Review: Dannon Evolution Fresh Black Cherry Greek Yogurt

I guess the reason mega conglomerates become mega conglomerates is because they either have a home run/killer product or they continually roll out successful products.  Dannon may be a bit of both, but I know that they seemingly have an endless line of products that they roll out continually, of which I've only touched the tip of the iceberg here.  Upon a recent meandering of my local Meijer store, I noticed that Dannon has rolled out another line of Greek yogurts called "Evolution Fresh" where they intend on "letting the ingredients shine."  Okay then.  Anyway, the ingredients were hopefully shining in this 5.3 ounce cup of Dannon Evolution Fresh Black Cherry Greek Yogurt that I picked up for $1.09.  Packed into this cup are 120 shining calories and eleven grams of shining protein.

The moderately transparent exterior of this container pretty much gives away how this is going to be constructed.  It's a base layer of black cherry "jam" topped with a layer of Greek yogurt.  Upon opening this, I found that Greek yogurt to be extremely thick and creamy.  It had that slight Greek smell (best way I can describe it).  Beneath that yogurt was the black cherry mix and while it was mostly jam-like, it did have several impressively sized chunks of black cherry mixed in it, so that was quite nice.  The nice, sweet smell of cherry was prevalent too, so I appreciated that as well.

My first spoonful was composed primarily of the Greek yogurt and while it was thick and creamy, it really did not have any taste.  It was definitely plain.  What this yogurt also did was dry out my mouth in a way that made me feel like I ate a bunch of salt.  That was odd, but it definitely is not the first time that has happened to me with Greek yogurt.  Next to taste was the black cherry portion and it tasted exactly like I would have hoped it would.  Sweet and mildly tart.  It was basically everything I'd expect a black cherry mix to taste like and I'd equate it to the filling of a cherry pie (the filling you can buy in a can).  I love that canned filling stuff and would eat it by itself, so anytime a packaged product emulates that, I'm definitely on board.  Lastly, I mixed both components together and it's clear that Dannon's objective was to let the cherry be the star of this because it clearly was.  It's wonderful flavor definitely took over the plain Greek yogurt and it made for a sweet and tart mix that was especially creamy from the yogurt.  It still had that mouth drying thing going on, but I was okay with it.

Buy It or Fly By It?  If something is cherry flavored, it's got to be pretty bad to ruin that experience for me since I'm a major cherry fan.  This yogurt definitely did not ruin anything and provided a comforting and tasting eating experience, so I'll give this a BUY IT rating.  I'm not sure how evolution quite plays into this, but I do know that this evolved from having a boring Greek yogurt on top to being a tasty product once everything was mixed together.  Maybe that is what the name means?  Hmm.

BUY IT!!