Icelandic Food to Try: Skyr

Skyr (pronounced "skeer") looks and eats like a very thick yogurt, but it isn't quite yogurt. It's in every Icelandic fridge, and after a week in the country it'll probably be in yours.

What skyr is

Technically, skyr is a fresh cheese that people eat like yogurt. It's made from skim milk that's heated, cooled, and mixed with a culture from a previous batch plus a little rennet. After a few hours it's cooled again and strained through cloth to remove the whey, which leaves a dense, creamy, slightly tangy result.

All that straining takes a lot of milk. The US maker Icelandic Provisions says it takes nearly four cups of milk to make one cup of skyr. Plain Ísey skyr has 11 g of protein and 0.2 g of fat per 100 g.

It's old, too. Skyr shows up in the medieval sagas, and Iceland's big dairy cooperative says skyr has been made in Iceland for 1,100 years, with the know-how passed from mother to daughter.

Buying skyr in Iceland

You'll find skyr in every supermarket and most convenience stores. The best-known brand is Ísey skyr, made by the dairy cooperative Mjólkursamsalan (MS). If you remember the old skyr.is brand, that web address now redirects to Ísey.

It comes plain or flavored. The fruit flavors, like strawberry, blueberry and vanilla, are less sweet and more tangy than most fruit yogurts, which I prefer. The discount supermarkets Bónus and Krónan are the cheapest places to stock up; see Self-catering in Iceland.

How to eat it

• Straight from the tub for breakfast, with fresh berries or muesli.
• Blended into a smoothie.
• As a quick protein snack in the car on a Ring Road day.
• As dessert. Kaffi Loki serves an Icelandic pancake with skyr and caramel sauce for 1,450 ISK (as of 2026). You'll also see skyr in cheesecakes and dips.

A bit of history if you're in Reykjavik: the building that houses Reykjavík Roasters on Kárastígur was once a dairy shop that sold skyr and milk by weight. More in Cafes in Reykjavik.

Finding skyr back home

If you get hooked, you don't have to fly back for it. MS started exporting skyr to Whole Foods in the US in 2006. Today the two brands with an Icelandic connection you're most likely to see in US stores are:

• Icelandic Provisions, made in upstate New York with heirloom skyr cultures from Iceland, in partnership with MS, Iceland's oldest dairy cooperative.
• Siggi's, started in New York in 2005 by Icelander Siggi Hilmarsson. The French dairy giant Lactalis agreed to buy the company in January 2018.

Plenty of supermarkets now sell their own "Icelandic-style" skyr too. Check the label if the Icelandic link matters to you.

For more to eat while you're here, see Icelandic Delicacies and Plokkfiskur.

Photo by synaethesia