Sunday, March 17, 2013

Kroger Good For You Campaign - CARBmaster and Greek products


For this campaign, we were given a $10 Kroger gift card to try Kroger's CARBmaster and Greek yogurt products. We purchased four CARBmaster yogurts (strawberry-banana, strawberry-colada, caramel spice cake, and banana cream pie), four Greek yogurts (strawberry, vanilla, peach, and pomegranate), and one Vanilla CARBmaster milk. 




I typically buy 'normal' milk, and the CARBmaster milk does cost more.  Honestly, since we don't have a need for lactose-free milk, we likely won't buy this again. The kids loved the vanilla milk, it was sweet and delicious on cereal.  I was a little surprised at how thin the milk was, I just expected it to be really thick.  It has a rich taste, almost like a milk shake.  We also used a clementine, banana, some crushed ice, a Greek yogurt, and some vanilla CARBmaster milk to make a smoothie.  It was REALLY good.  Maybe in the summer we'll consider purchasing some more as it is lower calorie than our regular 2% milk (60 calories versus 100) - and it did make a fantastic smoothie!

Now for the CARBmaster yogurts.  The price is really good - about $.40 per cup. I am NOT a fan of lower fat/sugar yogurts - to me, they all taste artificial.  Unfortunately, this yogurt was no different.  I tried each of the flavors we purchased (I will say that I am impressed by the extensive flavor selection).  I was really looking forward to the banana cream pie, but like any other low sugar yogurt, it tasted artificial to me.  My kids loved each yogurt though and gladly finished each cup for me.  Of the four we purchased, I liked the strawberry colada the best.  If it weren't for an artificial-sugar-substitute aftertaste, I probably would purchase this flavor again. 


I love Greek yogurt.  Again, I'm not a fan of lower fat/lower sugar yogurts, so I purchased four 'full-fat' Greek yogurts.  I really like Dannon Oikos yogurt - and I gladly spend $1-$1.10 per cup because it's worth it to me.  The Kroger Greek yogurt costs roughly the same - a little less than $1.00 per cup.  So, I knew, unless this yogurt was incredible, I wouldn't replace my current yogurt with the Kroger version.  Again, I liked the large selection of flavors.  The yogurt is good.  It's thick and creamy, the was Greek yogurt should be - just like the CARBmaster yogurt, my issue was an aftertaste.  Kroger Greek yogurt is sweetened with stevia.  I understand that stevia is a natural product, but the aftertaste has nothing natural about it - it tastes pretty artificial too.  I added some candied walnuts to the vanilla yogurt, and that did make a big difference, I liked it much better.  However, it doesn't come close to Oikos for me.  My kids enjoyed it, but I won't be replacing Oikos with the Kroger brand. 

I think someone who enjoys low sugar/low fat yogurt will enjoy the Kroger CARBmaster and Greek yogurts.  Unfortunately, for me, they were just okay.