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Yogurt and Japanese koji fungus is Japan’s latest food trend, but how does it taste? [Taste test]

Casey Baseel Oct 6, 2026
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“Hey dude, put some fungus on this!” isn’t an ordinary food hack, but koji is no ordinary fungus.

A lot of people like to mix a little something into their yogurt to give it some extra flavor, like chopped fruit, sliced nuts, or jam. Today, though, we’re recommending that you enhance your yogurt by adding fungus.

Hey, wait! Where are you going? Was it something we said? It…it was the fungus, wasn’t it?

Just hear us out, though. We’re not talking about any old fungus. We’re talking about koji, an edible, non-harmful culture that can be cultivated to grow on rice. As a matter of fact, you already have some first-hand koji experience if you’ve eaten miso or drunk sake, since koji is a key ingredient in their production.

So with that out of the way, let’s take a look at one of Japan’s new food hack trends, adding shio koji/salted koji to yogurt, then draining off the water, which fans say creates a uniquely delicious flavor.

▼ Shio koji

Shio koji can be purchased in Japanese markets and specialty shops, as well as online (Amazon Japan has several varieties here). The recommended ratio is one or two tablespoons of shio koji per 400 grams (14.1 ounces) of yogurt, so we went with 1.5 tablespoons.

▼ Spooning the shio koji into the yogurt container

After stirring the yogurt and shio koji together, all that was left to do was put the mixture into a yogurt strainer, and put the strainer into the fridge while the excess liquid dripped off.

Though our strainer bills itself as “quick,” we wanted a nicely firm texture for our shio koji yogurt, so we let it strain for two days. When we took the strainer back out of the fridge and scooped its contents into a bowl, it had a smooth, creamy texture almost exactly like cream cheese.

And it tasted quite a bit like cream cheese too! The added saltiness of the shio koji almost completely mellowed out the sour notes in the yogurt’s flavor profile, leaving us with an enticing creaminess and smooth finish.

We could have happily eaten the whole batch as-is with a spoon, but in order to conduct more thorough testing we grabbed a box of Ritz crackers and spread some shio koji yogurt on top, which we then confirmed to be a very tasty combination.

Finally, we tried drizzling some honey on top, which completely removed any remaining sourness and left us with an invigoratingly salty-sweet finish instead.

So whether you’re looking for a way to spruce up your yogurt or a healthy alternative to cream cheese, it turns out that yogurt and shio koji are indeed a match worth making in your refrigerator.

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