Waitrose fat free greek yogurt

Can own brand products have significant differences between supermarkets?

My immediate reaction from my first taste was ‘Ok, so this is different’. Recently, I have mainly been eating Arla Skyr (there is a necter card offer at Sainsburys) so the change to Greek yogurt is perhaps more pronounced than it would be otherwise.

But this Fat free Greek yogurt from Waitrose comes across as a big departure compared to previous products I've tried.

The marketing makes a point of stating its local cow's milk – that seems unlikely but whatever, stranger things have happened.

The texture of the yogurt is extremely firm, almost to the point of acting like a soft quark or fromage fraise type product, although there are no thickeners listed on the ingredients.

The traceability code indicates the yogurt is from the same producer as M&S' Authentic Greek Yogurt reviewed previously, but the taste and texture feels different to me (with the caveat that this isn't a side by side comparison).

Its much tangier than the M&S product but also seems like it has more sugar, and comparing the nutritional information with the previous blog I find that this is correct.

The macro breakdown of the Waitrose product is 65 calories, carbs 5.5g of which sugars 5.5g, protein 9.6g and 0.2g of salt to round things out.

The M&S product had 10g of protein, 4.9g of carbs of which 3.2g were sugars.

If I had read the macros first, I would have assumed the sugars was a misprint (this may still be the case), as usually they are a smaller proportion of the overall carbs, but the immediate sensation and on successive bites was that this was a much sweeter product than I have been experiencing recently.

It's also notable that its relatively saltier – 0.2g of salt versus 0.05g in the M&S product, though not so far off the Arla Skyr, which nonetheless does not taste as savoury or as dense as the Waitrose product.

I believe that in addition to enhancing flavour, salt might be added to help drive additional moisture out of the product. It might also toughen the protein to some degree, which would seem borne out in the texture.

Once stirred through my usual berries, flaxseed and nuts concoction it almost tastes completely savoury, and although its not hard to eat, the sweetness that was once there no longer draws me in, and the tangy aftertaste lingers for quite a while. This all contributes to a feeling of being full almost immediately.

Despite this, I do manage to finish it all because let's be honest, I've never met a bowl of food that I couldn't dispatch.

However, I wouldn't say that it was particularly enjoyable, and I'm just grateful that it isn't a significant mark up on other similar products.

The serving suggestions give the impression that Waitrose really want this to be an all rounder, that can fit alongside breakfast, dinner or dessert, but I would say that it only just about passes the breakfast test.

My initial thought was that I wouldn’t like this with dessert, but depending on the situation you might prefer to have something agressively tart and a little salty to cut through certain flavours. All the same, it wouldn’t be my first choice.

I don't have much experience comparing Waitrose and M&S so I'm not sure how common it is for their own brand products to have the same origin. It is interesting to me that despite originating from the same milk producer they still manage to be quite different in composition and taste.