Hello everyone! This is the last two weeks of my internship, but I still did some impressive tasks. I felt so excited to tell you about this great news. We conducted sensory testing this week.
Ana and I went to the YOU shelter last week to conduct sensory testing. After we discussed with Darryl about the specific time that we could go to shelter to do the test. It’s very nice that Darryl said that he could help us prepare the plain yogurt. We went to the shelter on Wednesday at 10 a.m. and we prepared the sauces for four flavours which are strawberry, strawberry-banana, peach and lime. First, we cut the fruits into small pieces. Next, we cook the fruits with sugar until the gel forms. Then, we cool the sauces down in the fridge. Then we combine the sauce with the plain yogurt and put it in the fridge to prepare another flavour.
We have some problems during the process. First, the peach flavour was off flavour. Maybe that was because we used canned peaches. The sugar was stuck on the peaches flesh not fully absorbed by the yogurt. Also, maybe because the peach was not fresh, the yogurt also did not absorb the peach flavours. For the strawberry flavour, the first time we did not put enough sauce in the yogurt, but after we doubled the sauce, I think the amount of sauce is appropriate for the flavour. The strawberry-banana flavour was my favourite and it’s also got positive feedback from youth. The only problem was that the banana would become brown when it was exposed in the air for a long time. The brown color will affect the appearance and the flavor of the yogurt. Maybe we can try the banana powder or canned banana next time. The lime flavour exceeded my expectations. The lime flavour smells great. I do not have any specific comments on this flavor. It’s good enough. Finally, we didn’t have chances to have the testing during lunch time, because the lunch time was finished after we finished the yogurt preparation. We left the yogurt there and asked the youth to do the test during dinner time with the help of the shelter staff. Thus, we did not get enough samples at the end.
There are some recommendations for the future interns according to our experience. First, the texture is good. The problem we worried about did not appear. The yogurt did not become watery. Also, if we can cool the yogurt for a longer time, the yogurt may absorb more flavour from sauces. In addition, our procedure did not have any problems, it’s very convenient. We just needed to change the ingredients, such as changing the canned peach to fresh peach, changing the banana to the banana flavoured powder or canned bananas. If Nick wants to launch the yogurt in the café, I believe the youth can quickly adopt the making process. Hope future interns can get better results when they repeat the sensory testing.
Zhihui Xiao - Western Heads East 