Halloween Spirit Fro-yo Shop Report

Fro-yo girl here. I love it when Halloween is on a Sunday because Halloween festivities start up on Friday and it feels like a Halloween long weekend. It also gives me time to drive around the Bay Area and check out the fro-yo shops. This year I saw fewer and less elaborate Halloween decorations in fro-yo shops (compared to last year). Cupcake shops are showing more Halloween spirit.



My fro-yo shop 2010 Halloween Spirit Award goes to...Blush Burlingame. They transformed the store into an aquarium and gave out full size candy bars and snacks for kids and Blush frequent buyer cards with stamps for adults. And their pumpkin fro-yo is amazing.







I also checked out the following:
* JUBILI: some Halloween window decals, pumpkin inside
* FRAICHE: paper bats in the window, pumpkins inside
* TUTTIMELON UNION CITY: green spiderwebs above, fair amount of decorations
* TUTTIMELON BURLINGAME: some decorations
* TUTTIMELON WEST PORTAL: no Halloween decorations (sadly), but I still recommend their pumpkin gelato with a swirl of original tart on top
* YA-UA: cute decorations
* YOGURT GOGO: no decorations
* NUBI SF: no decorations, but they feature pumpkin pie fro-yo

I'm hoping to see more Halloween spirit next year.

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

I'm Craving Pumpkin Tart Fro-yo

Fro-yo girl here. Pumpkin pie fro-yo, pumpkin spice fro-yo, and pumpkin fro-yo are showing up in fro-yo shops across the country. While I enjoy sweet pumpkin fro-yo, my heart belongs to tart pumpkin fro-yo.

My top three tart pumpkin fro-yo spots are: Blush Organic Frozen Yogurt, Culture Organic Frozen Yogurt and Fraiche (also organic pumpkin fro-yo, I believe). Pumpkin fro-yo is new to Fraiche and it's amazing with their homemade mochi cubes. Culture's pumpkin fro-yo tastes fabulous with their crunchy housemade caramel corn. Yum. And Blush's pumpkin can be topped with whipped cream, just like pumpkin pie.

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

* CULTURE ORGANIC FROZEN YOGURT: 340 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA
* FRAICHE: locations in Palo Alto and San Francisco
* BLUSH ORGANIC FROZEN YOGURT: locations in Walnut Creek, San Francisco, Burlingame and Dublin

Pinkberry Santa Clara Grand Opening Coverage

Fro-yo girl here. I stood on the pink carpet yesterday during Pinkberry's grand opening event (10/22). A flurry of activity and photo taking occurred when celebrity guest Joe Manganiello (Alcide Herveaux on True Blood) arrived and took his place inside the VIP tent. He played tunes for a couple of hours and stopped to take pictures with fans and eat some fro-yo. Joe ended the night by saying Pinkberry Rocks and that there are too many vampires in Santa Clara.



People in line received fro-yo samples and free white Pinkberry t-shirts (the same ones they gave out at the Sunnyvale grand opening) from uniformed employees. The in-store employees yelled out welcome to Pinkberry. Guests were treated to a small size fro-yo with any toppings they desired.





They had signs for their new pumpkin fro-yo flavor and the pumpkin fro-yo samples featured Swirly Whip, graham crackers and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Thank you Pinkberry for the invitation and congratulations!

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

* PINKBERRY SANTA CLARA: 2362 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95050

Nubi San Jose Grand Opening Celebration is Tomorrow

Fro-yo girl here. Nubi San Jose is having its grand opening tomorrow! Free fro-yo from 12 - 1 PM tomorrow. If you're lucky, you may also get other goodies, like t-shirts and lanyards. They're holding the grand opening with Fox Pizza so you can get free fro-yo and free pizza. If you miss the 12 - 1 PM time, fro-yo is 50% off all day. The ribbon cutting ceremony is at 12:30 PM with EStereo Sol Radio 98.9/99.1 Hit Van and Silly Ricky the Balloon Entertainer!

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

* NUBI SAN JOSE: 1698 Story Rd. #20, San Jose, CA 95122

October 20 Blogiversary: Meet the Fro-yo Army

Fro-yo girl here. Fro-Yo Girl Speaks turns 2 today (10/20/2010). Thank you readers and the fro-yo community for your much appreciated support. It feels like an appropriate time to introduce you to the members of my fro-yo army. These are people who adopted fro-yo nicknames and they were inspired by yours truly.

Fro-yo Boy: Meet Matt G., the first member of my fro-yo army. Because he was the first, I think he's the best known. We've met each other several times and have attended a few fro-yo store openings together. He's Joe Cool's father and Joe Cool is a good friend of Tuttimelon Bear. He once went to the same Tuttimelon store like 8 times on the same day.

Fro-yo Dude: Meet Nobu K., the second member of my fro-yo army. He doesn't eat as much fro-yo as Fro-yo Boy but he does write the funniest reviews. We've talked about finding a Fro-yo Mama but that position has yet to be filled. He first tried fro-yo at Tuttimelon!

