It’s time for a Greek yogurt showdown! Today is a three-way match pitting Dannon Oikos vs Chobani vs Fage, with Great Value and Trader Joe’s brands available for alternates in case of injury.
I’ll introduce the challengers and get into a comparison, but before we begin, what’s so special about Greek yogurt in the first place?
Table of Contents
Why Greek Yogurt?
There’s a problem with yogurt. The vast majority of them are either full of sugar or artificial sweeteners (or both). Not only is that a waste of calories, it’s a health hazard. That junk feeds the bad bacteria in your gut, while also killing off the good bacteria… which completely defeats the purpose of eating yogurt for the probiotic benefits!
Even plain yogurt is a bit high in sugar for all the more protein it contains. (And be careful because “vanilla” is one of the flavors with added sugar!)
Greek yogurt, on the other hand, is ridiculously high in protein. A cup of Greek yogurt has about the same protein content as a full scoop of whey protein powder! It’s filling, too.
Sure, the flavored Greek yogurts are still loaded with sugar, almost defeating the purpose of Greek yogurt. So I’m only including the plain yogurt today.
Without further ado, let’s meet the challengers…
Challenger #1: Dannon Oikos
Dannon Oikos is an easy-to-find, moderately priced Greek yogurt. It is priced higher than Wal-Mart’s Great Value brand, but a little less than Fage and Chobani.
For this battle, I got two 32oz tubs – the “Traditional Greek Yogurt” made with whole milk and the “Fat Free Greek Yogurt” made with nonfat milk (as seen below).
Ingredients for full fat:
Cultured Grade A Milk.
Ingredients for 0% fat:
Cultured Grade A Non Fat Milk.
Both varieties have a mild flavor which makes them very versatile, and the smooth creaminess of the whole milk version can’t be found elsewhere.
Challenger #2: Chobani
Chobani is probably the most popular authentic brand of Greek yogurt. They have a rich history, good looking containers, and a high price – just under $6 for the 32oz tub.
Ingredients:
Cultured Pasteurized Nonfat Milk, Live And Active Cultures: S. Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus And L. Casei.
It definitely has a strong, tart taste. I’d even call it sour. I couldn’t eat it plain – it was actually too potent for me! So there’s no confusing this with the other brands!
Challenger #3: Fage
The most expensive choice at over $7 per 35.3oz tub, Fage offers both a rich Greek heritage and a great taste.
Ingredients: Grade A Pasteurized Skimmed Milk, Live Active Yogurt Cultures (L. Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei).
Quite simply, Fage tastes awesome! It has a great, rich flavor with almost no tartness. And you wanna talk about Greek yogurt being thick? This is THICK! It’s like scooping out ice cream!
Wondering how to pronounce Fage? It’s sort of like fa-yay. So sometimes you’ll see it written as “fiya yogurt” when they mean Fage. (Fortunately they started including the pronunciation right on the packaging!)
Alternate #1: Great Value
At about $3.98 per container, Wal-Mart’s private label brand is the best value in Greek yogurt.
Ingredients: N/A
It tastes pretty good; it’s not tart and it’s definitely not sour. Actually, it tastes like plain yogurt, just thicker. This makes it a great way to transition into eating Greek yogurt.
Alternate #2: Trader Joe’s
At $4.99 for the 32oz container, Trader Joe’s brand is slightly cheaper than name brands, while still providing a great product.
Ingredients: Grade A Pasteurized Nonfat Milk, Live And Active Cultures: S. Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei. Cultured After Pasteurization.
It’s a very good yogurt that seems extra smooth, but still thick, not runny. It practically melts in your mouth! (So it’s like experiencing the whole milk Oikos without the fat.)
There’s certainly a hint of that trademark Greek yogurt tartness, but just enough to tell you what it is. It’s pleasantly “tart” without being sour.
Greek Yogurt Nutrition Facts Comparison Table
Here’s a direct comparison of the macronutrient breakdowns between each brand:
|
|
Dannon Oikos (Traditional) |
Dannon Oikos (Nonfat) |
Chobani |
Fage |
Great Value |
Trader Joe’s |
| Calories | 190 | 120 | 140 | 130 | 120 | 120 |
| Fat (g) | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carbs (g) | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 7 |
| Sugars (g) | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 6 |
| Protein (g) | 20 | 22 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 22 |
Though most of these are very similar, there are a few key points to talk about.
There is only one option with fat – Dannon Oikos Traditional. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of a few grams of protein. It is also significantly higher in calories than the rest.
