What up, yo.... gurt?

Before I went vegan, one of my go-to breakfasts during the work week was yogurt with some Kashi Go Lean cereal on top. It seemed to keep me full until lunch. So when I went vegan I was experimenting with different types of non-dairy milks with cereal. My two favorites turned out to be rice milk (original flavor) and almond milk (vanilla). I love the lightness, and for lack of better words, wateriness, of the rice milk. I thought it had a nice, neutral flavor and went well with cereals. The almond milk was slightly sweeter and thicker. The thickness still kind of creeps me out. It feels like I'm drinking coffee creamer or something. After trying out the different milks I moved on to yogurt. The best thing about yogurt is that it's grab-and-go and already in a container, which makes it perfect to have before or at work. I went to Whole Foods and found the yogurt section. It is literally a wall of yogurt. So many different brands and flavors, how would I ever decide?? I picked five. One made from rice, one from almond, one from coconut, and two from soy; all strawberry flavor.

I put all five to the test to find the best brand out there that, in my opinion, was the closest to the yogurt I was used to eating made from cow's milk. All 5 were graded on taste, appearance, texture, nutritional value, and price on a scale from 1 to 5; 1 being poor and 5 being excellent. The brands tested were Wildwood Probiotic Soyogurt, Silk Live! Soy Yogurt, SO Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk Yogurt, Ricera Rice Yogurt, and Amande Cultured Almond Milk Yogurt. After sampling all of them over a week's time, the results are in! I'll go from worst to best.

#5 - Ricera Rice Yogurt -- I have no choice but to start off with YUCK! It scored the lowest in the appearance category. I bought strawberry flavor and it was the grossest shade of pinkish-brown. So NOT appetizing. It makes it hard to enjoy when you can't even stand looking at it. It totally tasted ricey; like someone put rice into a blender. The texture scored in the middle, not good, not bad, as was the price. The plus sides here are that it's low in fat (1 gram) and you get 20% of your daily value of calcium. It's overall score was a 2.4 out of 5.

#4 - Wildwood Probiotic Soyogurt -- The packaging on this one boasts high fiber, which is true. It had the most amount of fiber, 5 grams. However, this was NOT GOOD! It scored the lowest in the taste category and highest in the price category ($0.99). It's texture and appearance were actually very good, but I was unpleasantly surprised when I tasted it! It had a very sour, pungent flavor. I could barely tell it was strawberry. One other plus (which does not mean I'm recommending it) is you get the most protein, 7 grams! Just eat some extra beans or tofu, trust me on this one!

#3 - SO Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk Yogurt -- I was actually really sad that this one only came in 3rd place. I really liked it. It scored very high in taste and highest in appearance and texture. You are also getting 25% of your daily value for calcium with this along with 30% DV of vitamin B12. It's relatively low calorie, 140 calories. Yes, that seems high for a yogurt, which is why I said relatively. I have found that most vegan yogurts average about 150 calories per cup. So this was somewhat on the low side. BUT this big downfalls here are 6 grams of fat and only 1 measly gram of protein. Not exactly worth your time for breakfast. Major bummer.

#2 - Amande Cultured Almond Milk Yogurt -- This one was pretty average. It has decent nutritional value, but has slightly less sugar and slightly more protein and fiber than the coconut one had. In fact, I think it's safe to declare #2 & #3 a tie. I preferred the taste of the coconut one, but this one was slightly more nutritional. Not much to really say about it. It tastes a lot like almond milk.

And the winner is......

#1 - Silk Live! Soy Yogurt -- Scoring the highest in the taste category, the Silk brand had the most genuine yogurt taste, and let's be real, taste really is the most important criteria (second to nutritional value of course). With this one you're getting only 2 grams of fat and 4 grams of protein. Also, 30% DV of calcium and 50% DV of vitamin C ain't bad! The price was a little on the low side at $1.09.

So there you have it, folks. I know you will all sleep much better tonight knowing I have taken the guesswork out of shopping for yogurt.

And just a little bonus restaurant review for you now... I went to Mellow Mushroom in Delray today. The place was very cool. Great atmosphere. It has a big menu that is sure to please everyone. They even had some vegan options which is always nice to see. They had Diaya cheese as an option for pizzas (or an anything else that you would want cheese on or in). I was very excited because when I had the grilled cheese at Darbster, it was made with the "cheddar" Daiya cheese and it was great! Since we were ordering a pizza, they used the shredded Daiya in "mozzarella" flavor. We ordered a mushroom, onion, and sun dried tomato pizza with vegan cheese. It came out and looked awesome! The service was great as well. So I grab my slice and take a bite. My first reaction was "well this is different." The texture of the melted Daiya cheese was kind of gooey and it stuck to my teeth a little bit. The flavor was just okay, I thought. I couldn't tell if it was the powerful flavor of the sun dried tomatoes or the cheese, but something was a bit off. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either. I think next time we order a pizza we'll just skip the cheese all together and pile on more veggies. Super cool place though. I'll give Mellow Mushroom another try.