What is skyr and what does it taste like?

Skyr is an Icelandic dairy product — technically a fresh cheese made by straining soured milk, but consumed in the same way as thick yoghurt. It is high in protein, low in fat, mildly tangy, and slightly thick. Plain skyr tastes similar to unsweetened Greek yoghurt but milder. It has been made in Iceland for over 1,000 years.

Icelandic Skyr Guide 2026 — What It Is, How to Eat It & Where to Buy

What skyr is and is not

Skyr (pronounced approximately “skeer”) is one of the most misrepresented Icelandic foods in international marketing. Numerous supermarket brands in Europe and North America sell “skyr-style yoghurt” that uses the word skyr as a shorthand for “thick and protein-rich.” This has made skyr more visible globally, but it has also created confusion about what the actual product is.

Technically, skyr is a fresh acid-set cheese, not a yoghurt. The distinction comes from the production process: yoghurt is made by adding lactic acid bacteria to warm milk; skyr involves additional steps including rennet addition and straining that remove the whey and produce a much denser curd. The result is closer to quark, fromage blanc, or labneh in production terms — but the texture and usage is that of a very thick yoghurt.

The practical difference for a consumer: skyr is thicker, lower in fat, higher in protein, and milder in taste than most yoghurt. A 200g serving of plain skyr contains approximately 17–20g of protein, 0–1g of fat, and around 110 calories. A comparable serving of full-fat Greek yoghurt contains similar protein but considerably more fat.

The history of skyr in Iceland

Skyr appears in the Icelandic sagas, placing its production in Iceland at least since the 9th and 10th centuries. It was a staple food in Norse Scandinavia but survived the transition to modernity only in Iceland — it died out in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden centuries ago. In Iceland, making skyr was a household and farm skill passed through generations.

Industrial skyr production began in the early 20th century, and MS Dairy (Mjólkursamsalan) has been making skyr commercially since 1952. The product became internationally known in the 2000s when Siggi’s launched a Westernised skyr version in the United States, and when major European dairy companies began producing their own skyr-inspired products.

Brands and where to buy skyr in Iceland

MS (Mjólkursamsalan) and Ísey Skyr: The dominant domestic brand. Available in every Icelandic supermarket in plain and flavoured varieties. The plain skyr in a 500g container is what most Icelanders eat daily. Price: ISK 400–600 for 500g.

Siggi’s: The US-founded brand, now internationally distributed. You will find Siggi’s Iceland-made product at some supermarkets, though the company now produces in New York as well. Higher fat content than traditional skyr in some varieties.

Supermarket own brands: Bónus, Krónan, and other chains stock their own-label skyr at similar or lower prices. Quality is comparable to MS.

Flavoured varieties: Blueberry (bláberjum), vanilla, strawberry, and seasonal fruits are common. The flavoured versions contain added sugar and are less representative of traditional skyr.

How to eat skyr the Icelandic way

Plain with cream and fruit: The classic traditional presentation. A bowlful of plain skyr topped with thick cream (rjómi) and Icelandic wild blueberries or crowberries. The cream adds fat to what is otherwise a very low-fat product. This combination has been served at Icelandic family tables for generations.

With a spoon: Cold, directly from the container, as a snack or quick breakfast. No additional ingredients required.

Skyr cake (skyrkaka): A cheesecake-style dessert using skyr as the base ingredient instead of cream cheese. Found in many Reykjavík cafés. Dense, mild, usually topped with berries. One of the more convincing Icelandic desserts.

As cooking ingredient: Skyr is used in Iceland as a cooking ingredient in sauces, dressings, and marinades. It can replace cream cheese, sour cream, or Greek yoghurt in most recipes.

Skyr drink: Drinkable skyr (blended to a thinner consistency) is sold in bottles. Common as a post-workout protein drink. Flavours include vanilla, fruit, and plain.

Other Icelandic dairy products worth trying

Rjómi (fresh cream)

Icelandic fresh cream is thick and rich — higher fat content than typical European cream. Used on skyr, with coffee (proper Icelandic coffee culture involves a lot of rjómi), and in traditional baked goods. Available at all supermarkets. A small carton costs ISK 200–350.

Butter (smjör)

Icelandic butter is well regarded and often served at restaurants with bread. It has a noticeably fresh flavour due to the quality of Icelandic dairy. The geothermal rye bread at Laugarvatn Fontana is typically served with Icelandic butter — the combination is a highlight of the Golden Circle food experience.