FroyoBeast: A new member of the army, Jonathan W. has proven his loyalty and love for fro-yo. He can be recognized by his roar, Faaaaaaaawwwwrrr Yo!!! But he swears he's cuddly and friendly!

I could say something about Fro-yo Wanugee, Fro-yo Gizmo Geek and Froyoda but they haven't been eating enough fro-yo.

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

Pinkberry Santa Clara Grand Opening Event

Fro-yo girl here. Pinkberry is getting the pink carpet ready again. Their Santa Clara location is having a grand opening event on Friday, 10/22 and here are the details.

WHAT: Pinkberry is rolling out the pink carpet for our Santa Clara Grand Opening Event! Mix, mingle, listen to today’s hottest tunes and receive FREE Pinkberry all night!
WHERE: 2362 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95050
WHEN: Friday, October 22, from 4:00-7:00 p.m.
WHO: Don’t miss our celebrity DJ set by Joe Manganiello from HBO’s hit show True Blood (“Alcide Herveaux”)

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

October, the Month for Pumpkin

Fro-yo girl here. It's October and that means pumpkin is everywhere. I've seen pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin milk tea, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cake, pumpkin pancakes and best of all - Pumpkin Fro-yo. Pumpkin fro-yo is showing up everywhere. It's usually the sweet kind. My favorite pumpkin fro-yo is from Blush Organic Frozen Yogurt. It's sweet but has that tangy real yogurt taste. It tastes like real pumpkin too. And you can get it with whipped cream as well as an unusual new crunchy topping, pita chips.



The Nubi flyer that I received this week has a picture of pumpkin pie on it. It's their new fro-yo flavor. Yogurtland has a yummy pumpkin fro-yo flavor.

And I just learned that Pinkberry will be introducing pumpkin fro-yo on October 22nd. To celebrate the launch of pumpkin fro-yo, Pinkberry will give away free small pumpkin fro-yo minis on 10/22 from 4 - 7 PM.

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

Future Fro-yo Shop Picture: GaGa Yogurt

Fro-yo girl here. After leaving Nubi San Jose, I drove over to GaGa Yogurt which is in some part of San Jose that I'm not familiar with (a Mexican neighborhood). GaGa Yogurt is located in a new strip mall. I peeked inside and saw large piles of rubble. They were working on building the counter area. I didn't see the wall for the fro-yo machines. The name makes me think of a fro-yo shop for babies. I found their website. Looks like they will have crepes and fro-yo.

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

* GAGA YOGURT: 1075 S. White Road, San Jose, CA

Fro-yo at the Airport

Fro-yo girl here. I was at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) this week and on my way to my gate, I spotted fro-yo. It's the scoopable kind. Just Desserts had a case of Double Rainbow ice cream and one flavor of fro-yo, vanilla. There are three Just Desserts locations at SFO. I'm not sure if they all have fro-yo or not. It will definitely be exciting to see Pinkberry open there next year but for now, the fro-yo options at SFO are limited and disappointing. I expected better fro-yo options for SFO since the Bay Area has so many fro-yo shops.

It's not surprising that LAX has fro-yo. You can also get fro-yo at JFK, O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Honolulu International, Orlando International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, McCarran Airport (Las Vegas), etc. I'm always craving fro-yo right after I get off the plane, and even consider whether I'm willing to add a layover to a trip based on the availability of fro-yo at the airport, so I love the idea of airport fro-yo.

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

Target Market Pantry Frozen Yogurt Parfait

Fro-yo girl here. Target in Colma recently added a grocery department and I found fro-yo in the freezer. They had four flavors: Blueberry, Wild Berry, Mango Peach, and White Chocolate Raspberry. It's only 99 cents for a 6 oz. cup. I found a spoon in their snack bar area and sat down with my blueberry fro-yo parfait.

The texture wasn't as dense as I expected. It was lighter, softer and almost whipped. The texture is icy and refreshing. However the flavor wasn't there - it had little flavor. It was sweet with a bitter aftertaste. Most of the flavor came from the frozen blueberries on top.

The fro-yo is made with high fructose corn syrup and has live and active cultures. A single serving is 160 calories with 1.5 grams of fat. I don't think I would get it again but it's a cheap snack.

2.5 stars out of 5

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

Yakult Love Your Insides Campaign

Fro-yo girl here. I keep seeing the Yakult commercials featuring the cuddly digestive system character. Isn't he cute? I'm not sure where I can buy one of my own. I thought I Heart Guts might have a digestive system character - guess Stomach is their closest offering. He's a cousin of the Yakult digestive system character but he doesn't have hands.



Happy 75th anniversary, Yakult!

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

Future Fro-yo Shop Picture: Yoppi Yogurt

Fro-yo girl here. A cute new sign went up in the window of the old olive oil shop (Olivier & Co.) - Yoppi Yogurt is coming soon. The sign depicts a winter scene with snowflakes - will they open this winter? It will be the fourth fro-yo serving place on Fillmore, joining Fraiche, Royal Ground Coffee, and Jubili (they're all within walking distance of each other). Moyo's Yogurt is also close by but not on Fillmore St.

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

* YOPPI YOGURT: 2208 Fillmore St., San Francisco, CA