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First sample sent her running
The first sample
A Bulgarian immigrant who made yogurt believed that if enough people tasted it, they would see it was better than the Greek stuff. For his first in-store demo he set up a nice tablecloth and handed out free samples of his Bulgarian Star yogurt. The first woman to try it cried out, ran around, and announced that she had to put something in her mouth because it was so sour.
The long climb
He was embarrassed, and then he sold out everything on the shelf. It took eight more years of hustling before the big break: in 2014 he won first place in a Martha Stewart competition, which brought two days at her office in Manhattan and coverage all over the news in Bulgaria.
In a hospital in Bulgaria, his mother lay in bed watching a TV film about how he started his company while the doctors made their rounds. She spotted her son on the screen, and a doctor remarked that he had seen this guy before. He was standing right there.
By the end of 2024 the yogurt was in Whole Foods nationwide, and later came a first contract with Costco. He had refused to make vanilla yogurt, then made it anyway because customers kept asking and it was better for the business.
Why does Bulgarian yogurt taste so sour?
Lactobacillus bulgaricus produces a lot of lactic acid as it ferments milk sugar, and Bulgarian yogurt carries a higher share of it than many styles. The acid pushes the yogurt's pH down toward 4. Sour taste cells on the tongue respond to the hydrogen ions that acids release, so a lower pH registers as a sharper flavor.
Why do in-store samples move food products?
Taste is hard to judge from a package, so a sample removes the guesswork before a shopper commits. A tasting also puts the product in the shopper's hand at the moment they are standing in front of the shelf. Costco is known for running sample stations throughout its warehouses.
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