The Yogurtland Flavor Quest Continues with Black Sesame Vanilla & Mexican Hot Chocolate

Fro-yo girl here. I just visited Mexico and Japan. The final two Yogurtland Flavor Quest flavors arrived today (April 29): Black Sesame Vanilla from Japan and Mexican Hot Chocolate from Mexico.

Black sesame is a popular, beloved Asian flavor and I’ve had many black sesame flavored sweets including mochi and black sesame gelato.

* Black sesame vanilla (Japan): This is actually the second time I’ve had black sesame fro-yo and Yogurtland’s version is better than the one I tried before which was tart based and quite intense. The tart base didn’t complement the black sesame. Yogurtland’s version is much more mellow thanks to the vanilla flavor. The base is sweet which I think is more complementary. You do taste black sesame but it’s not intense as in a black sesame gelato. It reminds me a bit of peanut butter or red bean. The texture was thick, smooth and very creamy. I liked the combination of mochi with black sesame and wished that the global fro-yo flavors had been accompanied by some global toppings as well.
* Mexican hot chocolate (Mexico): Described as a mix of earthy cocoa and cinnamon, this flavor is not an intense chocolate but more of a mild chocolate with a hint of cinnamon. It’s fairly sweet. I thought it was fine but I generally don’t like chocolate fro-yo.

These two new flavors should be at Yogurtland till May 26th. Remember to scan those QR codes and enjoy the Flavor Quest!

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

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Future Frozen Yogurt Shop Picture? Honey Berry in SF

Fro-yo girl here. Roti bun purveyor Honey Berry is coming to Irving Street in SF. Some of their locations do not carry fro-yo so I’m not sure if this location, which is rather small, will have fro-yo. They’re replacing a former self-serve fro-yo shop, Wonderful Yogurt and later iCrave. The door was open but I didn’t see any frozen yogurt machines inside. The signs said “The Buns are Coming.” Their frozen yogurt has gone from okay to bad and I don’t care for roti buns.

Irving St. should be called Asian Dessert Zone with three Teaway locations, Etc Dessert Cafe, Tpumps, Quickly (which recently expanded), and Wonderful Foods.

Update: The new location does not have frozen yogurt.

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

* HONEY BERRY: 1915 Irving St., San Francisco, CA

Smari Icelandic Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. I keep finding new yogurt brands at Whole Foods. I am a fan of skyr so I was excited to spot Smari, “the Brave Yogurt of Iceland.” Smari is organic, thicker, higher in protein, non-fat and has live cultures. It’s made in the US with milk from grassfed cows and has 4 cups of milk per serving. A serving is 6 ozs. At Whole Foods, a cup is $2.39.

* Vanilla yogurt: Super thick, smooth and creamy, the spoon easily stands up in the yogurt. The flavor is so good, the way yogurt should taste. It’s very tangy with a bit of sourness, sweetened but not too sweet, and it has many vanilla bean specks. I love that it’s made with just three ingredients: milk, sugar and vanilla extract.

Icelandic yogurt or skyr is a yogurt from which most of the water has been strained out.

When I visited the Smari website, they had a buy one, get one free coupon that you can sign up to receive. They also have a store locator feature.

5 out of 5 stars

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

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Future Fro-yo Shop Picture: Menchie’s Berkeley

Fro-yo girl here. I downloaded the new Menchie’s mobile app about a month ago. I used the Find a Menchie’s feature and noticed a new location coming soon to Berkeley. The Menchie’s app also says that there’s a location coming soon to San Francisco, CA but with no address listed.

Berkeley doesn’t have any shortage of frozen yogurt shops especially near the UC Berkeley campus. The new Menchie’s is in a small strip of restaurants next to campus but not in the Telegraph Ave. side of town where most of the frozen yogurt shops are located.

The storefront wasn’t covered up. Not much work has been done on the interior yet. Menchie’s is taking over the spot occupied by Veil Between Heaven and Earth, a new age bookstore.

