Sugar Savvy

Yoplait Whips! touts itself as “a whipped yogurt so unbelievably fluffy, so incredibly light, it’s an extraordinary experience.” They recently came out with three new flavors that are dessert favorites. It seems like they are trying to offer a healthier replacement when those cravings hit.

So do they do the trick? Can you have these yogurts and have your cravings healthily satisfied? I had tried the fruit-flavored Whips! before and liked the Cool Whip-like texture, so I was interested in seeing if their new flavors also succeeded.

Chocolate Mint: This is supposed to be a mint chocolate mousse, the most likely candidate for success, as a mousse and Whips! should supposedly have a similar texture. While I found that the texture did work, neither the mint nor the chocolate flavorings were very strong or intense. In fact, I found the mint flavor a little odd when matched up against the slight tang of the yogurt.

Dulce de Leche: Many times, real dulce de leche is made with sweetened condensed milk, which is indeed one of the ingredients Yoplait uses. There was a creamy caramel taste, but when I eat dulce de leche, part of its appeal is the rich mouth-feel it brings. A whipped yogurt texture just doesn’t seem to stand up to the strong flavorings. It was the best out of the three flavors I tried, I might consider buying it if I was desperate for some caramel flavors.

Creamy Latte: There was barely any distinguishable coffee flavor here, even though I knew that latte would imply a more creamy taste because of all the milk. Instead, it was more liked plain whipped yogurt with a tiny aftertaste of coffee.

Overall, these textures just didn’t work when paired against such intense, rich flavors. Whips! don’t succeed as dessert, but they don’t seem to work as yogurt either because of the whipped texture. I guess I just found it plain weird and hard to describe.

Is it healthy? Calorie-wise, it’s not fat-free yogurt and still has between 140-160 calories, not much different from their original line of yogurt. As I expected a whipped product to have fewer calories because air has been mixed in, this caloric count was surprising. The biggest surprise: there is about 22 grams of sugar in each 4-oz. serving. A 4-oz. serving of Coca-Cola classic has only 13 grams of sugar!

There are other Whips! flavors out there that I didn’t try. Unfortunately, I won’t be running out to buy them anytime soon. Give them a try if you are desperate to find a healthier dessert replacement, but don’t expect them to really taste like the real thing.