Where to buy dried long VIILI culture in Helsinki URGENT!

[Beladi]

Hello,
Can somebody help me where to find dry long (the slimy one.. VIILI Starter culture in Helsinki?

My husband is flying to Helsinki for only a few days end of this week and I promised him I will do my best
researching where he can find this, since he has no time to do it himself.
It is one of his childhood memories and he told me so often about this very special kind of joghurtlike stuff.
I would be so happy if I could come up with some information where he could get it.

Since I am doing other diary product myself I know about problems how to keep the culture living while on holiday etc.
I' ve been trying to keep eg Kefir Culture "backups" in the freezer but this did not work out.
This is why a dry starter culture like I know it from different type of yoghurts would be the perfect solution.
Neither do I (we) speak Finnish nor do we live in the USA or UK where you can order it and have it shipped.
SO THIS IS THE CHANCE! I' ve been researching the internet but with no results.
So here in this forum I hope to find some help!!

Thank you in advance, any hint how do go ahead is perfect!
Have a nice day!
Anna

[harakka]

I doubt dried viili culture is available for consumers, as everyone can buy their viili from the grocery store.

How long is his flight? Perhaps he could buy some viili and pack it in his suitcase, in an insulated cooler lunch bag with a couple of ice-packs or frozen bottles of water.

Or he could check if viili is available at any of the kiosks / souvenir shops at the airport (airside). Some of them sell meat, cheese, fish etc. so they should have insulated bags for the purchases as well.

[Beladi]

Hello Harakka,

Thank you for your reply. Well his flight is about there hours and since this visit in Helsinki for family reasons came along quite suddenly I doubt he has any other than carry- on luggage. But I just gave him a call telling him about buying VIILI at the airport with some good sort of bag.

Kiitos!

[Beladi]

Hello,
I’d like to thank you for support in this forum and wish everybody a happy new year.
Well, this is how my VIILI Search went on:
On the Airport my husband didn’t find any VIILI to take with him.
In the meantime I found out that VIILI bought in the supermarket may not work as a starter since the industrialised way of producing it may be similar in taste but not in the chemical way.
Luckily I found somebody in the www selling dried VIILI in Europe, so I could have it as a surprise for my husband in his advent calendar.
All online shops I had found until then which sell VIILI Cultures are located in the US and they don’t ship to Europe....
For Christmas I got us a food dryer. I love the healthy fruit and vegetable snacks and I am experimenting a lot with it.
One thing I did was fruit leather eg, where you put some puréed fruit on a special mat and let it dry for a couple of hours in the dryer at a low temperature.
Well dried starter Culture for VIILI as for other dairy products is some sort of grinded powder.
So I dried some of the VIILI just like I did with the fruit purée, grinded it... and voila: the result was our own dried starter culture, which works just fine!
Until we have now started making VIILI I had never tasted it before- it is a childhood memory of my husband.
I can say know: it is really an enrichment as an alternative to the other dairy products I have made so far and I love the taste as well as the special structure of the long VIILI.
Tomorrow I will send some of the starter culture to my finnish mother-in-law, who lives in France- where’s no VIILI around either....

[harakka]

Hey, thanks for the update! Happy to hear your search paid off, and that you've been able to enjoy your viili.

I've made viili at home with a regular Finnish Valio viili as a starter, and it's turned out fine. Here are the basic instructions, for anyone interested.

• Buy a 200 g carton of viili, and a liter of milk. You get the best result with the red stuff, but the kevyt version should work too.

• Share the viili and milk between ~five mugs / cups / containers of your choice. Stir with a spoon. Cover the containers with a kitchen towel, and keep at room temperature for 24 h.

• When the viili is done, cover the containers with lids or saran wrap, and move them to the fridge.

• You can now use one of these as a new starter. Enjoy your viili.