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

* MENCHIE’S FROZEN YOGURT: 1862 Euclid Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709

Yeti Yogurt Opens in Seattle

Fro-yo girl here. My Seattle fro-yo scout, @badrobot68 has graciously supplied his pictures of a brand new frozen yogurt shop in the Queen Anne neighborhood, Yeti Yogurt Frozen Creations. He pronounced his cup of fro-yo as yummy.

Yeti Yogurt opened on April 8, 2013 and has 16 flavors of self-serve fro-yo with 65 types of toppings. Yeti Yogurt serves Kosher frozen yogurt with live and active cultures. Certain flavors such as Mythical Mocha and Strawberry Sasquatch can only be found at Yeti. For flavor updates, check out their Facebook page.

Thanks Badrobot!

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

* YETI YOGURT FROZEN CREATIONS: 604 First Ave N., Seattle, WA

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Yogurtland’s Flavor Quest Continues: Sticky Toffee Pudding and POG Sorbet

Fro-yo girl here. The new batch of Yogurtland Flavor Quest flavors arrived today (April 15): Sticky Toffee Pudding from England and POG sorbet from Hawaii.

If it’s not obvious by now, I love fro-yo, so any sorbet is less appealing. If I do like a sorbet, it has to be tart and fruity. As for sticky toffee pudding, I’ve never had it and probably never will because English puddings seem like they’d be super sweet with dried fruit.

* POG sorbet (Hawaii): POG combines orange, passion fruit and guava. I could definitely taste the guava (my least favorite of the three) and could barely taste the orange. I was surprised by how sweet this sorbet was. Orange sorbet would have been nice on its own or orange passion fruit. Since I don’t like guava or sweet sorbet, I wasn’t a fan. It was icy but not refreshing.

* Sticky toffee pudding (England): “Direct from England, this moist, sweet sponge cake, made with chopped dates and covered in butter toffee is sure to make even the rainiest London day a delight.” I tried this flavor during the Yuletide Yumminess promotion. I was dreading the taste of dates. The flavor is better than I expected because it doesn’t have intense date or butter toffee flavor. It’s creamy and mostly tastes like a nice muted butter toffee.

POG sorbet and Sticky toffee pudding fro-yo are available through May 12. Remember to scan those QR codes.

Mexican hot chocolate and Black sesame vanilla arrive on April 29.

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

Future Fro-yo Shop Pictures: Red Mango/Auntie Anne’s in Palo Alto, CA

Fro-yo girl here. Stanford Shopping Center is about to get another fro-yo shop.I heard about the Red Mango/Auntie Anne’s co-branded store a few months ago. There were a few vacancies at the mall and I thought that they would open up near Max’s, Cocola Bakery and Babbo’s. The space didn’t have any signs. I swung by a few times and asked Babbo’s for information.

Well, that wasn’t the right space. The actual space is on the other side of the mall by McDonald’s and Bloomingdale’s. I couldn’t see inside the shop so it’s impossible to see how close it is to opening.

Stanford Shopping Center shoppers will be able to get their fro-yo at Pinkberry, Red Mango and Cocola Bakery. I do love a fresh soft pretzel...fro-yo + a pretzel would be a nice lunch. Another Red Mango/Auntie Anne’s co-branded store will open in San Jose, CA.

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

Tarte Asian Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. I spotted a new yogurt during a recent trip to Whole Foods. Tarte Asian Yogurt is inspired by one of the founder’s mom’s Southeast Asian style yogurt (I gather that it’s inspired by the Vietnamese yogurt, da lu). Tarte is a modern version of Asian style yogurt, made with milk from a California dairy farm and exotic fruits. Six flavors are available in individual 6 oz. cups: Original, Blueberry Acai, Green Tea & Honey, Mango & Coconut, Pomegranate & Goji, and Strawberry & Guanabana.

According to Tarte, “what makes Tarte so unique is the slow and gentle cooking process that caramelizes the natural sugars found in milk which results in an extremely creamy and delicious flavor.”

