WEBVTT - The Cultured Skyr Episode 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:11.400 Hell though, And welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio. I'm 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:12.160 Annie Reason and. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.320 I'm Learn vocal Baum, and today we have an episode 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:15.560 for you about Skier. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:21.680 Yes, yes, skar Skier. Yes yes. 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:24.439 I didn't like roll my R at the end of 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:26.080 that first one, so so sure. 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.360 I am very bad at rolling R. So apologies in 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.080 advance from me. Was there any particular reason this was 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.240 on your mind, Lauren H Nope. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.520 I was just looking for a dairy related topic because 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.040 that was sort of the topic category that was up 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:47.400 in my wheel of topics, And uh, yeah, this one's 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.560 been on the list for a while, possibly years, and 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:52.880 I'm just like, let's look into. 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:58.120 That probably years, to be honest. Uh. I love Skier, 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.360 I remember, and I got introduced to it. I think 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:03.640 it was twenty twelve. 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:05.520 Yeah that sounds about right. Sure. 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:11.160 Yeah, And a good friend of mine showed up at 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.000 like a weekend get away that we were having with 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.920 just this huge chub of Skier and she was like, 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.680 You've got to try this, right Yeah, And I did 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:23.479 and I loved it, and I went through a huge 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.679 Skier phase. Like every day I would have some I 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.640 usually put like berries and some nuts and little money 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.200 on it, and I miss those days sometimes, but I 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.520 kind of burnt out on it. Also, my Berry budget 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.520 got a little out of hands. I's like, where is 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:46.280 all this money going? Barrieres. Yeah, but I have started 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:47.880 to get back into it recently, and I have some 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.200 of my fridge now. But I'll just I just fondly 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.440 remember her. She still to this day shows up if 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:57.040 we do, like any kind of extended hanging out with 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:00.440 a tub of skier. Yeah, that's great, I love it. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.560 Yes, yeah, I'm not sure that I've ever had stuff 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:10.080 from Iceland directly, but there's a couple American brands that 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.639 I buy from and I just looked it up and 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.160 twenty ten was my introduction to the American stuff. 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.200 So I know this because I blogged about it. 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:27.760 Oh, yes, because twenty ten was a time when you 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:34.919 blogged about your yogurt related escapade. Sure, yeah, yeah, I 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:36.080 love that, Yes you did. 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:40.840 I think I did have someone I was in Europe. 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:47.040 But I liked it. I just can't like specifically recall 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.919 it very well. Yeah yeah, I mean, but go ahead. Oh, 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.200 I was just going to say, like reading the descriptions 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.600 of how varied it can be in terms of texture, 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.760 it's a much bigger world than I knew say that. 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.760 Oh yeah, yeah, so much, so much to explore. But 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.960 I mean, yeah, I had a cup before we started 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:13.480 recording here. So yes, it's just a thing that stuff. 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.720 Yep, it's good. It's good stuff. You can see our 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:24.480 past episodes on yogurt and cheeses, yes, oh my, which 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.000 does bring us to our question. It does, heck it does. 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:35.280 Scared what is it? Well? 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.480 Scared is a type of fresh strained cheese that is 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.720 eaten like a yogurt. It's soft and very thick and 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.360 creamy and texture and often very tangy tart in flavor. 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.200 It can have some like mild buttery cheese type flavors 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:55.200 to it too. It's sometimes so thick that if, like, 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:57.600 you turn a spoonful of it upside down, it will 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:02.160 not fall off of the spoon. It is technically a cheese, 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.720 not a yogurt, because it's traditionally made with not just 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.280 lactic acid bacteria like yogurt is, but also with yeasts 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.800 and sometimes rennet, which are cheese things. 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:11.800 Yeah. 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.839 It's most often made with skim milk, but you can 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.400 find varieties made with milk fat or made with like 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:21.039 dairy alternatives like oat milk, and it's sold in everything 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.800 from yes individual cups to multi serving tubs to pouches, 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:33.480 in flavors from vanilla to blueberry, lingenberry, apple, peach, pear, limon, coconut, elderflour, chocolate, coffee, 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:37.400 crem brulet. It's eaten as a breakfast or a snack 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:42.159 or dessert by itself or with usually sweet toppings. You 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.040 can use it as an ingredient in smoothies, coffee drinks, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:50.040 baked goods, frozen desserts, sauces and dips. It's like the thickest, 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:55.159 tartest form of yogurt or the softest, freshest form of cheese. 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.320 It's one of those foods that does feel healthy, but 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:05.360 in like a fun, near decadence sort of way. It's 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.560 like it's like yogurt's cousin who got really into protein supplements, 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:12.600 but now it feels like genuinely great and it is 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.240 living its best life and still knows how to treat itself. 