If you want less sugar, Trader Joe’s is the choice for you. It has lower sugar and carbs, while still remaining high in protein.
Otherwise, all of them are essentially the same when it comes to calories, fat, carbs, and protein.
Taste and Texture Comparison
Now here is where the choice is really made!
Dannon Oikos Nonfat
This tastes quite a bit like plain yogurt, with very little tartness. It’s a little thicker than normal yogurt, but not thick at all in terms of Greek yogurt.
It’s equivalent to or even less potent than Great Value, so it tastes nothing like Chobani, and it’s certainly not as thick as Fage. I consider this the best option if you’ve never had Greek yogurt before and want to start.
Eaten plain: OK.
Mixed with ground flax seed: Excellent.
Mixed with flax and berries: Good.
In a peanut butter banana smoothie: Excellent.
Dannon Oikos Traditional
This is the thick and very, very creamy yogurt with a little bit more potent, yet still tame, flavor.
Eaten plain: Potent, but enjoyable, since it’s so creamy.
Mixed with ground flax seed: Good.
Mixed with flax and berries: Excellent.
In a peanut butter banana smoothie: Very good.
Chobani
Some people might prefer this, but I found it so sour that it was a chore to eat! Fortunately you can overpower it with some fresh fruit (especially when mixed in a fruit smoothie), but with just the flax seed, that didn’t mask the overly tart yogurt flavor. The tartness also proved problematic when mixed in a peanut butter banana smoothie.
Eaten plain: Almost unbearable.
Mixed with ground flax seed: Not good.
Mixed with flax and berries: Pretty tasty.
In an orange banana smoothie: Very complementary. Delicious.
Fage
Fage has quickly become my #1 choice in Greek yogurt! Oikos is a distant second place, Great Value is a distant third, and Chobani is last.
It’s thick (like scooping out ice cream) and it tastes awesome!
Eaten plain: Good.
Mixed with ground flax seed: Very good.
Mixed with flax and berries: Incredibly good!
In a peanut butter banana smoothie: Pretty good.
Trader Joe’s
This is another very good choice. It’s extra smooth, but still thick, not runny. It melts in your mouth!
It tastes great, so I like it plain or mixed with stuff. There’s certainly a taste of that Greek yogurt tartness, but just enough to tell you what it is. It’s “tart” but not sour. It’s most similar to the Dannon Oikos.
Eaten plain: Good, but a bit tart.
Mixed with ground flax seed: Not very good (it’s too smooth, making the flax seem grainy.)
Mixed with flax and berries: A very good, complementary flavor, love the smooth texture.
In a banana smoothie: Good, but mostly unnoticeable (since it won’t thicken it up much.)
Great Value
The taste is pretty good, but plain, with an average texture. The good news is, it’s not tart at all (and definitely not sour). It tastes like yogurt, just thicker.
Eaten plain: Alright.
Mixed with ground flax seed: Pretty good.
Mixed with flax and berries: Good.
In a peanut butter banana smoothie: Very good.
My Final Verdict
If I’m getting Greek yogurt to put in smoothies, it doesn’t matter much if it’s Great Value, Trader Joe’s, or Dannon Oikos. They are all pretty good without being overpowering. Get whatever is most convenient for you.
When I’m getting yogurt to eat in a bowl with toppings, it’s gotta be Fage! It’s just sooo much better than anything else.
Chobani… it’s expensive and I don’t like it. Enough said.
Find out more at FageUSA.com, OikosYogurt.com, Chobani.com, and TraderJoes.com.
Show References
Levi Bloom is an experienced endurance athlete who has been training and competing for over 17 years. A former Cat 1 road and mountain bike racer (professional class on the regional circuit), he is now a cycling coach (USA Cycling Level 3 Certified) and sports nutrition coach (Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified).
I totally agree about Fage. I eat 8oz at breakfast and it is awesome. Recently I went to Dallas and for 3 weeks I shopped at a grocery call H-E-B. They have wonderful fruits and veggies but they were phasing out the Fage 0% greek yogurt in favor of their H-E-B brand. I bought up 3 containers of the $3 yogurt every few days. I am back in California but, will be going back to Dallas at the end of Feb 2014. I hear they have the H-E-B brand of 0% greek yogurt out now so I will do a side by side taste comparison. The ingredients are the same.
We have HEB in México, and yes their brand greek yogurt its delightfull, my favorite is the 100 calorie vanilla bean flavor (with actually vanilla beans in it).
