Food Review: Breyers Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt Chocolate Raspberry

I just love raspberry anything and I almost passed out with surprise when my mother returned with Chocolate Raspberry flavored Breyers Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt, my favorite brand and style of yogurt. I just had to taste this yogurt immediately.

I first started eating Breyers Fruit on the Bottom yogurt several years ago and it became my favorite because it has a smooth and creamy yet a slightly grainy texture probably due to the sugar, corn starch or whey protein concentrate. Most yogurt connoisseurs seem to prefer smoother to grainier texture but I really do not like yogurt that is to gelatinous, like Breyers Smooth and Creamy.

Reformulated

After a few years of enjoying Fruit-on-the-Bottom, Breyers reformulated it too become Smart! All Natural Lowfat Yogurt enhanced with DHA Omega-3, for which I never felt the health benefits, the yogurt seem to be too watery and the size of the top was reduced to 4 ounces I believe. I almost stopped eating yogurt altogether because I am very picky about my yogurt. None of that sissy sugar free, organic or parfait yogurt for me!

I guess Smart! did not sell well because a while later Breyers returned to Fruit on the Bottom and Smart! disappeared from store shelves. I rejoiced because I could once again eat my favorite yogurt.

My favorite flavor is Strawberry Banana, followed by Red Raspberry and Mixed Berry. Red Raspberry is now gone because Breyers reformulated it into Chocolate Raspberry and got rid of the Red Raspberry. I don't know why they couldn't make both flavors at the same time. I'm guessing it has something to do with profits or prolonging the life of the raspberry, thereby cutting costs. I really don't know for sure but I wish both were still available.

Flavor

I really like the taste of this flavor. All of the chocolate and raspberry purée is at the bottom of the cup, so you need to mix it into the plain yogurt on top as much as you want to. The chocolate is like a syrup and the raspberry purée is just as smooth. When you mix them together, the whole thing is one smooth blend of textures and flavors. Neither the chocolate nor the raspberry purée overpowers the other, making a combination of flavors that can both be tasted at the same time. It's very pleasing to me but I do miss chunks of fruit.

Why Purée Instead of Fruit?

My biggest issue with Chocolate Raspberry Breyers Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt is that the fruit on the bottom is not really fruit on the bottom. The raspberry fruit is a raspberry puree, which is perfectly smooth without big chunks of raspberries. This is unlike any other Breyers Fruit on the Bottom yogurt flavor that I know of. I don't understand why Breyers went with puree with this particular flavor.

I e-mailed Breyers to ask them about the raspberry purée versus actual raspberry fruit in their Chocolate Raspberry Fruit-on-the-Bottom yogurt and was informed that it is a reformulated version to replace their Red Raspberry Fruit-on-the-Bottom. I completely forgot about the Red Raspberry, which I used to like, second to my all-time favorite Strawberry Banana. I found the ingredients listing for the now extinct Red Raspberry flavor and saw that it also contained raspberry purée. This means that they never used raspberry pieces of fruit, always raspberry purée, in the expressly raspberry flavor. I just looked and saw that Mixed Berry contains raspberries and not the purée. Now I am really curious as to why they always use raspberry purée in these two flavors but not the Mixed Berry.

I called Breyers to follow up on my question that they never answered. The representative seemed to be part of an outsourced public relations company and the woman had no information about this beyond what they were given. She thinks that maybe the Chocolate Raspberry uses the raspberry purée because it might be affected by the chocolate in soy. This is reasonable logic if not for the Red Raspberry also containing the purée without the chocolate and the Mixed Berry containing raspberries and not the purée. So, basically, no one gave me a legitimate answer.

For now, I am going with my own opinions that somehow the raspberry interacts differently with the yogurt cultures, so maybe purée changes the way the raspberry interacts with the yogurt cultures. The mixed Berry might be different because raspberry is not the only fruit present in the mix, making it less of a factor with the yogurt cultures.

Fruit on the Bottom versus Pre-Mixed Fruit Yogurt

There is some controversy among yogurt connoisseurs about Fruit on the Bottom versus pre-mixed fruit yogurts. Some prefer the mixed fruit yogurts because they believe fruit on the bottom is the manufacturer's way of saving money on mixing and for other reasons. Others prefer fruit on the bottom because they can mix it to their liking. I can't understand the merits of mixed yogurts because often times there is little stirring room without some yogurt dripping over the side.

I really don't care either way but for those that might not know, yogurt cultures are activated by and feed off of sugar, some of which is in the fruit. The cultures are inactive until becoming in direct contact with the sugars, so keeping the sugars separate from the yogurt cultures allows the yogurt to maintain a longer shelf life and give consumers the freshest and most active bacteria cultures, which are the parts of the yogurt with the most health benefits. Once the bacteria cultures are active, they do not live forever and will eventually die, so you want to eat them while they are alive.

One thing to keep in mind is that fruit on the bottom yogurts contain sugar, some of which is probably already in the yogurt part of the cup but I can understand why a lot more cultures would be activated once the fruit on the bottom is mixed in thoroughly with the yogurt at the top.

Other Varieties of Breyers Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt

Peach Orange Mango, or Black Cherry, Blueberry, Mixed Berry, Peach, Pineapple, Strawberry and Strawberry Banana.

Nutrition

All Breyers Fruit on the Bottom Lowfat Yogurt flavors contain high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors or gluten and are 99.5% Fat Free with 1/2% Milk fat.

The Chocolate Raspberry flavor has only 170 calories in a 6 ounce container. The exact ingredients include: cultured pasteurized grade a skim milk, sugar, food starch-modified, seedless raspberry puree, whey protein concentrate, cream, cocoa (processed with alkali), cornstarch, kosher gelatin, natural flavors, pectin, caramel color.

The dietary statistics are as follows: Calories 170, fat calories 15g, total fat 1.5g, saturated fat 0.5g, trans fat 0g, cholesterol 10mg, sodium 75mg, potassium 200mg, total carbohydrate 34g, fiber

Conclusion

Breyers Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt Chocolate Raspberry is a great yogurt with a perfect combination of chocolate and raspberry. I would prefer it contained pieces of raspberry rather than raspberry puree but it's not enough to turn me away. If you eat yogurt and like chocolate and raspberry, definitely give this yogurt a try.