Changing the Culture: Aroa Craft Yogurt
Yogurt – the nourishing dairy product that for centuries has been a staple of diets in the Middle East, India, Central Asia and Europe and the Balkans – is, in its purest and freshest form, creamy, tangy and milky, not too tart, smooth and satisfying.
In supermarket dairy cases, however, there’s little pure about the yogurt that occupies the shelves. There are plenty of little containers to choose from: nonfat to whole-milk to no-milk, loaded with sugar or sugar substitutes, packed with additives like modified cornstarch, carrageenan, gelatin, locust bean gum, guar gum, potassium sorbate, agar agar, xanthan gum, artificial flavors, caramel coloring and fructose. You can buy yogurt flavored like cotton candy, topped with sprinkles, and filled with chocolate, sugar-coated pecans and pretzels. It’s far from the clean, healthy product created long ago.
Grass-fed Goodness
At Aroa Craft Yogurt in Plantation, Maria Vargas and her husband Ricardo Aguerrevere and their team create whole-milk yogurt and labneh in their yogurt mini-factory, and build healthy meals around it in their café. Other than flavorings made in-house – sweet, like orange or berry, and savory, like pesto or caramelized onions – their yogurt is free from any additives or preservatives.
The seed was planted years ago for Vargas, 37, who had been making artisan yogurt with her mother in Caracas, Venezuela, in addition to her career in economics and public policy. When she and her husband, a tax lawyer, moved to South Florida in 2016 with their son Tomas, 2, they envisioned a craft yogurt business that would take the popular dairy product to another level of flavor and freshness. “The idea was to have a café and a little factory to show people you can have a better yogurt,” Aguerrevere says. They chose the name Aroa, a lush region in Venezuela known for its tropical produce and milk production.
At a dairy trade show in Colorado, they discovered grass-fed milk suppliers Trickling Springs Creamery, located in south central Pennsylvania. “We connected with them right away,” he says, not only because of the quality of their milk, but their mission of promoting quality food, sustainability and environmental wellness.
Finding a location was a challenge. They wanted to set up shop in Miami Beach or Wynwood, but space was too expensive. Their startup partners – his brother, Ignacio, responsible for project management, and his wife, Matea, who handles social media and photography – live in Weston, so they explored the Broward suburbs. They found their space next to LA Fitness in an open-air shopping center on University Drive, where access is easy, with I-595 only blocks away. “It’s an interesting area,” he says. “Tech companies are moving in here, it’s close to MIA and Fort Lauderdale, making distribution easier.”
Making a Dairy Plant
Building out the kitchen for the café presented obstacles. “No one had restaurant experience!” says Vargas. “Our first plan was to have a kitchen with burners, but the hood was prohibitively expensive.” Instead, they settled on a convection/steam combo to cook and caramelize onions. Making yogurt was the biggest challenge because they had to build a dairy plant in the middle of a cafe, isolated from the kitchen, with a dedicated cold room. Every month, the Florida Department of Agriculture checks the facility and takes samples.
Tapping into friends and family, the team created a clean, white space for the café, with light wood accents, craft paper menus and fiddle leaf figs. Behind a glass window, visitors can watch yogurt being made. Customers can order breakfast or lunch and eat in, take out and buy yogurt. Shelves feature local artisan goods: jams from Gables Delight, honey, ghee, orange marmalade, za’atar, Panther Coffee and imported Franceschi chocolate and housemade granola.
Ten employees work there, including a dentist, two engineers and two lawyers, says Vargas. “Everyone is overqualified and underpaid.” Aguerrevere is the yogurt master. Their cousin does graphics. Her job is to create the menu, supervise the kitchen and take care of customers, which she does warmly, greeting familiar faces with kisses and smiles.
The menu includes Middle Eastern dishes like falafel, tabbouleh and lentil and chickpea dishes, inspired by Vargas’ childhood neighborhood, which included Syrian and Lebanese restaurants. Her best friend was from Lebanon, so typical snacks were labneh with za’atar, olive oil and pita chips. Those savory dishes have found their way on the menu along with items made using the probiotic-rich whey left over from yogurt production. Other items include brownies and banana walnut cake, made with yogurt, suggested by her American customers who told her they like it with coffee.
Sixty-hour work weeks are paying off. Aroa is now selling to restaurants like Mandolin Aegean Bistro, Artisan Kitchen and Bar on Key Biscayne and numerous retailers. They want chefs to consider their labneh as a replacement for cream cheese. And each month their business sees more clients are looking for healthier food. “We feel support in West Broward,” Vargas says. “Every day has been better than the last.”
Inside the Yogurt Factory
Their work week starts on Monday at 5am, when pasteurized milk from Trickling Springs Creamery arrives in five-gallon bags. For each batch, they pour 100 gallons of milk into the stainless steel vat pasteurizer, used to prepare milk for processing yogurt, cheese and other food products. The milk is heated for 30 minutes, then cooled, and the yogurt culture – lactic bacteria starters – are added. These convert the lactose to lactic acid, which thickens the milk and gives it a distinctive tangy flavor. The exact recipe and times for fermentation are carefully recorded according to Aroa’s specifications so that their product is consistent. By Tuesday, after fermentation, the yogurt is very soft and liquid. They pour it into cloth straining bags to let the whey drain, described as an “old fashioned process” using gravity instead of machinery, powdered milk or cream, or stabilizers to give the yogurt a better texture. To make labneh, they drain the yogurt longer so that its texture is more dense and the flavor more concentrated. The whey is used in marinades, lassi and ginger limeade.
On Thursdays, the yogurt is poured into the hopper where it is packaged. Each batch makes 700 small containers and 50 larger containers. All yogurt is labeled with its manufacture and expiration dates, 21 days from packaging, since no preservatives are used. Friday is delivery day for retail outlets. Cafe customers can buy it fresh daily in sweet and savory combinations.
Aroa Craft Yogurt
Market on University, 1045 S. University Dr., Plantation
Their café and yogurt factory is open Mon.-Fri. 8am-8pm and Sat. 9am-8pm. You can buy their yogurt at Milam's Markets (Coconut Grove, Miami and Pinecrest); Lucky’s (Coral Springs, Oakland Park, Plantation); Punto Gourmet (Pompano Beach); Marando Farms (Fort Lauderdale); Yellow Green Farmers Market (Hollywood); Proper Sausages (Miami Shores); The Golden Hog and Artisan (Key Biscayne); Carmela Coffee (Parkland); Tepuy Market (Weston); Saint George Bulk Food (Doral); and Bob Roth’s New River Groves (Davie).