Hákarl (fermented shark) — dairy adjacent note

Not dairy, but mentioned here because it appears alongside skyr in “traditional Icelandic food” discussions. It is the fermented Greenlandic shark that smells and tastes of ammonia. Unlike skyr, it is not part of everyday Icelandic life and is mostly consumed at þorrablót (midwinter festival). See the Icelandic food guide for context.

Áfir and soured dairy products

Icelanders also produce various cultured dairy products less common internationally. Áfir is a drinkable yoghurt-like product. Cottage cheese (kotasæla) and various aged cheeses (including hard cheeses with caraway seeds) are available but not distinctive in the way skyr is.

Where skyr fits in a trip to Iceland

For most visitors, skyr appears in hotel breakfast buffers (usually in flavoured varieties), at cafés in cheesecake form, and at supermarkets. Buying a container of plain skyr at Bónus (ISK 400–500) and eating it with fruit or cream from the supermarket is genuinely one of the most cost-effective and authentically Icelandic breakfasts or snacks available.

If you are hiking or doing multi-day outdoor activities, skyr is a practical high-protein snack that travels well refrigerated or in a cool bag.

The icelandic food guide covers the full food landscape if you want broader context on eating well in Iceland.

Frequently asked questions about skyr and Icelandic dairy

Is skyr the same as Greek yoghurt?

No. Both are strained dairy products, but skyr involves a different fermentation process (technically making it a fresh cheese) and has a milder flavour, lower fat content, and slightly different texture. Plain skyr is thicker and less tangy than most Greek yoghurt.

Can I buy Icelandic skyr to take home?

Yes. Skyr (particularly the Siggi’s brand) is available internationally in many supermarkets and health food shops. The Keflavík Airport has duty-free and departure stores that sometimes stock skyr. Given its refrigeration requirements, taking the actual Icelandic product home is not practical unless you are flying a short distance.

Is skyr good for you?

By most nutritional measures, yes. It is high in protein, low in fat (plain variety), and a good calcium source. The flavoured commercial varieties contain added sugar. For the most nutritional benefit, buy plain skyr and add your own fruit.

Why is it called a fresh cheese if it tastes like yoghurt?

The term “fresh cheese” is technical classification based on production method (adding rennet and straining to remove whey), not a consumer descriptor. In everyday Icelandic usage, skyr is simply skyr — it is not called cheese in Iceland. The yoghurt/cheese distinction is mainly relevant to food technologists.

Is all skyr sold internationally made in Iceland?

No. Siggi’s produces skyr-style products in New York as well as Iceland. Arla (Danish) produces a European skyr-inspired product made in Denmark or Germany. Most supermarket own-brand skyrs in Europe are made domestically, not in Iceland. Only products explicitly stating Icelandic production are actually Icelandic skyr.

What is skyr cake (skyrkaka)?

A cheesecake-style dessert made with skyr as the base filling. It is lighter and less rich than a cream cheese cheesecake, with a mild tanginess. Widely served at Icelandic cafés and in hotel restaurants. Often topped with seasonal berries. Worth trying if you visit a café during your trip.

How long has skyr been made in Iceland?

Over 1,000 years. Skyr appears in the Íslendingasögur (Icelandic family sagas) written in the 12th–13th centuries, describing food practices from the 9th–11th centuries. It is one of the oldest continuously produced dairy products in European food history.

The Icelandic dairy farm context

Iceland has about 450 dairy farms producing milk for domestic consumption. The climate is unsuitable for most livestock, but cattle (primarily Icelandic and Brown Swiss breeds) are kept in insulated barns through the winter and graze on grass in summer. The grass-fed component of Icelandic milk production gives the dairy a clean, slightly sweet flavour profile that is distinct from year-round grain-fed dairy.

MS (Mjólkursamsalan), the dairy cooperative that processes most of Iceland’s milk, was founded in 1930. MS produces skyr, butter, cream, milk, and various cultured dairy products under its own brand and as supplier to other brands. The cooperative model means that most of Iceland’s dairy farmers own a stake in the processor that buys their milk — a different structure from the competitive dairy markets of larger countries.

Skyr’s nutritional profile in detail

The popularity of skyr in international fitness and wellness markets is based on its macronutrient profile. Per 100g of plain skyr:

Protein: 10–12g
Fat: 0–0.5g (plain, unflavoured)
Carbohydrates: 4–5g (from lactose)
Calories: approximately 55–65 kcal

This makes plain skyr one of the highest protein-to-calorie dairy products commercially available. By comparison, plain full-fat Greek yoghurt has a similar protein content but significantly more fat (3–10g per 100g depending on brand). Low-fat cottage cheese is comparable in protein but has a different texture and use profile.

