Meadow Gold Low Fat Yogurt: Papaya, Pineapple, Lychee & Haupia, 66 cents each, sale price

I’m not sure if these are new flavors from Meadow Gold, but they sure stood out on the shelf at Marukai this past week as I passed by. Perhaps just colorful new labeling? Dunno. Meadow Gold Hawaii’s (LaniMoo.com) website lists the entire line-up, but it says nothing about it being new. This must be a product line exclusive to Hawaii, because Meadow Gold’s national website doesn’t include it.

Well, except for the Pineapple, these other flavors are all new to me, so I decided to pick up a few and give them a try.

Of course what sold me was the fact that real fruit is used – no candy-like, artificial flavoring stuff here.

Let’s take a look at how it appears when you first open it…


Meadow Gold Papaya Lowfat Yogurt, 66 cents each, sale price.

As the label says “fruit on bottom”, so you must stir it well to incorporate with the plain, sweetened yogurt on top.

So here I’ve dug up some of the pureed Papaya fruit on the bottom…

And here, I’ve thoroughly mixed the papaya puree into the yogurt…

So how is it? The consistency is a bit thin, which I’m not sure if it’s because where I had them in my refrigerator (top shelf), or if that’s just how it is. Almost “soupy”. This would probably work great as the liquid component in making a smoothie.

As for the fruit, It seems the Papaya is pureed into a cornstarch-based sauce. There’s very small, sparse chunks of actual fruit that is somewhat convincing, but it’s still more sauce-like. In fact, they could probably market that alone as a condiment for ice cream and other desserts. Hey, good idea!

The first few bites tastes somewhat like you’re eating genuine Papaya-flavored yogurt, but after your palate acclimates to it, it tastes more like “some kinda’ fruit”, sweetened yogurt. Speaking of which, the balance of sweet-to-acidic/tart strikes a good balance. I’m pretty sure kids would have no qualms eating this without protest.

Here’s the Haupia flavor, thoroughly mixed…

This Haupia flavor is somethin’ good. Yum. Because of the yogurt’s gelatinous texture, it has a strong resemblance to the actual Haupia dessert. The only difference of course is that tang accent. There aren’t any chunks of coconut, but more like thickened tiny globs of a coconut-flavored “something”. As the ingredients indicate, there’s COCONUT MILK in it. Not COCONUT. I’d say of all four in this taste test, this Haupia is my favorite.

Next up we have the fully mixed Lychee flavor…

As you can see, there’s a nice chunk of Lychee meat on the spoon. Unfortunately, overall it didn’t scream “LYCHEE” in taste. Perhaps this is because they also put Pineapple and pear juice in it, which seems to have complicated the flavor. Too bad. I love lychee, but this one didn’t convince me enough. Next.

Finally we have Pineapple..

Of course, Pineapple is a bold flavor, and this one shouted loud and proud “I’M PINEAPPLE YOGURT!” lol Very good.

Now you did see I had a coconut-based Haupia flavor above, right? And you know what Coconut + Pineapple =’s, right? PINA COLADA!

Yes Dr. FrankenYogurtStein has combined half a container of the Pineapple with half a container of the Haupia and whipped up a PINA COLADA YOGURT! How does this custom-flavored concoction taste? Awesome! Shoots, I just might add a jigger of rum in there! lol

Here are all the flavors available from Meadow Gold Hawaii’s lowfat yogurt product line: Plain, Strawberry, Cherry, Peach, Blueberry, Pineapple, Passion Orange, Mango, Papaya, Lychee, Haupia, Strawberry Banana, Strawberry Kiwi, Vanilla, Green Apple, Watermelon and Guava.

If you see them in the market, give a few flavors a try. Now it’s off to let Meadow Gold in on this Pina Colada idea!

Related Links:
• LaniMoo.com