With a one-year-old daughter who is incredibly enthusiastic about her food, I’m always on the lookout for healthy snacking options to keep her going throughout her busy days. While I’m not overly cautious about our food (eating out occasionally is fine, and refined sugar – while I keep it limited – is not completely off the table), when I’m not making her food myself I prefer to use products that are made of natural ingredients as much as possible.
The product
Kiwigarden have become known for their innovative freeze-dried healthy snacking products, and these Yoghurt Drops are no exception. Made from fresh New Zealand yoghurt blended with fruit and vegetables, they are then freeze-dried. The product you end up with retains virtually all the nutrients found in the raw ingredients; only water is removed during this process which results in a slightly crunchy texture.
They advise Yoghurt Drops contain probiotic cultures which are good for gut health, no chemical nasties, no refined sugar, are gluten free and GM-free.
Large packs (20g) are available in Coconut & Raspberry (Miss E’s fave flavour and recent winner of The Foodbowl Novel Ingredients award at the 2016 NZ Food Awards), Passionfruit, Natural, and Gold Kiwi.
Small snack packs (5 x 9g) are available in Strawberry, Banana & Honey, and Mixed Berry.
Sample ingredients list
Here’s the list from Kiwigarden’s strawberry flavoured snack pack:
Natural yoghurt (23%) (whole milk, cultures), apple, strawberry (8%), milk solids, honey, raw sugar, tapioca starch, gelatine, natural flavour, beetroot, citric acid, natural antioxidant.
In the 9g single serve pack, it contains 159 kJ (38 calories), 0.7g of fat/0.5g of saturated fat, and 5.6g of sugar (just over one teaspoon).
The verdict
I actually genuinely bought this product before the samples had been sent out to me. One of Miss E’s little friends had them in her lunchbox to share one playdate, and my daughter being the little snack hunter that she is sought them out and ate them all which was a pretty good signal they would be eaten if I bought them in the future.
Taste-wise, I like them. My brother-in-law proclaimed them to be ‘chalky’ (though he’s dairy-intolerant and a single bloke in his 20’s so he’s probably not quite the right target market…) and then proceeded to eat more so he couldn’t have found them too bad. My daughter is obsessed with them and has a small handful every now and then as a treat, and I will continue to buy them for her.
I love it that these are made in New Zealand, are nutritious, appealing to the kiddies and are great for small hands. It’s important to note that they are only suitable for children over the age of 12 months. Although they are crunchy, they do melt in the mouth easily so I haven’t been worried at all about them being a choking hazard with my little girl. While Kiwigarden are correct in advising these Yoghurt Drops contain no refined sugar, the products do contain some added raw sugar which is important to note if you’re trying to keep your kids sugarfree.
Product samples provided by Kiwigarden for review
Images / NZ Real Health