History & Culture

From Neolithic Thrace to the 2010s American boom: where Greek yogurt comes from and what it means in Greece.

Yogurt in Greek Life: Village Yogurt, Sheep's Milk, the Skin on Top and What "Straggisto" Means at Home

In Greece "Greek yogurt" is just yogurt, and the interesting distinctions are different ones: set versus strained, sheep versus cow, with skin or without, village or supermarket. A guide to how Greeks actually buy, eat and talk about it.

Vangelis Pallis

2 days ago4 min read

A History of Greek Yogurt: From Oxygala and Village Cloth Bags to the 1926 Athens Dairy and the American Boom

Yogurt is older than Greece; strained yogurt is a Balkan-Anatolian craft; "Greek yogurt" as a global product is a story that runs from a Patissia dairy shop in 1926 through a Queens grocer in 1998 to a market worth tens of billions.

Vangelis Pallis

2 days ago6 min read