Yogen Früz launches 3 mouth-watering NÜ mixes

Available today...three brand new fro-yo flavor mixes from Yogen Früz: Piña Colada, Key Lime Pie and Chocolate Almond frozen yogurt.

P.S. They also have pumpkin pie fro-yo till Thanksgiving.

Check out the new flavors, froyoholics.

Halloween Fro-yo Treats

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve compiled a list of Bay Area fro-yo shops that are celebrating my favorite holiday, Halloween.

HARMONY FROZEN YOGURT: Come in costume on Halloween and get 50% off your fro-yo and toppings. Good at all Harmony locations. They’re even closing early to celebrate Halloween. San Mateo closes at 6 PM, San Carlos and Burlingame closes at 7 PM.

BLUSH ORGANIC FROZEN YOGURT: Free fro-yo for kids 10 and under who come in costume from 5 – 9 PM on Halloween. Everyone else should say trick or treat. Dublin location only.

TUTTIMELON WEST PORTAL: With a $5 minimum purchase on Halloween, get a free bag of treats!

TUTTIMELON POLK & ALAMEDA: Something’s brewing at these locations on Halloween. It involves a raffle and other surprises.

If anyone dresses up as a big bowl of fro-yo, send me a picture (please).

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* BLUSH ORGANIC FROZEN YOGURT: 4640-A Tassajara Road, Dublin, CA
* TUTTIMELON: 44 West Portal Ave., San Francisco, CA
* TUTTIMELON: 2125 Polk St., San Francisco, CA
* TUTTIMELON ALAMEDA: 2402 Central Ave, Alameda, CA

Ideal Number of Toppings and What People Like Best about Self-Serve Fro-yo

Fro-yo girl here. I recently posed the question: How many toppings would you want on your perfect cup of fro-yo? Readers favor simplicity. More people would rather have no toppings (13%) than five or more toppings (11%).

Two or three toppings clearly the winner with 58% of the vote. My perfect cup of fro-yo would include two toppings: one type of fruit and mochi (two toppings). The only time I’m seriously tempted to get more than two toppings is when the shop has more than one flavor of mochi or they offer a deal for three toppings (but not two toppings). My perfect bowl of fro-yo would also be eaten in a cute cup with a cute spoon (my smurf blue fro-yo cup fits the bill).

I also asked readers what they liked best about self-serve fro-yo? The results surprised me; I thought that price and having more sweet flavors would be more popular. The overwhelming majority chose the ability to combine more flavors and toppings as the attribute they liked best (61%). The next most popular attribute was the ability to adjust the fro-yo to toppings ratio (15%).

Are the results contradictory? Or could it be that most respondents think of full serve fro-yo when they think of the perfect cup of fro-yo? I’m hopeful that this is the case. Yes, full serve fro-yo shops usually have fewer flavors and toppings but the good ones focus more on quality than quantity (whereas the self-serve fro-yo tends to be about quantity rather than quality).

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Snowee: New Fro-yo Shop in San Mateo

Fro-yo girl here. Snowee isn’t open yet, but I chatted with the owners last week to get the inside scoop (swirl?) . They’re focused on providing a cheerful, kid-friendly spot (wait till you see the upstairs) which can be rented out for parties and events. The walls are green and yellow and they’ve added artificial grass (it looks cute) to create a garden feel.

The fro-yo is self-serve and 39 cents an ounce. One flavor will be organic (Straus!), one will be sugar free and the rest will be a mix of sweet and tart flavors. The initial flavor line-up includes pumpkin, pistachio, chocolate, etc. They’ll have about 20 dry toppings, 12 wet toppings and many, many syrups. These syrups can also be added to their special snow ice (Snowee) dessert. Snowee is pre-flavored and soft and fluffy (like cotton candy). I asked if you could put fro-yo on Snowee but I was advised that it would be better to put Snowee on fro-yo (because the fro-yo is denser).

The menu will also include healthy, hot air-cooked snacks like air fries, air sweet potato fries, chicken strips and Kettle Corn.

