Glenilen Farm Yoghurts - Our Verdict

How's your summer health kick going? Is your beach bod ready to go? After a trip to Vegas we are trying to get back to being good - what has made it slightly better easier is having a delicious alternative to the sugar treats we've been craving.  Mainly in the form of yoghurts! Surprisingly refreshing on a hot day and better for you than an ice cream!

So when we were contacted by Glenilen Farm, and asked to try some of their yoghurts we couldn't refuse.

Just a quick side note before we continue, in the UK they spell yoghurt with an H, I, as an American, like to say it like it as if it's a battle cry 'YOG-HURT, so it's not a typo it is just one of those British vs Americanisms :)

Onwards

We were so excited when we opened the cool bag to find the cutest little glass jars! Such lovely packaging - the little glass jars are adorable, better for the environment than the usual plastic, and reusable! I immediately started planning what I would make to put inside them once I'd eaten the yoghurt. There are plenty of ideas on how to reuse the pots on their website, including candles and desserts. I’d love if the larger pots were also glass!

The yoghurt is from a little family farm in County Cork, Alan and Valerie's family have owned Glenilen Farm for generations. Valerie started selling cheesecakes made with milk from their cows in 1997, and the business has grown from there. The cows are treated very well, kept warm in the winter, allowed to roam and they are never over milked. You can read the whole story here.

Because of this, the yoghurt is absolutely delicious - and good for you, too! It is natural yoghurt absolutely no artificial additives or preservatives, with limited sugar/sweeteners, and fruit at the bottom. It was refreshing to know that the fruit wasn’t loaded in sugar, especially as we are attempting to eat healthier and cut out sugar at the moment.

My personal favourite was the blueberry flavour, which I found most sweet, and Sarah enjoyed the mango and passion-fruit most – but really, all three flavours we tried were scrumptious.

You can find a whole list of products available here.

Glenilen Farm know how important environmental sustainability is, which is why as well as selling yoghurts in glass jars, they are using solar energy, harvesting rain water, and making other small changes that will make a large impact. I would say just like us but we're small time with our water butt and couple of solar panels.

So here's a question - do you know how yoghurt is made?

Strange question I know but when looking into Glenilen Farm I cam across some interesting stats so thought I would make this post educational as well as informative!

If you don't know how yoghurt is made don't worry you're not alone, in fact out of the 2039 people surveyed here was the result:

So the actual answer is......

Fresh milk (and/or cream) is fermented using lactic bacteria starters or “cultures”: Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The bacteria are added to heated, pasteurized, homogenized milk, and the milk is then incubated at a specific temperature to maximize the activity of the bacteria.

The bacteria convert the lactose (milk sugar) to lactic acid, which thickens the milk and gives it the tangy taste characteristic of yoghurt.

The yoghurt is then cooled and can be flavoured with fruit, sugar, other sweeteners or flavourings. Stabilizers, such as gelatin, may also be added.

(Thanks Wikipedia)

Now you know how the yoghurts made - and in case of the Glenilen's - the au natural way why not get creative - we have the Greek Yogurt Fruit Pots on our to try list! Check out the recipe and other ideas for healthy snacks here.

And so to the final note, if you are in the UK and fancy trying them you can find these yoghurts at Sainsburys and Waitrose – we would definitely recommend you check them out, we enjoyed them enough that we actually bought more once we had finished the sample! The full website can be found here: http://www.glenilenfarm.com/