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:25.320 Yeah, oh, I have some that's calling my name right now. 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.080 But it is like the I love the thickness of it, 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.320 and I love it's so filling. It does feel very 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.159 decadent even though, because you feel good after eating it. 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:40.799 And I would say, I didn't even know the health 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:42.800 all what we're going to get into later, but all 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.159 of the like health marketing behind it, and I still 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.479 felt that way after I ate it. I prefer the 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.760 plane and then I like to add money, Okay, sweet 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.279 or flavor or whatever, but I really like it just plain. 0:05:55.680 --> 0:06:07.120 Oh sure, yeah, we're just daydreaming about yogurt related products, 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.640 all right. So, like other dairy products, scared is a 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.400 way to concentrate and preserve the nutrients in milk, because 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.640 milk spoils pretty quickly, and by spoil, I mean that 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.000 microbes start to eat it before you have a chance 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:26.039 to making it anywhere from unpleasant to unsafe. Humanity's main 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.479 fix for this is introducing friendly microbes on purpose that 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.520 will spoil the milk in a controlled and safe manner. 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:35.680 In the case of Skier, what you do is you 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.520 heat skim milk from which the fats have been removed 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.320 by centrifuge, and then add what's called your skier culture, 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.039 which is a blend of living bacteria and yeasts that 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.680 you probably collected from your last batch of skier. You 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.760 let the culture ferment the milk in two stages, warm 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.160 like one hundred degrees fahrenheit or forty celsius, and then 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:59.719 cooler around like seventy fahrenheit or twenty celsius. The microbes 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.920 in the coldture will eat sugars in the milk and 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:06.760 poop a lactic acid acetic acid and flavor. The acids 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.440 are flavors as well, but they more importantly act to 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:15.040 make the skear an unwelcome environment to unfriendly microbes and 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.320 to encourage the proteins and the milk to stop floating 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:22.960 around and clump together, you know, join up, become a team. 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.200 Quack quack quack together. Yeah, come on. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.040 Acid does this in milk because and I'm summarizing here, 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.120 the proteins and milk have a negative charge, so they 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.920 repel each other and distribute themselves evenly throughout the water 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.160 and milk. Acid will neutralize the proteins so there's nothing 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:47.440 forcing them apart, so they clump together. And so adding 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.320 acid to milk will separate the proteins and stuff the 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.120 curds from the water and stuff the way. And usually 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.400 when I do this lecture, I say the fats and stuff. 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.520 But since the fats have been removed. I'm talking about 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.080 the protein and stuff here. We are the fats and 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:02.960 the proteins kind of go together though, so that's what 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.920 we've got At any rate skeear. Once the skier reaches 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.400 a pH of like four point zero or so, it 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.400 is considered well enough clumped and ready for straining in 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.000 order to remove a lot of the way leaving in 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:20.200 weegh results in like a looser set on your final product, 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.000 and you want skar to become pretty dense. Modernly, this 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.800 is done again by centrifuge. I think that traditionally you 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.040 just like stuck it in a draining tray or a 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.319 cheese cloth and just let it keep draining for a while. 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.600 But yeah, again, traditionally it is made mostly in the summer, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.120 when the cows that produce the milk have fresh green 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.640 grass and other plants to graze on, and then the 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.600 culture is kept alive during the winter like you would 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.880 do with sour dough when you're not actively baking with it. 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.480 And yeah, it is pretty ubiquitous in Iceland, which is 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.800 again where it's from. Like, there are skier bars sort 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:57.680 of like frozen yogurt bars where you can go and 0:08:57.679 --> 0:08:59.400 get a cup with all kinds of toppings or have 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.079 it made into a smoothie. At least one company has 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.839 franchises out in other countries as well. There's apparently an 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.440 idiom along the lines of like not my cup of tea, 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:09.920 but it's not my cup of skier. 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:13.880 I like that. I love that. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.040 I've also read that one of Iceland's favorite ways to 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.960 eat it is sort of as a dessert with cream 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.800 poured over top and a sprinkling of sugar and like 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.520 maybe berries, which sounds so nice. 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:27.920 I love that. 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:29.679 You take a product made of skim milk and you're like, 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:33.079 let's add the cream back on? Why not? Yeah? Yes, 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.280 And it's made with very little sugar. Let's add some 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:37.400 sugar back in. That's what makes it good. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:38.320 Yeah. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:39.640 I want to try that now. 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:47.720 Yeah that sounds great. Well, speaking of what about the nutrition. 