The soft opening is planned for early this week. During the soft opening, they want to try out the fro-yo flavors to see which ones their customers like. Please let them know; they really want your feedback. Fro-yo will be 30% off. The menu will also be limited for the first few weeks (no Snowee, no fries).

During the grand opening weekend, fro-yo will be 50% off and they’ll hand out free samples of their snacks and Snowee.

The shop should be a nice place to hang out. It looks like the only place to get dessert on the street. They’ll have free wi-fi, gift cards, and frequent buyer stamp cards.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* SNOWEE: 168 25th St., San Mateo, CA

Tuttimelon Irving Grand Opening Coverage

Fro-yo girl here. It finally happened, and while I feel sad to see the original Tuttimelon become Tea Way, they’re still providing tuttilicious fro-yo to the masses on Irving St., only it’s self-serve now. Today’s grand opening was very, very crowded. The line just kept growing.

Since we were with Tuttimelon Bear, we were able to go inside and watch the Tuttimelon team get ready for the event. Tracy, Danny and I helped with the fro-yo flavor signs.

Carmen Chu (SF Supervisor) presented Tuttimelon with a certificate and then swirled some pomegranate fro-yo into her cup. Roy (Mr. Tuttimelon) said something to the crowd but I couldn’t hear what was said since I was inside the store.

I finally got a ride in the Tuttimobile!!! It doesn’t smell like fro-yo. Patrick’s aunt and grandmother sat in the back of the car eating Tuttimelon fro-yo. So cute. I met his mom later. I hope he didn't make her wait on the curb so that I could get a ride in the Tuttimobile?



They had a fun spin the wheel game set up which determined which prize you’d win (for the first 50 people). Prizes included free gelato, a free fro-yo parfait, Tuttimelon gift card, Tuttimelon visors (in pink and black), Tuttimelon umbrellas (in pink and green) and a giant “Sumo” cup of fro-yo. I love my Tuttimelon umbrella! Thank you for the umbrella, Roy, and also for swirling my fro-yo for me (I still hate doing it myself).

The free fro-yo lasted till 2 PM. Close to 2 PM, raffle tickets were handed out to the people waiting in line and then I left…but I heard later that my friend Patra won the grand prize, the Wii (congrats Patra!)



Tuttimelon’s first SF self-serve location has 8 flavors a day (35 cents an ounce). I tried almond tart for the first time. It’s different and really good!

Flavors of the day:
* Almond tart
* Coconut tart
* Strawberry tart
* Taro tart
* Dark chocolate
* Pomegranate tart
* Original tart
* Mango tart



Joe Cool and Matt G. (fro-yo boy) shared a cup of taro fro-yo and then almond and coconut fro-yo. The Sumo Bowl is a 32 oz. cup - you can fill it up as much as you want for $9.45 (the perfect size for Matt G?). Tracy thinks they should have a fro-yo challenge - finish the Sumo Bowl and you don't have to pay :-).

I heard that their downtown SF/New Montgomery St. location will open very soon!

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* TUTTIMELON IRVING: 2045 Irving St. San Francisco, CA

Warning: Cuteness Overload

New limited edition Tokidoki Yogurtland cups and spoons have arrived at Yogurtland. I’m in love!

49ers/Blush SF Event This Sunday, 10/25, from 10 - 2 PM

Fro-yo girl here. Here's a very good reason to treat yourself to Blush's premium, delicious, organic frozen yogurt this Sunday (mmm, try the pumpkin flavor) during their 49ers game day extravaganza (from 10 AM - 2 PM). You'll get to meet 49ers cheerleader and Blush fan, Cassandra. She'll be there for photos and to autograph the 2010 49ers cheerleader calendar. Blush will donate $1 to the Susan G Komen Cancer Foundation for every calendar sold.

Watch the Niners take on the Texans on Blush's giant 65 inch flatscreen TVs, while eating fro-yo (so much better than beer).

Purchase fro-yo on Sunday from 10 AM - 2 PM and get a raffle ticket. One lucky winner will win a pair of tickets to the Niners vs Titans game.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* BLUSH SAN FRANCISCO: 219 King St., San Francisco, CA

Fro-yo Girl Speaks Blogiversary

Fro-yo girl here. Fro-Yo Girl Speaks turns 1 today (10/20). And I’m answering questions from my readers.

