Because yogurt is an excellent source of nutrients and has become so popular for its delicious taste, good texture, and versatility of use with other food ingredients, there is a growing variety of yogurts available on the market. Generally, yogurt can be classified into the following five types.

「Plain yogurt」
This is the most basic yogurt, which is made by just fermenting milk with lactic acid bacteria, without mixing any sugar, flavoring agent, or other additive. It can be eaten alone or used for cooking.
「Hard yogurt」
This is the type of yogurt that was first sold in Japan. It is prepared by adding a sweetener, fruit juice, agar, and gelatin to raw milk and giving it a pudding-like consistency and form. Some of the hard yogurt products sold today are made with recipes that don’t use agar or gelatin.
「Yogurt drink」
This is a liquid yogurt made by crushing curdled yogurt to a thin consistency. Most yogurt drinks contain sweeteners, fruit juice, etc. to make them more palatable as beverages.
「Soft yogurt」
This is prepared by stirring fermented and curdled yogurt until a smooth consistency is achieved, and then adding sweeteners, fruit juice, fruit pulp, etc.
「Frozen yogurt」
This is a yogurt with air mixed in and then refrigerated to form an ice-cream-like fluffy form. While it is frozen, the bacteria in it are still alive.
Classification of yogurts by production method
As for the different methods of fermentation used to make yogurt, there are two types: “post-fermentation” that involves putting it into packages first before fermentation, and “pre-fermentation” that involves fermenting yogurt first in a tank before it is packaged. Most plain yogurt and hard yogurt are made using the post-fermentation method, while yogurt drink and soft yogurt are prepared mainly with the pre-fermentation method. Each of these methods produces a distinctive texture and flavor.

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