Fieldberry Yogurt

I don't like Danone Fieldberry Yogurt. It has the visual appeal of muck from a duck-infested creek in March, and tastes random fruit bits thrown in a blender. Well, maybe because that's what it is.

I blogged on July 7 2003:

There's only four flavours in the Danone Creamy pack. French vanilla, strawberry, peaches, and fieldberry. Unfortunately all I have left in the fridge is fieldberry. I've eaten the rest of them.

I don't like fieldberry. Probably because it doesn't exist. You can't throw rasberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries together in a container and hope they co-exist. It's like throwing a Mac-head, a Windows-nut, a Linux-freak and a caveman in a room and hoping they come up with the unified theory of computing.

Or maybe it's because it's a disgustingly sick purple colour which has little specs of red and blue.

I know I'm not alone in my distaste for fieldberry. While living in Waterloo last term with roommates, we discovered an interesting phenomenom. The French vanilla yogurt would promptly disappear. Peach soon after. Strawberry would make its timely exit. But fieldberry? With the most fortitude, fieldberry would only make its exit as the wonderful expiry date printed on top of the container approached.

But don't feel sorry for fieldberry. Although it is a second-class citizen, relegated to being eaten only when the situation warrants it. Don't feel bad for it at all. After all, it is only yogurt.

I'm pretty sure fieldberry doesn't mind.

I blogged my theory of consumer extortion on the part of Danone with their yogurt packaging strategies on September 30 2003:

Today I discovered fieldberry-less Danone Creamy yogurt. However, it's only available in packs of twelve (instead of the usual sixteen). This results in the consumer paying a premium for the removal of fieldberry (field is not a berry) from their yogurt.

I think it's a sadistic monopolistic attempt at extorting money from the helpless consumer. If we buy sixteen, in bulk, discount, we are forced to buy fieldberry. But if we buy less, we are saved from fieldberry (which is replaced by raspberry and blueberry -- separate flavours, thank you very much).

I see it akin to Microsoft offering bug-free "corporate" versions of their software alongside dumbed-down user editions. Oh wait, they do that.

Ok, or maybe it's like a Linux vendor (hmm, maybe Red Hat?)offering "enterprise editions" of Linux alongside their free versions. Oh wait, they do that too.

I am also deeply disturbed that there are 317 hits for "fieldberry" on google, and that as of time of writing, this website turned up number 42.

James Schofield? suggests I sent him my Fieldberry Yogurt, if I don't want to eat it. I'll keep that in mind.