Q: How did you get started?
FG: I fell in love with tart fro-yo the first time I tried it. At the time there weren’t that many fro-yo shops in the Bay Area, so I figured I could review all of them. However, new stores kept opening (and they’re still opening)…I still haven’t been to them all. I like being thorough and systematic, so I’m still on my quest.

Q: Why do you call yourself fro-yo girl?
FG: My favorite show is Gossip Girl!

Q: Who is fro-yo boy?
FG: Matt G. We’re married but not to each other. He loves fro-yo too (obviously).

Q: How do you have time to go to so many fro-yo places?
FG: It takes discipline. I visit at least two new places a week. I also look for fro-yo places any time I know I’m going to be in the area for other reasons. Sometimes this means going to several fro-yo places in one day.

Q: How do you know about so many fro-yo places?
FG: Initially it was harder. I’d ask at the fro-yo shops, research places online, friend people on Yelp who liked fro-yo, and just drive by places that I thought would be good for fro-yo. I’m getting more tips now from random people, friends and fro-yo shop owners.

Q: Do you want to open a fro-yo shop? Do you work for or own a fro-yo shop?
FG: No, I don’t work for a fro-yo shop or own one. I have zero interest in opening a fro-yo shop. I don’t think I could come up with better fro-yo than what’s out there and it’s more fun for me to try different places.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

The Great Pumpkin

Fro-yo girl here. Every October, food establishments across the country bring back the beloved pumpkin and Half Moon Bay holds its annual Art & Pumpkin Festival where the largest pumpkin in the land is the star of the Pumpkin Parade (http://www.miramarevents.com/pumpkinfest). This year’s winner from Des Moines weighed in at 1,658 pounds!

I finally tried Blush’s organic pumpkin fro-yo and it was so amazingly good that I felt inspired to blog about it. The sweetness of Blush’s fro-yo complements the pumpkin and spice flavors. The flavor has an artful balance of real yogurt flavor/tang, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices. Nothing dominates or overwhelms. The texture is just right too: thick and smooth. They recommend having it with crushed graham cracker pie crust and whipped cream but I’m sure it would be good with mochi, chocolate chips, coconut (they have toasted and regular coconut), any cereal, granola, almonds, etc.

It’s been a busy time for pumpkin fro-yo with Red Mango’s new pumpkin spice flavor, Cefiore’s pumpkin spice flavor announced this week, pumpkin at YoCup Rincon, Culture’s pumpkin, and so forth.

The season wouldn’t be complete without watching It’s A Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at least once (October 28, ABC, 8 PM). Even better, eat pumpkin fro-yo while watching It’s A Great Pumpkin.



You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* BLUSH ORGANIC FROZEN YOGURT: 4640-A Tassajara Road, Dublin, CA
* BLUSH SAN FRANCISCO: 219 King Street, San Francisco, CA
* BLUSH MILPITAS: 489 E. Calaveras Blvd, Milpitas, CA (getting pumpkin fro-yo soon)

The Signs They Are a-Changin’ on Irving St.

Fro-yo girl here. The store sign has appeared at the new Tuttimelon self-serve location on Irving…and the Tuttimelon store sign has disappeared from the original Tuttimelon location on Irving. BUT, a new sign has taken its place! The original location will become “Tea Way.”

Details are limited at this time. While the original Irving location is still open (last chance to get your 99 cents mango tart special!) and still serving fro-yo, it will be closed for remodeling soon…and then reborn as a tea shop. They must plan on having pearl tea? And hopefully tea eggs and snacks.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* TUTTIMELON IRVING (SELF-SERVE): 2045 Irving St. San Francisco, CA
* TUTTIMELON/TEA WAY: 2150 Irving St., San Francisco, CA

Tuttimelon SF Grand Opening Details!

Fro-yo girl here. Be there to welcome Tuttimelon's first SF self-serve location next Saturday (10/24). Doors open at NOON.