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.560 By itself, scar is pretty good for you, high in 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.520 protein and micronutrients, low in fats and sugar, generally even 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.040 higher in protein than like Greek style yogurt and other 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.360 things like that, So it'll help fill you up and 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:01.200 keep you going. You know, make sure you get some 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:03.760 fats at some point. They are important for your body 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.439 to use to do stuff. The draining process does again 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.600 have something to do with it being higher in protein 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.600 because you're getting more of the non protein stuff out. 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:20.360 But also traditional Icelandic cows produce particularly high protein milk, 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:22.800 so huh. 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:28.360 Yeah, interesting, Well, we do have some numbers for you. 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:29.440 We do. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.160 It takes between three and four liters of milk to 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:38.040 produce a single leader of skier, so pretty pretty high 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.760 ratio there. The global market for Skier was worth about 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.080 eight billion dollars a year as of twenty sixteen, and 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:47.720 that is probably a good bit lower than it is today, 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.200 but I couldn't find an updated number. It is gaining 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.480 ground in the United States, where sales of yogurt have 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.960 been dropping. For example, in twenty nineteen they dropped by 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.000 about three percent. I've read that that's it seemed like 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.680 that's about an average for the past several years. But 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:11.199 that year twenty nineteen, skier sales leaped up twenty four percent. Wow. Yeah, 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.560 that being said, there are only some twenty four to 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:21.520 thirty thousand dairy cows in Iceland, certainly especially in the US. 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.439 Not all the skier that we are consuming is from Iceland. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.600 But yeah, and that number is held for a couple decades, 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:34.360 so I feel like they're kind of at dairy cow capacity, right. 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.800 Some changes to the industry have helped up production a 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.559 little bit, though. For example, the largest dairy co op 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.959 in Iceland, ms Iceland Dairies, has been glomming on to 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.000 more and more farms. They now work with over seven 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.120 hundred family farms to collect and process some one hundred 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.319 and twenty million liters of milk for Skier every year. 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:01.960 They also opened a skier museum in South Iceland called Skierland, which, okay, 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.280 which like from the photos that I've seen, looks to 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:08.960 me to be like mostly like do it for the 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.040 gram kind of place. Though maybe I'm just being cynical, 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.480 it does seem like it takes you through a good 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:16.959 bit of the history of dairy and Iceland. So that's cool. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:24.640 Skerlands Skarland, love it. We'll have to look at some 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:28.120 of those pictures. I'd be interested to see. 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:30.680 Right, Yeah, they've got some little dioramas of like how 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:32.840 a dairy would have looked in the past. 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:38.000 That's cool, right, yeah, yeah. 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.280 Listeners, let us know, Oh my goodness, yes, uh huh. 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.880 Yes, well, there is quite the history on this one. 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:48.760 There is, and we are going to get into that 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:50.320 as soon as we get back from a quick break 0:12:50.320 --> 0:13:01.319 for a word from our sponsors, and we're back. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.320 Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we are back 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:10.080 with our standard cheese slash yogurt story. Yes, okay. So 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:15.760 products like this most likely occurred accidentally, in some cases simultaneously, 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.760 in several places, based on a variety of factors like environments. 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.000 I'm going to say the environmental factors were probably particularly 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:27.720 important for this one, since milk preservation could be such 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.760 a headache was such a headache pre refrigeration, things like 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:36.920 skier were a great way to make milk last. So, 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.960 according to most sources, the Vikings bought Skier to Iceland 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.080 over one thousand years ago in the ninth century CE, 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.800 and the technique in the tradition of making skier, or 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.720 the early ancestor of it, took root and flourish there. 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.480 Yeah, they also brought cattle, along with some other animals 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.440 relevant to today's topic, like like sheep and goats. 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.199 Rights. The early Vikings depended on skier as a long 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.480 lasting protein source that could survive above the Arctic circle. 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.800 The early process of making skier was probably similar to 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.959 what some producers are still doing today. If you want, 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.320 you can find articles from traditional producers where they talk 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:23.080 about it. But I couldn't really pin down any historical evidence. 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:24.760 Yeah, yeah, of it. 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.480 But it sounds like probably that's what they were doing 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:34.000 back then. At first, either cow or sheep's milk was used. Meanwhile, 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.840 the way leftover in the process was used to preserve meat. 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:38.400 Oh yeah, yeah, so. 