Icelandic Yogurt made in New York: Siggi’s Skyr

17Feb08

Yesterday, Cara and I were shopping at Whole Foods Market (Union Square) and in the Yogurt section, Siggi’s Skyr neat packaging completely caught my attention. I aesthetically loved it and figured it had to be good… Looked at the characteristics, “All Natural, Milk from grass fed cows, No aspartame, No sucralose, No gelatin, No artificial colorings, No preservatives, No high fructose corn syrup, No rBGH, Milk produced without the use of recombinant bovine growth hormones”. Non only the packaging was neat, but the yogurt itself was too. Brought home two of them, blueberry flavored and we ate them tonight. One thing I had not noticed at the time of purchase is the very smart packaging.

Well let’s take a first step back. In order to optimize the recycling process, you should completely separate elements from each other. For instance, if you are recycling a pet food can, you want to separate the aluminum part from the paper part.

Now, let’s take a second step back. Yes I am moon-walking!! :P A couple of months ago, after we moved into this apartment, I became quickly frustrated with the recycling downstairs. There was 4 or 5 recycling bins but you could not know which was what. So we decided to make some small signs to differentiate them (see pic below), hoping our neighbors would follow our guidelines. They did and now, no more morning headaches such as “Ok i see more aluminum here, this must be the aluminum bin… uh wait, i see a plastic bottle and some newspapers… no!!”; and the recycling is just more efficient.

Let’s go back to Siggi’s Skyr. I was talking about smart packaging, in fact, when you look closer, there is a vertical sleeve on the paper packaging of the yogurt. You can pull this sleeve and HOP, the paper is disassembled from the plastic yogurt cup. Now you have the aluminum lid, the paper packaging and the plastic cup (see picture below). Easy to recycle! Love it.

Siggi’s is also made in the state of New York and uses local farms. Therefore, low carbon footprint for New Yorkers. That’s another positive thing about it.

Now at this time, I was still seeing Siggi’s as just another healthy yogurt. It is actually quite unique. Below the words of Siggi (the CEO of The Icelandic Milk and Skyr Corporation), taken from the inside part of the yogurt paper packaging:

“quite a bit of protein: Skyr is strained yogurt made from cow’s mil. It’s been a staple of the Icelandic diet for more than 1,000 years. Traditionally, skyr is made from skim milk after the cream has been floated off to make butter. So it’s fat free. Like milk, regular yogurt is mostly water-but wit skyr, that water is strained away. In other words, one cup of siggi’s skyr requires three times more milk than a regular cup of yogurt. What remains is a protein-rich yogurt with live active cultures.

no so much sugar: our plain skyr has no added sugar, and our flavored varieties are primarily sweetened with all-natural agave syrup. Agave is a low-glycemic sweetener. This means you digest its sugars slowly, giving you a more balanced energy instead of a wild sugar rush. I would also like to add that we absolutely do not use any artificial sweeteners like aspartame; I shudder at the mere though.

we work with nice farmers: We source our milk from family farms in New York State where the cows are not injected with any kind of growth hormone and graze freely when weather permits. We do not use any artificial preservatives or thickeners.” Siggi, CEO of The Icelandic Milk and Skyr Corporation

Now that you know what it is all about, you must inquire about the taste. Well, our feelings were mixed. This is an heavy yogurt and you might want to eat it as a breakfast instead of just a yogurt in the flow of a complete meal. As we talk, Cara is making her first homemade yogurts with her new yogurt machine so we will probably not have any new opportunity for a taste of Siggi’s. I highly recommend it and I wish Yop, by Yoplait, my all times favorite yogurt, was as natural and as green as Siggi’s.

Filed under: Branding, Corporation, Environment, Let's make the world a cosier place, Marketing   |  
Tags: farm, France, Iceland, local, packaging, recyclable, rgbh, Siggi's, Skyr, thick, Yogurt, Yop, Yoplait