Weird German dairy products - part 1

Grocery shopping is a good allegory for our adapting to life in Germany. When we first got here, I spent at least an hour at a time walking the aisles, trying to read labels, wondering what things were. Then I figured out which things were most similar to foods I was used to, and just bought those. The next step was to try out just a few new German foods that looked tasty. Now I am tired of being clueless about what's on the shelves, and have decided to try out all of the strange dairy products that I see. So you get to be a witness to my weird German dairy product taste test and investigation. Here are some of the foods that I will sample:

The rating scale will go like this:
1. Taste: 0 = bleeeaaggh! 1= eeewww. 2 = hhrrmmmh. 3 = mmm hmmm. 4 = ooooh. 5 = yummmm!
 2. Would you have it again? 1= Not on my life  2 = Maybe, if the store was out of everything else 3 = possibly 4 = I would 5 = yes, every single day.

Part 1: Kefir and similar things

Before I eat/drink the kefir, I do a little research.
Kefir is a fermented milk product that comes from Russia originally. It's like yogurt, except it has yeast in addition to bacteria cultures in it. It's usually drinkable and can be plain or flavored. Apparently you can buy it in the U.S. too but I've never tried.

So I open up my tub of kefir and eat some. It's strawberry flavored, a little more tangy than yogurt, but not bad. It's a little like yogurt mixed with sour cream. Then I look at the label and realize I am eating cream-Kefir. It is 26% fat. So before negating all positive effects of my run this morning, I stop. I give the cream kefir a 3 on the taste scale and a 3 on the "would you have it again?" scale.

Next, the drinkable Kefir.
It comes in a big half liter tub, which will be a bad thing if I don't like it. And I don't. It tastes like buttermilk but thicker and more sour. It's not disgsuting, but it tastes like it's way past the expiration date. I give it a 1 on the taste scale and a  2 on the buy-ability scale. It's still in the fridge because I feel guilty about wasting it. Maybe if I mix it with some yogurt it would be better...

And finally, the drinkable yogurt. It's peach-passion fruit flavored. It's delicious. I'm cheating a little because I've had it a couple of times and knew I would like it, but after kefir I figured I deserve that. It gets a 4.5 on the taste scale and a 4 on the buy-ability scale. Who needs to make a smoothie when you can have a half-liter of this stuff?

That concludes part one of the investigation. Is life really so dull that I need to consume unfamiliar milk products and tell you about it? I prefer to think of it as cultural enrichment. (Go ahead and make your yogurt culture jokes now. You know you want to.)

Coming soon: Quark and milchreis.