Photo courtesy of Muuna
The yogurt industry has gotten saturated. Depending on where you live, you may have access to 50 different brands. That’s why my interested was piqued in accepting an offer to try the three new flavors of Muuna, a cottage cheese brand that launched about 18 months ago.
Here’s the nutritional lowdown: Each 5.3 oz. cup has 120-130 calories, 9 grams of sugar and 15-19 grams of protein, and there are no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners. I sampled the fruit-on-the-bottom black cherry, raspberry and vanilla flavors; pineapple, peach, blueberry, strawberry and mango also are available.
The cottage cheese itself is fresh-tasting, mild and creamy, and it’s made from 2% milkfat that comes from a farmer-owned cooperative in the Midwest. Muuna says it has a proprietary process that allows its curds to absorb more cream.
Still, all cottage cheese gets to be too bland for me after a while, so I appreciated the flavorings. The raspberry comes in the form of a puree, and it’s certainly not as sugary as you would find in yogurt.
Meanwhile, I liked the actual chunks of fruit in the black cherry version, as it provided a contrast in texture. The vanilla flavor was my surprise favorite, as the right amount was added to make the cottage cheese resemble yogurt in taste. I look forward to trying the mango flavor in the future.
“Backed by extensive research, including a deep-dive into consumer flavor demand in the yogurt category, our in-house R&D team created these new flavors,” Muuna CEO Gerard Meyer said in a statement. “The debut of black cherry and vanilla mark a first in the cottage cheese category, as consumers previously have only seen these flavors available in yogurt.”
By the way, I am really impressed with the amount of cottage cheese-related recipes Muuna has created, including the buffalo dip and the blueberry banana bread scones.
Muuna is currently expanding its availability across the country. The Muuna website lists Walmart as a retailer, but none of the Madison-area stores carry it yet.
When you think of a city that really celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, you think of Madison, right? Ha! Well, even though we’re not at the caliber of a Chicago or a Boston, we have a surprising amount of events. Here are some highlights:
I didn’t expect to find decent BBQ in Oregon, but I was pleasantly surprised by the offerings, especially the sauces, of 
I also enjoyed the jumbo smoked bone-in chicken wings ($0.75 per wing), which are plump and sport a char from the grill. The garlic parmesan sauce did not disappoint. Your other choices in sauces are BBQ and mild buffalo.