12 - 2 PM: Free fro-yo time! Yes, FREE FRO-YO! I imagine you'll get a small cup that you can fill to your heart's content.

The first 50 people get a special Tuttimelon gift. In the past they gave away Tuttimelon iPod speakers, a Tuttimelon mug and movie passes. You'll also receive a raffle ticket with a chance to win Nintendo Wii, iPod Touch, and Tuttimelon gift cards. Remember you have to be present to win when the drawing is held at 2 PM.

From 2 PM till closing, fro-yo is 25 cents an ounce with the coupon.

See you there Tuttifans!

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* TUTTIMELON IRVING (SELF-SERVE): 2045 Irving St. San Francisco, CA

October 17 is Customer Appreciation Day At FruittiYogi

FruittiYogi wants to share some love...this Saturday, October 17, they're having a Customer Appreciation Event.

Event details:
* 10% off fro-yo purchases all day long
* Enter to win FruittiYogi gift cards, four winners will be selected on 10/18/09

* FRUITTIYOGI: 2321 Santa Clara Ave, Alameda, CA 94501
http://www.fruittiyogi.com

Stonyfield Farm Frozen Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. Stonyfield Farm’s line of non-fat and low fat organic frozen yogurt has been in supermarkets for years now but I still have difficulty finding it (might be a West Coast/Bay Area thing). Back in the early 1990s, Stonyfield Farm, which is based in New Hampshire, supplied soft-serve frozen yogurt to yogurt shops across the country. They still supply fro-yo to fro-yo shops like Sweetgreen (www.sweetgreen.com) in DC.

Their current fro-yo lineup doesn’t include tart flavors.

* Non-fat flavors: After Dark Chocolate, Gotta Have Java, Gotta Have Vanilla, Vanilla Fudge Swirl
* Low fat flavors: Cookies 'n Dream, Crème Caramel, Minty Chocolate Chip, Raspberry White Chocolate Chunk

I found my pint of Gotta Have Vanilla at Berkeley Bowl West. It has real vanilla bean specks! But not enough of them…The texture is rich, creamy and dense (yes, it’s non-fat). The flavor is clean and very sweet (too sweet). Despite all the sugar, you can taste real yogurt flavor but that flavor is quite faint. I’d consider it an ice cream substitute vs. fro-yo for true fro-yo fans.

4 out of 5 stars

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* BERKELEY BOWL WEST: 9th and Heinz, Berkeley, CA 94710

Coming Soon: Snowee

Fro-yo girl here. Thank you Jennifer L. for spotting another fro-yo shop coming your way soon. Snowee will offer self-serve fro-yo, snow ice and snacks. Yum, I’m looking forward to some snow ice and maybe some Taiwanese snacks. Or maybe I’ll get some noodle soup at the Noodle Shop (Snowee’s neighbor) and finish with a cup of fro-yo. Rumor has it that Snowee is very close to opening. If they can get the snow ice right, they could develop quite a following.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* SNOWEE: 168 25th St., San Mateo, CA

New Seasonal Fro-yo Flavor at Red Mango: Pumpkin Spice

Fro-yo girl here. Spotted at Red Mango San Carlos thanks to a tip from Linda W.: new pumpkin spice fro-yo. Available for a limited time, pumpkin spice fro-yo comes with a complimentary graham cracker topping. The store is also showing its Halloween spirit with Halloween decorations (scary spiderwebs and spiders). Green tea fro-yo is gone (temporarily) to make room for pumpkin spice fro-yo.

Red Mango San Carlos turned 1 today (happy anniversary!) I remember being there on opening day for free fro-yo and running into Fro-yo Boy.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* RED MANGO: 825 Laurel St, San Carlos, CA

Tuttimelon Stoneridge Shopping Center Pictures

Fro-yo girl here. Don’t forget, Tuttifans, that Tuttimelon Fairfield is having a grand opening celebration tomorrow. The event begins at noon. The Fairfield location is the first Tuttimelon within a shopping mall (Westfield Solano) and it’s self-serve.