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.640 That's pretty good. While the product didn't necessarily take off 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.520 in the entire Nordic region, skier had become a staple 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.280 in the Icelandic diet as early as eight hundred and 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.720 seventy four CE. Three jars of skier from around this 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.160 time are on display at the country's National Museum, which 0:14:54.160 --> 0:15:00.000 sounds really cool to such a nerd. Medieval Iceland epics 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.960 mentioned skier, describing both it both as a drinkable substance 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:06.960 and something that was strained and stored in a container, 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.040 and this is believed to be due to differences in 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.920 household recipes, which is what it pretty much was at 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:17.960 the time different households, making it also one of the 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.960 Skier scenes involves a lot of vomit. I read it. Oh, 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:24.440 and then I found a whole other article about the 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.920 history of how milk is gendered, and that was the 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:27.440 whole thing. 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:32.680 But that's separate, okay, cool. 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:38.920 Yeah, speaking of cool, I think this is really neat. 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:44.040 And also the other show I've been on, Sminty, I'm on, Oh, 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:45.080 it's not in the past. 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:47.080 No, No, it's very much in the present. 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:49.240 It's very much in the president. Anyway, we did an 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:53.320 episode on Grila, the Christmas Witch from Iceland. But in 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.640 that story, in the Icelandic Christmas legend of the Thirteen 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:01.400 Yule Lads, the thirteen lads in question appear to cause 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:05.120 mischief in the thirteen days leading up to Christmas, and 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:09.360 the eighth one the Skier Goblin steels Skier. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:13.640 Oh yeah, yeah, Skiergamore, Yeah, the skier Gobbler. Yeah, of course, 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:14.160 of course. 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:21.640 I love the I love that. Historically, Skier was typically 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.040 made by women who would pass along their recipes to 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.040 their daughters from generation to generation. 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.720 Dairy products were mostly individual home based ventures in Iceland 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:33.960 up through the end of the eighteen hundreds. 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.200 In the nineteen hundred, several women owned dairyes started popping 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:40.440 up in Iceland, where they made. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.880 Skier butter was perhaps a more popular product for sale 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:48.400 at the time, though In the nineteen twenties the Parliament 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.240 encouraged the growth of the dairy industry by paying for 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.360 a quarter of the setup cost of dairy farms, and 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.680 by the end of the decade the first dairy co 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:03.720 ops sprang up. The nineteen forties, the industrialization of skier 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.480 making saw the rise of machines like rotating drums, helping 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.520 with the slow work of draining the way, and over 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.719 the next few decades, advances in like refrigeration and transportation 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.680 technologies continued to industrialize the industry. 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.760 Several protests jumping ahead yeah in Iceland have featured skier, 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:24.280 including in two thousand and five, two thousand and nine 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.359 and twenty fifteen sort of a throwing of tomatoes, throwing 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:29.840 of milkshake situation. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.120 Yeah yeah, throwing pots of skier is apparently a time 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.520 honored tradition because those three examples are like just to start, 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.040 and I say that this is a pretty good form 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:40.840 of protest personally. 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:50.359 Yeah yes. Protests aside, skier saw a huge uptick and 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.479 global popularity in the twenty tens. 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.720 Like exports went from pretty much zero in two thousand 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.840 and nine to being worth some sixty seven million dollars 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.040 five years later. At this point, the aforementioned ms icelanderries 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.520 was selling eight million pots locally and sixty million internationally. 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:14.119 Who wow, it hit shelves in the UK for the 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:16.040 first time. In twenty fifteen. 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:21.000 A brand from ms skier dot Is sold over a 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.320 million pots its first year in the UK. 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.639 A lot of the marketing focused on the health benefits 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.119 of skiers, so that that was a big push. Oh yeah, 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.000 look how healthy it is. I think they got those 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:34.879 people who know sports are gonna yell at me. They 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.879 got some famous sports sports dudes. 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.040 Yeah, yeah, there have been like at least three big 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:43.080 sports dudes. One of them is the guy who played 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:44.960 the mountain on Game of Thrones. 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:52.120 Oh yeah, see I know that nerd rece Yes. Anyway, 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.000 there was a big push behind that, and it did 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.879 remind me of the early ads for yogurt, which again 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:00.919 you can see our Yogurt episode It's for more on that. 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.320 But those old commercials where they were they went to 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.199 the country Georgia and were like, what's the secret to 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.760 how they lived to one hundred years? It's yogurt. 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.600 Yogurt yes, Skier kind of did a very similar thing 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.760 and I think is still yeah like pushing that depending 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.720 on the company. But yeah, Helsinki got its first Skier 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.520 bar in twenty nineteen. Shout out regarding all of this, 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:31.120 Shout out to the publication Dairy Industries International for their 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.440 headline Reaching for the Seer. 