Forager Project is a a family-owned and operated organic food company creating plant-based foods in California since 2013. They strive to improve human and planetary health with their products which includes seven different product lines. Forager has cashew milk yogurt, cashew milk drinkable yogurt, dairy-free sour cream, cashew milk varieties including dairy-free half&half, functional drinks with superfoods, vegetable chips, and cereal. Honestly, I haven’t seen many of these products in stores yet and I’m not sure if that’s because they are based in California and I’m on the east coast of the United States or what but either way – they have quite the exhaustive product list! And while this is my first time testing out the cashew milk yogurt, that they lovingly refer to as cashewgurt, I can’t wait to get my hands on other Forager products!
Forager Cashew Milk Based Yogurts are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, soy free, non-GMO, USDA certified organic, and kosher….but despite all of that…how does the Vanilla Organic Dairy-Free Cashewgurt from Forager taste and is it healthy for us?? That’s what we’re going to dive into today so keep reading to find out or check out many of the Forager products on Amazon to see what others have to say.
Taste Experience
The packaging for the Forager Organic Cashewgurt is very similar to the packaging of other plant-based and dairy yogurts with a foil top and a plastic container. Once I peeled back the foil, there wasn’t an even consistency and in fact there were quite a few clumps that needed to be stirred and well mixed before diving in. The stirring took a few minutes and even then it was a smooth, uniform yogurt. The picture below shows you what it looked like after a few stirs but not after all of them that I did.
While stirring, I noticed the specks of vanilla beans and warm sweet vanilla smell. It was such a warm, inviting, and almost nostalgic smell that for some reason I didn’t care about the texture of the yogurt as much. The coloring of the yogurt was an off white color – not the stark white you may notice with other yogurts. While there wasn’t a separation of liquid/water from the cream based yogurt, the clumps never completely went away after lots of stirring. The yogurt did become quite a bit thicker and creamier with more stirring though. When I pulled the spoon out of the yogurt to see how slowly or how quickly the yogurt came off the spoon, it was quite slow and I feel like the Forager Cashewgurt has a thicker consistency in general than some other vegan plant-based yogurts.
When I took my first bite, I intentionally took one with the “clumps” although I was surprised that what looked like a clump just faded and melted into my mouth with the rest of the sweet and creamy vegan yogurt. There was a significant vanilla taste but it wasn’t overwhelming and I appreciated that it tasted (and looked) like real vanilla bean specks instead of imitation vanilla flavoring. Overall, the yogurt was a bit too sweet for me as I tend to gravitate towards slightly sweet yogurts and the Forager Cashewgurt was quite sweet for my personal taste buds – almost to the point that it tasted like a dessert rather than a breakfast food. Because of this, I would recommend trying the Forager Vanilla Cashewgurt over a vegan brownie or with chunks of chocolate cookie for a dessert that’s still a bit healthy with live active cultures but the yogurt has a place to shine in all of its creamy sweet glory. Check out Forager Organic Dairy-Free Yogurt HERE in various flavors.
Nutrition
Each Forager Organic Dairy-Free Cashewgurt Vanilla Yogurt contains 140 calories in each single serving 5.3oz container. Most of the calories that come from the 6 grams of fat from the cashews. There is only one gram of saturated fat and no trans fat. One yogurt would be too small for breakfast for virtually everyone buuuut 140 calories is a great snack calorie option (or dessert as I mentioned it is pretty sweet tasting). If you wanted to have this yogurt container for breakfast, I would recommend stirring in additional nuts, seeds, or berries to keep you full and satisfied longer.
In that same serving size, there is only 10mg of sodium – which is very low and doesn’t even register as contributing to the percent daily value. If you have a salt tooth, this is not going to be the snack for you! I actually tend to gravitate towards preferring low salt foods and lower sugar foods, so this is a good middle ground some days. Traditional yogurt is a good source of potassium from the dairy milk but cashews are not a good source of potassium (while they have other vitamins and minerals), so you won’t find any potassium in this vegan dairy-free yogurt.
There are 19 grams of total carbohydrate with 1 gram of fiber and 12 grams of sugar (likely all added sugar although it’s not specified). Like most yogurts, there is a considerable amount of added sugar (unless they are unsweetened yogurt). The recommendation is for men to consume 150 calories of added sugar per day which is equivalent to 37.5 grams (9 teaspoons). Women are recommended to consume less than 100 calories of added sugar per day 25 grams (6 teaspoons). So in this yogurt, you’re consuming about half of the recommended amount of added sugar per day. Depending on what else you consume throughout the day, this could be just fine or this could be more than you really need and as many people consume far too much added sugar anyway, I would recommend limiting the rest of the added sugar consumed when eating a plant-based vegan yogurt if you opt for a sweetened choice. Which again, despite yogurt having live active cultures, this yogurt may be more like a healthier dessert than anything else.
When it comes to protein, there are three grams of plant-based protein from cashews. Most dairy yogurts have more protein than this but the coconut based yogurts have less than this – so the amount falls somewhere in the middle. If you plan on eating the Kite Hill Plant-Based Vanilla Vegan yogurt for breakfast, I would definitely recommend adding more protein from nuts or seeds like chia seeds and hemp seeds or almonds. If you’re looking to eat this yogurt as a snack, this is an appropriate amount of protein for a snack and you wouldn’t need to add any protein if you didn’t want to.
Forager Organic Dairy-Free Cashewgurt doesn’t add any vitamins or minerals but in each serving, you’ll find 2% RDA for Calcium from the small amount in cashews.
So, in general I would consider Forager Organic Dairy Free Cashewgurt a “fun food” that should be consumed in moderation because of the amount of sugar in each container. Whether you wanted to consume it as a snack or dessert or breakfast (with more protein/fiber added) is all your call. However, if you’re looking for an ultra-creamy sweet treat that also helps support your gut microbiome, I would recommend checking out Forager’s Cashewgurt in the Vanilla flavor!
Parting Thoughts
Forager is a plant-based food company from California that has been making organic dairy-free options since 2013 but only recently started coming on to the big plant-based movement scene. If you’re looking for a sweet vanilla creamy treat, this cashewgurt is a great choice. Now, it does have a fairly significant amount of added sugar but as long as you take that into consideration, the vanilla cashewgurt makes a great snack or breakfast if you add additional protein and fiber. Have you tried Forager’s Organic Dairy-Free Cashewgurt? If so, what’s your favorite flavor?? Comment below and let us know or head over to Amazon and try out the Vanilla Cashew Milk Vegan Yogurt from Forager today!
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
LAVA Plant-Based Yogurt Review – Raspberry Flavor
Kite Hill Plant-Based Vegan Yogurt Review – Vanilla Flavor
365 AlmondMilk Non-Dairy Vegan Yogurt Review – Vanilla