The mystery of Yoghi drink: where did this childhood memory go?!

The other day I was scrolling through Threads – you know, Instagram’s Twitter – when, all of a sudden, I was hurled back into an incredible childhood memory. A memory from everyone’s childhood, I think. At least if you’re a 90s kid like me. Hold on tight: do you remember Yoghi drink? Where did it go? And… did it even really exist? Because when you go looking for it, it seems as though it never existed…

I can hear my mother saying it: ‘Would you like a glass of Yoghi drink?’ YES, Mum, I would. That sickly sweet strawberry-flavoured yoghurt drink was an icon in its own right. It wasn’t Fristi, it wasn’t Optimel, it was Yoghi. Or Yogi. Right?

Yoghi Drink: nostalgia at its finest

It all began with a Yoghi fan posting an SOS on Threads: ‘Can anyone still remember Yoghi drink? because I can’t find ANYTHING about it anywhere on the internet and I refuse to accept this,’ she says. And yes, it turns out that A LOT of people remember Yoghi. Here’s a selection of the comments:

• REAL WTF
• I know 100000% what you’re talking about, this is so real!!!!
• Nostalgia
• omygod YES
• I drank it every Saturday in front of the TV while watching Pokémon and Dragon Ball

That Yoghi/Yogi drink is a mystery. Everyone can picture it, hear their mother calling it through the living room and almost taste it, but it can no longer be found. It doesn’t seem to be on the shelves anywhere anymore, but it’s also impossible to find online. ‘I was talking about this with a teacher recently; it has simply disappeared,’ someone says in the comments on the Yoghi thread.

A drink from our imagination

I refuse to believe it’s the Mandela effect, in which lots of people remember something that never existed exactly as they remember it. The memories are too widespread for that, I think. But perhaps we did add a little something from our own imagination? That could well be the case, if we are to believe some (older) Yoghi fans:

• Maybe you’re mixing up two things:
  – Yoki drink
  – Yogho! Yogho!
  Yoki had some weird blue creature on the cartons (I once won a drawing competition featuring it, but that’s beside the point), while Yogho! Yogho! had super-weird 90s adverts and a catchy jingle.
• It was always Yoki and Yogho Yogho

I think there’s a good chance we simply made something up ourselves. Yoki + Yogho! Yogho! = Yoghi. When I mention it in my family group chat, my little sister – who was a huge Yoghi fan – immediately knows what I’m talking about. But when I then type ‘Yoki’ and ‘Yogho! Yogho!’ in the chat, she says: ‘I think it was Yogho! Yogho!, but we just called it Yoghi.’ Watch the advert below and you’ll immediately recognise the packaging of Yogho! Yogho!:

Buying Yogho! Yogho! and Yoki Drink

Mystery more or less solved, then. For anyone who would like to book a ticket straight back to their childhood: Yogho! Yogho! seems to have returned to the market in a new guise in recent years. Yep, in 2020 it was decided that the old, familiar Yogho! Yogho! would be removed from the shelves. In 2021, it returned in some pretty hip versions; completely plant-based, sugar-free and available in flavours such as Strawberry Mashmallow, Blueberry Muffin and Banana Candy. But exactly where you can buy it… That’s not entirely clear. When it was relaunched in 2021, Jumbo was one of the retailers, but it can no longer be found in their online range. The availability of Yoki Drink is a little more certain. At Plus, you can at least buy the strawberry-flavoured yoghurt drink.

Do you still remember Yoghi – er, Yogho! Yogho! and Yoki? If you have it at home, let us know!

Also read:

• This is the number-one childhood trauma at dinner time
• 12 favourite childhood sweets you can still buy (and where to get them)
• 10 of the grossest drink requests made to bar staff

Image in article: plus.nl