The Great Yogurty State of New York

The slow and steady march of change has come to the isle of cool serenity known as the yogurt case. We are trying bit by bit to bring in more local yogurt. New York is the third largest dairy-producing state (behind California and Wisconsin), and of course that means some things have to go.

Over the past few months we have added more flavors from the Evans Farmhouse organic line. It's often a mix of flavors based on production so look for a rotating cast of characters with plain, lemon, raspberry, and maple making up the bulk of our offerings. They recently discontinued the magnificent blackberry. Evans is both an organic dairy and organic creamery based in the Catskills. As a creamery they produce and package the Kortright Creek goat yogurts (also from the Catskills) that we offer in plain, maple, and raspberry flavors.

We've expanded the Liberte line, starting with the organic flavors of strawberry, raspberry, and vanilla. We then added Liberte's goat cheese-style yogurts of the honey, raspberry, strawberry, and plain varieties. Liberte is a local brand as it is within 500 miles—milk from a Vermont cooperative and produced in Quebec.

Recently, we've also added a couple of the Siggi's yogurts: plain, pomegranate passion, and orange mint. Siggi's makes an Icelandic-style of strained yogurt called Skyr—it's not unlike a strained Greek yogurt and it's made from New York state milk.

Fage Total yogurt, one of our top-selling products in the case, has switched its production over to a New York facility so that it no longer has to import its product.

Sky Top is a New York state product that has joined our yogurt-y crew recently and is hopefully coming out with a low-fat variety in the coming months.

Our other yogurts that are sourced and produced locally and have been stalwarts include Hawthorne Valley, Stonyfield, Butterworks, Coach Farms, Erivan, Old Chatam, and Seven Stars.

Some of the yogurts that have been discontinued recently are Cascade Fresh small cups—my reasoning is that they are at a similar price point to Stonyfield, a product that is both organic and local; Cascade Fresh is neither. Woodstock buffalo yogurts have also been absent because the company has ceased to exist. We are eagerly awaiting their next incarnation.

–Anngel