Yogurt Blog

The active bacteria cultures in yogurt are not the only type of “culture” that it can have. The term “culture”, loosely defined by Merriam-Webster is: a set of shared attitudes / beliefs and traits of a racial, religious, or social group. With that, people from different backgrounds have found many creative ways to bring their culture into yogurt.

With the rise of yogurt bowls via social media platforms, individuals have found unique ways to bring their unique cultures while creating yogurt bowls. A prominent example of this that I often see is bringing traditionally Asian flavors into yogurt. People will add Matcha, Ube, and Yuzu powders and/or flavorings to their yogurt; bringing part of their culture in to yogurt. Not only can ethnic culture be brought in, but more local culture can also be incorporated in yogurt. Online, a lot of Californian’s have been known to get locally grown almonds and fruits to add to their yogurt bowls, adding part of their location into their yogurt.

A yogurt bowl featuring a Matcha flavored base and various fruit toppings.

To say the least, yogurt can fit anyone’s individual cultural identities as long as they make the effort to. With confidence, I can say that the practice of bringing tradition into yogurt keeps our community thriving. Despite my initial belief, there are in fact “artifacts” associated with yogurt. There is concrete archeological evidence stating that yogurt was made in specific bowls over 7,200 years ago in Croatia. These bowls are called “Rhyta / Rhyton Bowls”, a type of Danilo Pottery. Yogurt was founded in many parts of the world thousands of years ago so there being some sort of artifact associated with it makes sense. These bowls can now be found on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A picture of a Rhyta / Rhyton bowl. They were made to depict animals.

Back to the actual yogurt community itself, my favorite part about it is how it can bring people together. This Summer before we all left, I had a few friends over and we all made yogurt bowls with our own toppings. It was fun getting to try everyone’s yogurt and seeing what they like to add and how it fits their character. I found that day to be a perfect hangout and I learned a lot more about my friends. With that, I love how yogurt and food and general can casually bring people together and build stronger bonds over shared memories. To this day, we still say that we should do it again once we are all reunited. Going in another direction — I have reconnected with old friends from years ago over yogurt. With TikTok’s “repost” feature, I was able to repost a few videos about yogurt and an old friend reached out to me about it. We ended up hitting it off and met up in person after 4 years all because of a silly video about yogurt. So in short, my favorite part about this community is how it can bring people together in unexpected ways. I also love the fact that there is even a yogurt community in the first place, as I have loved it since I was a kid.

An image of a few yogurt bowls with a variety of toppings.