Friendly Farms Skyr Icelandic Style Yogurt

Skyr (pronounced “skeer”) is an icelandic-style yogurt with a growing presence in the U.S. and is similar to Greek yogurt. Aldi sells skyr occasionally as a limited-time ALDI Find (Special Buy). That means if you want it, you need to buy it quickly because once it’s gone, it’s gone until next the time Aldi stocks it, and that time table is anyone’s guess.

Aldi’s Friendly Farms Skyr sells for $0.99 for a 5.3-oz. cup at the time of publication. It comes in three flavors: vanilla, strawberry blended, and blueberry blended. I got the strawberry and blueberry flavors to try.

Skyr is a strained yogurt with most of the whey, which is what makes traditional yogurt runny, removed. This leaves behind a thick, high-protein yogurt. Greek yogurt also has the whey strained out, but skyr is a much thicker product that will readily cling to your spoon. Skyr is also created with different bacterial cultures than Greek yogurt, creating a unique product. Skyr has been a staple in Iceland for thousands of years. Originally, residents of Iceland used whey to preserve fish, and skyr was what was left over after that whey-making process.

I’ve eaten other skyr yogurts primarily from the Siggi’s brand and the Icelandic Provisions brand. Many skyr makers advertise their yogurts as being low-sugar. Siggi’s sells a plain version of skyr that has no added sugar, but I’ve found that, while the flavored skyr options contain less sugar than a lot of other yogurts on the market, a lot of skyr still contains a fairly substantial amount of sugar if you are trying to track or limit your sugar intake. Icelandic Provision’s Strawberry Lingonberry skyr, for example, contains 10 grams of sugar in a 5.3-oz. serving. Siggi’s Strawberry skyr has 11 grams of sugar in a 5.3-oz. serving.

In terms of sugar, Aldi’s Friendly Farms skyr is in that same range, with the blueberry and strawberry flavors both containing 9 grams of added sugars, plus one to two grams of naturally occurring sugar from the milk. In contrast, Aldi’s Friendly Farms Strawberry Greek Yogurt has only about 4 grams of added sugars, based on what I’ve read on the nutrition label.

I’ve founded Aldi’s skyr to be comparable in taste to name brand skyr, and I especially like the berry flavors. I try to eat some type of yogurt several times a week because of the health benefits of the bacterial cultures, and skyr often makes its way into that rotation. It makes a good breakfast, snack, or dessert.

Friendly Farms Strawberry Blended Skyr Icelandic Style Yogurt:

This contains 120 calories per serving, with 0% milkfat and 0 grams of total fat, 10 mg of cholesterol (3% of your daily value), 40 mg of sodium (2% DV), 16 grams of total carbs, and 11 grams of sugars with 9 grams of added sugars. It also has 15 grams of protein and 10% of your daily recommendation for calcium.

Friendly Farms Blueberry Blended Skyr Icelandic Style Yogurt:

This contains 120 calories per serving, with 0% milkfat and 0 grams of total fat, 10 mg of cholesterol (3% DV), 45 mg sodium (2% DV), 15 grams of total carbs, and 10 grams of total sugars with 9 grams of added sugars. It also has 15 grams of protein and 10% of your daily recommendation for calcium.

The Verdict:

Aldi’s Friendly Farms Skyr is an Icelandic-style yogurt that comes in vanilla, strawberry, and blueberry flavors. It is a strained yogurt similar to, but not the same as, Greek yogurt. Aldi’s skyr is comparable to name brands such as Siggi’s and Icelandic Provisions and is worth trying if you eat yogurt.

2 Comments

This week I tried Friendly Farms Blended Lowfat Greek Yogurt in a “Limited Batch”-labeled flavor: Pineapple Coconut. It is the BEST yogurt I have ever tasted and is especially tasty served with granola. I returned to Aldi’s to scoop up all the rest I could find. PLEASE, Friendly Farms, offer this product as part of your regular production.

Horrible yogurt. I got it because I didn’t feel like stopping at Publix just for Siggi’s yogurt and thought it would be amazing and comparable like other Friendly Farms products, but I was WRONG!!

It lists cornstarch as an ingredient and you can tell it has a good amount in it because the texture is not normal for a yogurt. Additionally, if you lick your spoon clean you will still have visible-from-a-distance type of white streaks and remanence of the yogurt on the spoon – I’ve never had yogurt that’s done that and I’m sure it’s from the cornstarch.