If I want sugar, I’ll have some candy, thank you very much.

I’ve been trying to find yogurts sweetened with fruit juice rather than sugar, and it’s harder than you’d think! Even Stonyfield farms yogurts, and other organic yogurts, usually just put organic sugar in their products and call it a day. I eat a lot of yogurt and dairy in general, mostly for the protein but also because I love it.

So I was walking around in my local health food store (the Harvest market in Cambridge) and came upon this Liberte brand yogurt from Quebec. Actually they spell it yogourt. Crazy Canadians. But it is actually sweetened with fruit juice, and interestingly, it advertised “six grains” in their fruit yogurt cups, including buckwheat, rice, barley, rye, and oats. They had basically said, “we see your fruit juice, and raise you some whole grains.”

Also, they had the typical strawberry and blueberry varieties, but also pear flavored yogurt, which I have never seen before. I didn’t really know what pear flavored yogurt would be like, but it was a new and intriguing idea to me. Of course I took the bait and bought some.

This is kind of like when I bought some celery flavored soda once because I had trouble envisioning what exactly a celery flavored beverage would taste like. I even had trouble remembering what celery tasted like at all, while I was pondering it in the deli. I cracked the can, had a sip, and thought, “oh yes, this is exactly what celery tastes like. I am drinking celery.” And I wasn’t really sure if I was comfortable with that concept at the time, but now at least I can say that I have had celery soda.

Anyway, this yogurt is very good, but a little disappointing. The yogurt itself is very rich, considering how low in fat it is. And it’s not too sweet, just sweet enough to dull the pure tanginess of plain yogurt. The fruit flavor is really subtle, but I actually thought that was a good compromise compared to other brands, which can get really syrupy and too sweet. However, the whole grains that I was so excited about are pretty sparse: there are a few grains of barley and rice here and there but not as much as I had hoped. Oh well. I’ll probably just dump some granola in it anyway.

The difference in nutritional values between this yogurt and others (I’m using Stonyfield Farms peach yogurt for comparison) isn’t exactly striking, but it’s there. Liberte has 23g carbs, with 18 from sugar. Stonyfield fruit on the bottom has 25g carbs with 23 from sugar. Liberte also has less sodium (90mg compared with 120 in the Stonyfield), and slightly more iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C. Overall, especially since the yogurt tastes better and the cost is similar between the two, the Liberte seems like a better option.

I don’t need sugar to be hiding in my food. If I want some sugar, it’s not hard to find. There’s a vending machine down the hall and I have a soft spot for reese’s peanut butter cups. Mmm…. But until then, fruit will do just fine.

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