Greek Gods Traditional Plain Greek-Style Yogurt
While many of us didn't have an issue with the flavor of Greek Gods, no matter how much we stirred, we couldn't get the texture to resemble anything other than cottage cheese, causing it to lose points in both the texture and consistency categories.
Chobani Plain Whole Milk Greek Yogurt
A thinner consistency deceived some tasters into thinking this was regular yogurt at first glance, but a clean flavor that is neither too sweet nor too sour makes this a flexible option to keep in your fridge at all times.
Stonyfield Whole Milk Greek Plain Yogurt
Like Chobani, some tasters had trouble deciding whether or not this was regular yogurt that was accidentally thrown into the mix. And though it's somewhat thinner than the other contestants, it's also less tart, making it a good medium for the Goldilocks in your family who can't decide whether or not they want to go Greek.