Flavoured skyr contains added sugar and fruit, raising the carbohydrate and calorie content substantially. Flavoured skyr is nutritionally similar to flavoured yoghurt.

Skyr in Icelandic home cooking

Beyond eating plain from the container, skyr appears in several traditional and modern cooking contexts:

Skyr as a cream substitute: In dressings, dips, and cold sauces, skyr substitutes for cream cheese, sour cream, or double cream with a lower fat content and mild tang. Skyr with dill, salt, and lemon makes a credible sauce for cold smoked salmon.

Skyr soup (skyrsuflóki): A traditional cold dessert soup — essentially thin skyr with cream, berries, and sometimes a bit of sugar. More common at family meals than in restaurants. The Icelandic countryside version is made with whatever berries were picked that season.

Skyrhryggur: Skyr cake roll, a variant of the skyrkaka where skyr cream is spread on a rolled sponge. Found at traditional bakeries and some hotel buffet dessert tables.

Skyr in baking: Used as a substitute for buttermilk in scones, quick breads, and pancakes. Icelandic pancakes (pönnukökur) — thin, crepe-like — are sometimes served with skyr and jam rather than the traditional cream.

Buying skyr and dairy on a limited budget

Skyr is one of the best value protein foods available at Icelandic supermarkets. A 500g container of plain skyr at Bónus costs ISK 400–500. This provides approximately 50–60g of protein — equivalent to the protein in two standard restaurant chicken portions — at a fraction of the restaurant cost.

For self-catering travellers or those on a budget Iceland trip, building meals around supermarket skyr, rye bread, smoked salmon, and Icelandic butter is both cost-effective and genuinely local. A full day’s food from a Bónus can be managed for ISK 2,000–3,500 with good planning, compared to ISK 8,000–15,000 for equivalent restaurant meals.

The dairy aisle at Icelandic supermarkets also offers the full range of MS products:

Mjólk: Pasteurised whole milk.
Létt mjólk: Semi-skimmed milk.
Rjómi: Cream (single and double grades).
Smjör: Butter (salted and unsalted).
Kotasæla: Icelandic cottage cheese, mild, similar to quark.
Súrmjólk: Soured milk, similar to drinking yoghurt.

Icelandic dairy at the airport

If you want to take Icelandic dairy products home, the Keflavík Airport departure terminal has limited options. Keflavík Duty Free does not typically stock skyr or fresh dairy (refrigeration and flight restrictions). Your best option is to buy at a supermarket near your final Reykjavík accommodation and pack it with an ice pack in checked luggage.

Smoked lamb (hangikjöt) and dried fish (harðfiskur) are better candidates for airport purchasing and travel — they are sold vacuum-packed and do not require refrigeration. See the Icelandic food guide for context on what travels well from Iceland.

The international skyr market and what Iceland actually exports

Iceland’s dairy industry does not export significant quantities of traditional skyr abroad. What the international market calls “skyr” is mostly:

Siggi’s brand (founded by an Icelander, now produced in the US and UK)
Arla’s “skyr-style” products (Danish dairy company, produced in Denmark)
Various European supermarket own-label products

If you buy “Icelandic skyr” at a British or American supermarket, it is almost certainly not made in Iceland. The word skyr is not geographically protected in the way that Champagne or Parmigiano Reggiano are — any producer can use the term.

Real Icelandic skyr is made from Icelandic milk and processed in Iceland. The only way to reliably buy it is in Iceland itself, or through specialty Icelandic food importers. The difference in taste compared to international “skyr” products is noticeable — the mineral profile of Icelandic water, the grass-fed milk, and the traditional fermentation cultures combine to produce a product that is distinctly different from the international version.

Skyr in Icelandic tourism and food culture today

The commercialisation of skyr internationally has had a paradoxical effect on how it is presented to tourists in Iceland. Because “skyr” is now a global supermarket product, Icelandic food guides and restaurants sometimes feel the need to explain what it is as if it were exotic, when in fact it is simply a very ordinary everyday product in Iceland — present at every meal, bought by every family, consumed by children and adults alike without ceremony.

The most authentic way to experience skyr in Iceland is exactly how Icelanders experience it: buy a container from Bónus, eat it with a spoon. Do not seek out a special “skyr experience” or a restaurant presentation at ISK 1,500 per dessert when the same product costs ISK 500 per 500g at the supermarket.

That said, skyrkaka (skyr cheesecake) at a good Reykjavík café is worth trying at least once. The version at Sandholt bakery, topped with seasonal Icelandic berries, is a genuine quality product. For a sit-down context, it is a fair representation of how skyr translates into dessert form.