Fuss-free yoghurt maker – just add love (or water)

What?

Insulated cask, in which reconstituted dairy powder incubates until curdled.

Contents

What?Why?Well?Redeeming features?Counter, drawer, back of the cupboard?

Why?

Woah, aggressive tone. Because people like making stuff? Take it easy, yo.

Well?

EasiYo sounds like Californian skate-slang circa 1997, rather than the hot news in yoghurt but ignore that. (There is no hot news in yoghurt.) Yoghurt is a cultured, Guardian-reading kind of food; it has calcium, vitamins and bacteria that aid digestion, so the lactose intolerant can party too. EasiYo’s box reminds us it is vegetarian, gluten free and delicious, which is subjective, but whatever. “Everything tastes better when you make it yourself,” it adds, which is plain wrong. (“Everything tastes better in a restaurant when someone else is paying,” didn’t fit, maybe.)

Adding water and then ignoring is pretty easy … Photograph: Graham Turner.

The process is almost lazy: hydrate a packet of EasiYo yoghurt powder – strawberries and cream in this case – shake, and partially submerge in boiling water inside the flask overnight. “Just add love” is how the box describes it, mystifyingly. Adding water and ignoring for eight hours is much easier – love is complex and demanding, whereas I have the wet stuff on tap. Maybe that’s why my first attempt yields sickly, Pepto-Bismol-pink liquid. I consult the booklet, which at first seems to be written entirely in Italian. “Ecco I Nostri Gusti,” it thunders, like a papal pronouncement; the judgement of God. That’s until I see the English approximation: Meet Our Yoghurts. (Imagine, at the very moment of your death as one world gives way to another, hearing that divine instruction: Meet Our Yoghurts. Makes me think if there is a God, I like his sense of humour.)

Happily, it also has advice for un-set dairy. “Wait a few more hours.” I do, making 12 in total. This time, I get the real deal – tangy yet comforting, with a creamy mouthfeel. It’s pleasing but nothing to write home about. (Though the news I do write home about is so boring, it’s kinda perfect.) The flavour bears out its packeted uniformity – I could have just bought some Activia. I’d get more excited if it were customisable – used different milks and starter cultures, maybe a kefir-kit? EasiYo does what it says, but in truth I’d prefer a slightly harder-yo.