Tarte is sweetened with Stevia, has high protein content (14 grams) and 115 calories per serving. According to the Tarte website, their yogurt has 2x the protein of regular yogurt and 2x the calcium of Greek yogurt, with billions of probiotic cultures.

* Original: It’s about the same smoothness, thickness and creaminess as a Greek yogurt. The original flavor is sweetened with sugar and Stevia. The flavor does taste different but in a slightly artificial way, even though the ingredients are 100% natural. It might be because of the Stevia. It’s more sour than the Tarte description would lead me to believe. It’s tangy with a sour aftertaste. The da lu I get from the Vietnamese market might not be as healthy but it tastes better.

* Green tea & honey: I like this one better than the original. The honey flavor is fairly strong and helps mask the weird aftertaste of the Stevia. I can taste green tea but it’s faint.The yogurt is tangy and sweeter than the original flavor.

I found Tarte Asian Yogurt at Whole Foods in Noe Valley for $1.79 a cup or 2/$3 on sale. To check for availability in your area, visit their Store locator feature on the Tarte website. It’s currently available at Gelson’s and Whole Foods.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

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

* WHOLE FOODS MARKET: 3950 24th St., San Francisco, CA 94114

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Tuttimelon West Portal Turns into Quickly

Fro-yo girl here. The Tuttimelon sign on West Portal Ave. has been replaced by a Quickly Kobe Bento sign. The inside still bears some traces of Tuttimelon include a few posters, the Tuttimelon cups, some of the chairs, the wavy white wall and the gelato. I’m told they still carry Tuttimelon gelato. Tuttimelon’s fro-yo is gone.

The new Quickly has smoothies made with Dreyer’s yogurt. The menu includes milk tea, slush (icy) drinks, snow, smoothies, milkshakes, tea, bento bowls, gelato, egg puffs and snacks (mostly fried snacks).

Grand opening specials include $1.99 milk tea and 99 cents ice coffee, ice milk tea and ice green tea. I wonder why this didn’t become a Teaway? Teaway is better than Quickly.

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

* QUICKLY WEST PORTAL: 44 West Portal Ave., San Francisco, CA

Yogurtland Flavor Quest Continues with Creme Brulee and Spiced Chai

Fro-yo girl here. The new batch of Yogurtland Flavor Quest flavors arrived in stores on April 1: Spiced Chai from India and Creme Brulee from France. I was excited to try both.

* Creme brulee (France): “Silky rich vanilla custard finished with a light, caramelized sugar topping.” They did a nice job with this, it tasted as described with that distinctive caramelized sugar flavor and custardy quality. The texture was smooth and creamy. It seemed sweeter than usual. I would have liked a stronger vanilla flavor.

* Spiced chai (India): “Bold and delicious, we’ve infused the traditional spices of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and clove with vanilla, creating a warm and spicy chai flavor.” I could definitely taste several spices and it tasted like a sweet chai but I didn’t notice much tea flavor. I also don’t think there was enough cardamom flavor. It was more of an Americanized chai than an Indian chai flavor. I also thought it was very sweet.

Creme Brulee and Spiced Chai fro-yo are available from April 1 - April 28. Sticky toffee pudding and POG sorbet arrive on April 15.

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

Western Freezers 2013 YoCream Tasting & Open House

Fro-yo girl here. Mark your calendars for the  April 4th 2013 YoCream Tasting & Open House event at Western Freezers in Fremont, CA. The event is from 10 AM - 4 PM.

You’ll be able to sample the latest new flavors from YoCream, save on equipment for your frozen yogurt shop, and see the latest toppings and menu ideas from Palo Alto Foods (formerly known as Palo Alto Egg). Learn the latest ideas and trends in frozen yogurt and find inspiring new ways to grow your business.

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

* WESTERN FREEZERS: 42285 Osgood Rd., Unit F, Fremont, CA 94539