@Edie
I’ve heard of H-E-B, but have never seen one in person. Definitely let me know if you like their Greek yogurt, because then I probably would too!
Chobani is probably the most popular authentic brand of Greek yogurt. They have a rich history…. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Chobani is made in Canada by a Turkish person! How is that authentic Greek Yogurt??? And who can you compare their less than 10 years history with the more than 100 of Fage?
@Nondas
Don’t get me wrong, Fage is by far my favorite! I eat it almost exclusively.
The key word with Chobani is “popular.” I was able to find it easily here in the USA many years ago, long before ever finding Fage, and they advertise quite a bit, so it’s well-known. I could use that as an example of what to look for if I was recommending Greek yogurt. And it’s far more authentic than the sugary junk that used to be the only thing on the shelves. Remember – Greek yogurt only recently became a mainstream product here.
and there’s nothing Greek about what you call Greek yogurt in the US, it’s basically what we call strained yogurt in Turkey. So a Turkish person can make it just fine. I think Fage is still my favorite though.
Fage is the real deal – the only Greek yogurt from a century old company in Greece. All others are just copies and use FAGE as the standard to compare to.
FAGE yogurt was in the Organic & Imports Food isle for a couple of decades before Chobani came out in 2007-08. I started buying Fage in the early-mid 90’s when I noticed it in the Organic Food section here in the US. Most people probably saw Chobani first because it went straight to the regular dairy shelves with all the other yogurt brands. Many people did not see Fage during their visit to the grocery store because of the high cost of all the food in the organic & imports isles that they did not frequent. It was not for another year after Chobani was out that Fage moved to the regular shelves next to it, and back then Fage was imported from Greece. Now it’s made in New York state (as of 2009) from non-GMO milk and hormone-free cows, and still tastes great.
Fage is so much better than Chobani in terms of texture and the authenticity! I don’t know why people eat Chobani yogurts!
Chobani is gross and has a disguisting flavor to it when not mixed into something. Fage is truly great and super thick and hearty. Only issue is the cost is absurd. If you really eat a lot of yogurt and have time you can make 1 gallon of yogurt for $3 and strain it to have 1/2 gallon of greek style yogurt. also agree, chobani has no heritage – its a Turkish guy pretending to be a greek yogurt. nobody has heard of it or seen it in Greece – fage has been there forever.
It’s a Turkish guy making strained yogurt that people call Greek yogurt here. We were the ones who discovered yogurt.
Definitely Greek Gods, seems to be only available at Kroger. Yum!
I appreciate your information. I will try Page if it is available. I eat 32 oz of chobani daily. One research by a university said people who at yogurt lost 22% of their weight.
@Waymon
Wow, 32 oz in one day?
I generally do 8 oz, sometimes 16 oz, and I thought that was a lot!
Fage is pronounced exactly how it shows on the package. Not Fi-yay.
Like from the song Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. FA. thats the first syllable.
Yeh, is pronounced like the word “Yes”, but if you left the “S” off of the end.
If I could find whole milk Fage I might be willing to spend the extra dollars on it. But since I find only the 0% fat Fage in all of the stores where I shop, I usually purchase the full fat Oikos (although that’s difficult to find now, too.) Fat provides a creamier texture to yogurt in addition to have having fewer calories with just a few more calories.
if you call the tartness of yogurt unbearable you don’t know what you’re eating.
This an incorrect writeup. Chobani 907g,(Low Fat Plain Yogurt) going on 100g which is recommended as it gives a set amount to judge on.
carbs- 4.2 Sugars – 3.3, Protein – 9.7, Fat 0.2 (Sat 0.1), Cal 57, 57g
https://shop.coles.com.au/a/national/product/chobani-yoghurt-plain-1435100p
Fage is my favorite Greek yogurt. FAGE is very old (100+ years) Greek dairy company in Greece, so it is the only ORIGINAL Greek yogurt in American food stores today, and it’s still made the same way it was 100 years ago, and tastes the same as when I was in Greece in the 60’s & 70’s and visited the FAGE stores for ice cream and yogurt. Fage is thick (very well strained) and tastes great in 0%, 2% or Regular. I eat 0% or 2% with a bit of Greek honey on top. Beats any dessert I have ever had when you sprinkle good honey on it. I haven’t bought a cake or pastries in years unless it’s for a B-day. Nothing beats Fage 2% or 0% with your own honey on it!!