Greek Yogurt and Honey: What It Is, How It Is Served and What to Know About the Honey

A spoonful of thick, cool yogurt, a slow ribbon of honey poured over the top, a scatter of walnuts: this is a dessert Greece serves without fuss, and it can turn up at the end of a long lunch or at the end of a long dinner. The sourness of the yogurt and the sweetness of the honey cancel each other out in a way that makes you reach for one more bite. It is one of the simplest pleasures at a Greek table, and you can find it across the country.

What is Greek yogurt?

Greek yogurt is yogurt that has been strained to remove most of its whey, which makes it thicker while keeping its sour taste. That straining is the whole secret. What is left in the cloth or the strainer is dense enough to hold a spoon upright, and it tastes more tangy and more concentrated than the loose, mild yogurt in a typical supermarket cup.

In Greece, strained yogurt, like yogurt in general, is traditionally made from sheep’s milk. That gives it a particular richness, and it is part of why a bowl eaten in Greece can taste quite different from the version you buy at home. Genuine Greek yogurt carries 10% fat, which sets it apart from typical Danone store yogurts and explains the creamy, almost custard-like feel on the tongue.

A name that means different things at home

In North America, strained yogurt is usually marketed as Greek yogurt. In the US there is no legal or standard definition of the term, and yogurt thickened with thickening agents may be sold under the same name. So the tub in your refrigerator may be made by straining, or it may owe its body to additives.

The rules are stricter elsewhere. In the United Kingdom, the term Greek yoghurt may only be used for yoghurt imported from Greece. When you order a bowl in Athens or on an island, you are tasting the original rather than a label stretched over a similar product, which is reason enough to try it plain before anything goes on top.

From sheep’s milk to the factory

Strained yogurt has a long home life in Greek kitchens, but it entered industrial production when Fage International S.A. began straining cow’s-milk yogurt in Greece in 1975 and launched its brand Total. That is why you will meet two styles in Greece today: the sheep’s-milk kind that tastes of the farm, and the cow’s-milk kind that is smooth, mild and found in grocery stores.

Neighboring Cyprus follows its own habit, where strained yogurt is usually made from sheep or goats milk. Labneh, a cousin you may see on Eastern Mediterranean menus, is a strained yogurt thicker than Greek yogurt and salted, so it plays a savory role instead of a sweet one.

What it does for a meal

Strained yogurt is a good source of protein, calcium, iodine and vitamin B12. The straining removes liquid whey and lactose, which gives it a higher protein content, and it has less sugar than other yogurts. For a traveler, that means a bowl in the morning is filling, and the same ingredient can carry you through the day, from breakfast to a dip on the table at dinner.

How is it served in Greece?

In Greek food, strained yogurt is used mostly in two ways: as the base of the tzatziki dip and as a dessert, with honey, sour cherry syrup or spoon sweets often served on top. Those two roles cover almost everything you will see on a menu, one savory and cool, the other sweet and spoonable.

Yogurt as dessert

The classic bowl is plain strained yogurt with honey poured over it, often with chopped walnuts. The honey sinks into the white surface in amber threads, and each spoonful mixes sour and sweet. Some places swap the honey for sour cherry syrup, which turns the bowl a deep red and adds a sharp, fruity note, or for spoon sweets, preserved fruit in thick syrup that sits on the yogurt like a jewel.

A look at the menu can tell you something. One of the bad signs for authenticity is desserts listed on the menu at all, since in many Greek restaurants it is customary to receive a small free dessert when you ask for the bill. That small dish is sometimes a spoonful of yogurt, fruit or a sweet, brought out to end the meal without being ordered.

Tzatziki and the table

Tzatziki is the dip built on strained yogurt, and it arrives alongside bread, grilled meat and other small plates. It sits comfortably next to a Greek salad, which is traditionally dressed only with olive oil, with vinaigrette or lettuce added only in the most tourist-oriented restaurants. Together they make a table that is cool, sharp and fresh.

The rhythm of the meal matters too. Greeks dine around 14:00 to 15:00 for lunch and 21:00 to 23:00 for dinner, though tourist establishments may open as early as 12:00. It is customary to be served water and bread soon after sitting down. Some restaurants charge an official cover fee, and it is worth knowing that if it tends towards €2 per person, you may consider eating elsewhere.

Ordering with confidence

A few signs help you find a good place for a yogurt dessert or a meze table. Large food posters outside, waiters yelling for clients and plates taken away while you are still seated all count as bad signs. Menus that stay short and focused on a few dishes are usually the better bet, and you can order yogurt and honey at the end to see how the kitchen treats its simplest dish.

If you eat vegetarian, yogurt-based dishes and salads give you plenty to work with, although restaurants catering strictly to vegans and vegetarians are practically non-existent outside of Athens and Thessaloniki. Fresh fish, by contrast, is sold by the kilogram and can be very expensive, so budget diners should ask the cost of their portion before ordering. By law, frozen seafood must be marked as such on the menu.

What about Greek honey?

Poured thick over a bowl of yogurt, it turns a plain dairy dish into a dessert, and its taste changes depending on the flowers the bees visited.

Honey on yogurt

When you order yogurt with honey, the honey is the first thing you see and the last thing you taste. It slides slowly off the spoon, and in a good bowl it is generous without drowning the yogurt. The sourness underneath keeps the sweetness from becoming heavy, which is why the dish works at the end of a rich meal of grilled meat and fried cheese.

A bottle or jar of honey is an easy thing to look for in markets and shops as a souvenir, since it travels well and tastes of the place you bought it.

Honey in Greek sweets

It is a dessert made of tissue-thin layers of pastry with honey, cinnamon and chopped walnuts, and each bite is crisp, sticky and fragrant with spice.

Honey belongs to a very old way of eating. Ancient Greek cuisine was founded on the Mediterranean triad of wheat, olive oil and wine, and later Byzantine cooking added ingredients such as caviar, nutmeg and basil, helped by Constantinople’s position as a global hub of the spice trade. Sweetness, spice and fruit have been part of the Greek table for a very long time, and honey sits comfortably in that line.

Pairing honey with the rest of the meal

Lemons, prominent in Greek cuisine, were introduced in the second century and used medicinally before being incorporated into the diet. Today a squeeze of lemon sits next to grilled fish, and a spoon of honey sits next to yogurt, and together they show how Greek cooks balance sour and sweet. Try a bowl of plain yogurt with honey after a salad dressed with olive oil, and you will taste the whole logic of the table in a few minutes.

For a lighter option, a simple fast-food stop can feed you cheaply: at Goody’s, a popular fast food chain in Greece, a hamburger with Coke costs €3-5. But a bowl of yogurt and honey after dinner at a proper taverna is where the country’s flavors show best.

Good to know before you go

Ask the price of fresh fish before you order, since it is sold by the kilogram, and keep in mind that an official cover fee in restaurants is common, ranging from €0.30 to €2 per person. Water and bread arrive soon after you sit down, and a small free dessert often comes with the bill. Greeks dine late, so a table at lunch or dinner opens up on a slower clock than you may be used to.