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"In Iran, everybody knows everybody’s business and everybody helps everybody. Communal and seasonal living is the way of life. Two or three families come together to cook a meal. Everything is tedious and very laborious. The epicenter of it all is the kitchen. This ethos has influenced our production of yogurt,” stated New York based Homa Dashtaki, co-founder of the reputed yogurt company, The White Moustache. She takes pride in their yogurt and derivatives being "handmade, hand-strained, hand packed” to give a flavor and texture that stands apart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using farm fresh milk, live cultures and endless patience, the committed entrepreneurs are willing to wait for three days for each batch of yogurt to come up to their expectations. "We make 15 batches, of 85 gallons each, per week,” Dashtaki responded to Parsiana’s queries by email. "We think we’ve perfected the healthy art of making yogurt without machines and without excess energy use while promoting an eco-friendly and completely organic environment for our yogurt cultures to flourish. We don’t add any preservatives, salt, sugar, cream or starches. We want The White Moustache to be as simple as possible,” is their continuous endeavor as elaborated on their website (see "Perfecting the art,” pg 38).

It was in New York that Dashtaki was able to infuse a renewed lease of life to her business 10 years ago. This was the second forced migration for her, the earlier one being from Iran to California when she was eight years old. Although The White Moustache was started in California, they had to stop production there because the authorities insisted that dairy products required to be fully mechanized. "The laws were the same in both the places but the application was different. The New York regulators had a different attitude saying ‘Let us see how to get you up and running.’ They helped me to grow. They are incredible,” she acknowledged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides Homa, it was her father Goshtasb Dashtaki whose involvement was equally important when they jointly started the business in California. Homa recalled the time in 2011 when working for one of the top five firms after graduating in law from Cornell University she was laid off during the financial crisis. Then in her mid-30s, sitting dejected at her parental home while her father was mourning the demise of his brother, she felt they could do something together. She decided on yogurt, naively believing it would be "easy and cheap, requiring only milk and culture… Despite numerous arguments about temperature, marketing and that one time we simultaneously fired each other, we really enjoyed sharing our time together, capturing a part of our heritage,” related Homa. The company was named The White Moustache after Goshtasb who has "the signature handlebar moustache” and the logo was designed by Homa, using Microsoft.

Initially they started making yogurt at home for the family and members of the Zoroastrian community. With experience and confidence they expanded their sights to the local farmers markets, obtained the necessary permits and rented a commercial kitchen in an Egyptian restaurant. Working in their rented kitchen from 9 p.m. to 11 a.m. "making something you love,” the father-daughter duo had time to talk and bond. Yogurt that is known to be remedial for consumers had a therapeutic effect on its producers too. 

Their first exposure at the Huntington farmers market was a lesson in perseverance for the yogurt entrepreneurs. They paid $ 85 (Rs 7,028) for the booth and carried eight gallons of yogurt to the venue. "We made $12 (Rs 992) that day and ate most of the produce ourselves,” jested Homa. As they gradually earned a reputation for their superior quality yogurt, they participated in many more markets and the crowning glory was the Laguna Beach Farmers Market when they experienced the "wonderful, terrifying feeling when supply does not meet demand.” 

It was in the midst of this elation that Homa received a call from the California State Department of Food and Agriculture asking them to shut down their stall for they were not complying with dairy regulations which required the entire process from start to finish to be mechanized. Failure to do so would result in a fine of $ 10,000 (Rs 8,26,871) or imprisonment, she was threatened. "We could not afford the machines even if we wanted to. More importantly, the use of machines goes against our ethos of slow cooking.” There is a reverential tone when the Dashtakis talk about their business that is "almost sacred,” using milk of "an animal mother.” 

To save her then eight gallon a week business Homa said she "fought like a mad woman.” Finally in frustration she sent a letter to The Economist that brought them unexpected publicity on the international platform. An outstanding legal firm took up their case pro bono but when "it became clear that California did not want us,” Homa decided to check out the conditions in Tennesse and even Tanganyika (now Tanzania) before finally deciding on New York. 