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:45.800 Yes, excellent. Well, another part of the reason for the 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.320 search and global popularity likely has to do with the 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.800 increased tourism to Iceland. People were trying it, like, oh 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:57.080 this is good, Yeah, there you go as usual. The 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.760 rise in popularity hasn't been without consequences. One of them 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:05.040 is that Iceland just can't keep up with demand. The 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.640 cows traditionally used don't produce as much milk as other 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:09.640 breeds of cows. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:14.240 Yeah, these aforementioned traditional cows, which have never been interbred, 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:16.760 by the way, are smaller than a lot of other 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.280 commercial dairy cow breeds. I mean, they are particularly suited 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:21.359 to Iceland's conditions. 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:22.840 They've also been. 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:25.879 Bred to have like extra colorful coats, like lots of 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:29.560 like brindle type patterning. They are so cute. Look up pictures. 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:35.720 Done after this is over immediately, But yeah, there has 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.960 been a lot of hand ringing about whether or not 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:42.960 they should bring in larger cows, but then concerned that 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.760 they may these new cows may entirely displace the traditional 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:51.880 Icelandic cow population. Because of this and seeing the opportunity, 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:56.000 companies in other countries started making more skier, which then 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.000 sparked a conversation about skiers definition, where it is made 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:05.920 and can legally be made, and a trademark battle that 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:10.800 some of the press dubbed skier wars. We're getting a 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:18.920 lot of good puns already, and I have to say 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:25.480 those skier wars are complicated. In twenty seventeen, a Swedish 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:29.000 court denied a partner of the company ms Iceland Dairies 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:32.120 their petition to trademark the word skier as a brand, 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:37.160 ruling that skier is too ubiquitous. There was and continues 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.640 to be some back and forth on this, and from 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.040 what I can gather, no real global consensus. 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.399 Yeah, it's sort of been just happening in different countries 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:49.879 as the issue has come up, because because it happened 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:52.159 in Finland as well, and how it turned out with 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:54.879 ms specifically and how it turned out there is that 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.600 ms Iceland Dairies received this pushback and eventually failed in court, 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.760 mostly because of the way that they themselves market Skier 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:07.520 as being like a more like like a wide cultural products, 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:13.600 sort of like Remember Doesn't or the Fun Story. When 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.680 Aqua came out with their song Barbie Girl, Mattel tried 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.280 to sue them for their use of Barbie in the 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:24.040 song and the video, and the chords basically said, uh, Mattel, 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.440 you have spent actual decades pushing Barbie as a pop 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:31.639 culture icon, so you, by definition, cannot tell people to 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:34.160 not talk about her. 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:40.720 Yeah. Yeah, And it's really complicated because a lot of 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:45.400 this has been happening in Europe so far, but there 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:48.280 is in the US because we a lot of us 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:50.920 call it yogurt like we see it more it's it's 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:54.800 next to the yogurt. Yeah, it's not next to cheese 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.760 usually no, But it doesn't meet the definition that we 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:04.080 have in the US. I'm remembering correctly of yogurt. So 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:05.240 it's just kind of a mess. 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:08.760 Yeah, I'm looking at the container right now that I 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.439 haven't cleaned off my desk yet, So sorry if everyone 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.879 is really grossed out by that, but it does. It 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:18.280 says fat free yogurt on the on THEI Ciggy's, is 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:21.720 that how you pronounce it? I'm not sure container so, 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:24.040 But at the same time, I'm not totally positive what 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.800 cultures they use and how we define how like the 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:32.760 FDA defines what can be labeled as yogurt here, And 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:35.840 I'd be really interested to see if in the next 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:40.920 you know, five or ten years. As this continues to 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:46.639 to snowball to skerball, whether the makers of Skier decide 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:49.000 to try to do like a like a doc kind 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:52.520 of thing where they get it, get it like governmental 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:56.600 definition of what this product is and whether it is 0:23:56.680 --> 0:23:59.119 traditional or from somewhere else and has to be called 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:02.480 sparkling yogurt or whatever the thing is. 0:24:02.600 --> 0:24:07.199 Yeah, yeah, I think they will. I think they are 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:11.600 already this conversation with the cows. They're already yeah, yeah, 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:17.800 thinking about it. Yeah. And the interesting thing about City's, 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:20.120 which is not a sponsor but I like them too, 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:22.920 is that a lot of people will say that isn't 0:24:22.920 --> 0:24:26.080 scared at least like other producers were Like No. 0:24:25.920 --> 0:24:29.359 They're like, uh, that is not made here. It's not 0:24:29.400 --> 0:24:31.120 with the right type of milk, it's not with the 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:35.359 right type microbiotics or microbiotic. 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:42.600 Yeah, yeah, we'll see. Yeah, it's ongoing, but definitely would 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:46.080