It looks like it won’t be long before Tuttimelon opens in Pleasanton at Stoneridge Mall. It’s upstairs by JC Penney and a new, not yet opened Cinnabon. I wonder how a warm cinnamon bun would taste with tuttilicious fro-yo on top?

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* TUTTIMELON STONERIDGE: One Stoneridge Mall, Pleasanton, CA 94588

Fro-yo and Pearl Tea

Fro-yo girl here. Recently, I posed the following question: “You're in the mood for fro-yo but there isn't any around. What do you have instead?”

The options included ice cream and gelato (which are the most similar to fro-yo), baked goods (cake, cupcakes, cookies), Asian desserts (egg puffs, boba tea) and a healthier option (smoothies). Surprisingly, boba tea was the overwhelming favorite substitute for fro-yo, capturing 58% of the votes. Gelato was a distant third with 17% of the votes. The cold desserts/snacks were more popular with readers.

At first I thought that most of my readers are Asian (and that could be true) but then why aren’t egg puffs more popular? Boba/pearl tea isn’t healthy but it is refreshing (like fro-yo). I’ve certainly seen the crowd move from Quickly on Irving St. to Tuttimelon (which prompted Quickly to come up with their own fro-yo). I’m still not sure to what extent the results are based on the Asianness of voters.

I’ve compiled a list of Bay Area shops that offer both fro-yo and boba/pearl tea. Maybe someone should create milk tea flavored fro-yo? I’ve seen (and tried) milk tea gelato.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* HELLO DESSERTS: 1698 Hostetter Rd, San Jose, CA 95131
* HONEYBERRY: 3488 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95052
* LOVE BERRY: Winston Way (Stonestown Galleria), San Francisco, CA 94132
* POCO CAFÉ: 1688 Hostetter Rd, San Jose, CA 95131
* ROCK IT SWIRL: 2810 Diamond St, San Francisco, CA 94014
* TRENDY BEAN CAFÉ: 1054 Kiely Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95051
* TUTTIMELON: 601 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133
* YUMYGURT: 650 Central Ave Ste G, Alameda, CA 94501
* YOLATEA: 600 Main St #F, Pleasanton, CA 94566

The Sweet Shop Grand Opening Celebration

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve just returned from The Sweet Shop’s Grand Opening Celebration in pretty Los Altos (10/3). The shop, which looks like a charming home, complete with a patio, red & white striped candy like lanterns and a dog parking area, is in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood with no other stores in sight. I spotted the swarms of kids and balloons and thought it was a kid’s birthday party.



During the celebration, the employees clad in Sweet Shop red & white t-shirts, handed out samples of fro-yo. Kids had the choice of various candy crafts, including building your own candy necklace and candy sand art. Someone who looked just like Willy Wonka (the Johnny Depp one) was on hand to announce the raffle winner (the prize was an iPod Nano while I was there). They also introduced the architect and the person in charge of construction.



Inside the shop, it was sugar heaven with big cookies covered in pastel frosting, Sibby’s cupcakes (mini and full size, chocolate and vanilla flavors with balloon decorations in honor of the grand opening), candy sold by the pound in glass jars with the most adorable colorful enamel lids and crystal knobs, gourmet chocolates, coffee drinks, 4 kinds of creamy fro-yo (Country vanilla, Peach mango tart, Cable Car chocolate, Original tart), cake slices, muffins, massive rice krispies treats, Dippin’ Dots, and more!



Indulge without too much guilt; all proceeds will benefit public schools in Los Altos and they use compostable cups and spoons.

http://www.sweetshoplosaltos.blogspot.com/

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* THE SWEET SHOP: 994 Los Altos Ave., Los Altos, CA

$21,000 Frozen Yogurt

Fro-yo girl here. Someone sent me a picture of the $21,000 bowl of fro-yo. At first, before I clicked on the link to see the image, I thought it would be topped with gold leaf. As you can see, it's a bowl of fro-yo with fresh fruit and Tacori diamond engagement rings. I don't have a problem with diamond rings, but doesn't that bowl of fro-yo look awfully small??? If you want to woo a fro-yo lover, at least spring for a larger size of fro-yo!

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

http://www.mervisdiamond.com/tacori-rings