"Once we moved to New York, Dad was less involved with the business. Now he and my mom (she would like to remain unmentioned in all press) mostly just help us make the fruit preserves used in yogurt. My sister Nahid Dashtaki is the chief operating officer. She is my right hand and being the exact opposite to me, I use her insight and instincts regularly to help me make good decisions. A cousin through my mom’s side, Parvin Afshari, is one of our yogurt makers in Los Angeles (where business has commenced again),” Homa enumerated the contributions of different members of the family. With their production facility in Brooklyn, they market their products in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Los Angeles and online.

Ever the innovators, they take pride in their range of yogurts available in Greek, Sour Cherry, Dates, Walnut and Honey besides other seasonal flavors. By straining the yogurt longer they produce a thicker labneh or dip, available in Plain, Shankleesh and Kurdish flavors. Initially they would just bottle the whey (the liquid that separates from the yogurt) for Iranians are accustomed to drinking one or two cups of the hydrating drink, full of probiotics. "In our culture first you have it, if there is something left you give it to your little sister; if something remains give it to the dog and if still left, let the plants have it.”

While they knew that other yogurt companies were throwing the whey away, The White Moustache decided to capitalize on theirs, marketing it for its myriad uses: a thirst-quenching elixir in plain, ginger, honey lime, passion fruit and pineapple flavors; as frozen popsicles flavored with pineapple, passion fruit, melon and other luscious fresh fruit; as marinade and brine in cooking… 

Convinced that "prayers of my family and ancestors have carried me every step of the way,” Homa acknowledged, "My prayers have been everything to me. I have prayed in the darkest times to find light and prayed during the good times as an outlet for my immense gratitude. Feeling closer to God and all creations is my greatest source of strength and inspiration.”

Invited as a speaker at the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress last July, Homa had confessed, "There is a heaviness felt by indigenous Iranian Zoroastrians; heaviness to be born a Zarathushti (see "Profess, practise and propagate,” Parsiana, August 7-20, 2022).” When trying to adapt to the American culture, she felt an "inherent sense of betraying my heritage, my motherland…” and found "comfort and safety at the Zoroastrian center” where the shared language, food and festivals created community bonding. Likewise The White Moustache "allowed me to connect to my history, to my roots. It gave me a sense of validity. It made me feel whole; very strong in my identity. It was so liberating.”

Looking forward to the international launch in March 2023 of her cookbook Yogurt & Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life, Dashtaki advised, "If you don’t know what you are passionate about, seek out someone who has found their passion and support them. There is no surer way to ignite your own fire than helping to stoke someone else’s.”

Perfecting the art

Keen to support traditional ways of making food and research, their website whitemoustache.com introduces their products — yogurts, labneh (spreadable yogurt cheese) and whey — their nutritional values and their production process.

 "We get our milk from Hudson Valley Fresh, a co-operative of family farms dedicated to maintaining both healthy cows and the natural agricultural landscape of the region. We incubate each batch using old-world techniques, the way my grandmother and her grandmother (and probably your grandmother) used to do it. Then we strain it slowly using good old-fashioned elbow grease and gravity in order to get a consistent thick texture,” explained Homa. There is about 10-12 oz of milk that goes into making one jar of eight ounces of yogurt… This translates to approximately 170-180 calories. 

Their plain yogurt (Greek and Persian) does not contain any sugar. Their flavored yogurts have approximately one ounce of preserves per jar. The fruit in the yogurts may marginally differ in each jar for when they pour the sour cherry and the mulberries in by hand, some jars may have one or two more cherries than others. These preserves are made with evaporated cane sugar (it’s what preserves the fruit) and add another 50-70 calories to the jar. One exception to this is the date yogurt which does not use additional sugar at all.

Having undertaken extensive experiments with the probiotics and the incubation temperatures to make the yogurt naturally thick, the straining process is determined by a skilled yogurt maker.

Nutrition information for a hand-made, small batch product is tricky because the product is different from batch to batch, season to season. Summertime milk is richer and fattier than wintertime milk – and the nutritional value varies as well. The resulting whey too depends heavily on how much their signature Greek yogurt has been strained and how firm the yogurt sets. Whey is known to be full of calcium, probiotics and vitamins. 

"We are sorry that we can’t be more exact, but our process is not exact, it is an art,” reminds the website.