Skyr: Icelandic Strained Yogurt

I'm a sucker for packaging.

First off, I wanted to apologize for the dirty window in the background.

That's Kona's fault (my dog).

Second, I wanted to apologize for the poor lighting. It's my spring resolution to take more photos with natural lighting, but its was muggy and rainy yesterday.

I saw this at Whole Foods yesterday after a rainy shopping day on Haight.

Tangent: If you're a San Franciscan and are tired of driving downtown to get to Whole Foods, the new one on Haight and Stanyan just opened! So much more convenient. Woohoo!

Anyways, my friend and I decided to check out this new location. And the best way to check out a new location is to walk up and down every single isle-- it's a proven scientific fact, people--and even knowing that every Whole Foods stocks pretty much the same thing (and if they didn't, we probably wouldn't even notice because the stores are so huge), we did it just for kicks and to avoid the rain.

As we were walking past the yogurt section something caught my eye: Skyr.

I've always wanted to try Skyr. If you've never heard of it before, it's traditional Icelandic strained yogurt--much more dense than your everyday yoplait and if you're drawn to that really tart yogurt flavor, this is the tart treat for you!

Like I said earlier, I'm a sucker for packaging--isn't it darling? I fell more in love with Siggi's when I tore away the little tab to reveal a blurb about Skyr on the inside label:

Skyr is the traditional yogurt of Iceland. It is made by incubating skim milk with live active cultures. The whey, the water naturally found in milk, is then strained away to make for a much thicker, creamier, concentrated yogurt. So to make just one cup of skyr, with all that water going out, you need 3 - 4 times the amount of milk required to make a regular cup of yogurt. As a result of this process skyr comes out with 2-3 times the protein count of standard yogurt.

I tried both this orange ginger (Which was very interesting, it was a really unique flavor idea. I'm not quite sure if it's a combination I love, but it's definitely a potential repurchase.) as well as the plain. When I try something new I always try the plain...I guess I want to make sure they can crawl before they walk...so to speak.

The plain is extremely tart, much more tart than Greek yogurt perhaps that's why they eat skyr with cream and sugar in Iceland. Note to self: Try with sugar and cream. The thing I like the most is texture of skyr--it's much more substantial and satisfying than regular yogurt. I will definitely be back to try more flavors soon!