Pinkberry’s 10th Birthday Celebration

Fro-yo girl here. Happy 10^th birthday, Pinkberry! It’s not every day that an iconic brand turns 10 years old. They shared their special milestone with their fans on Jan. 30 from 7 PM – 10 PM, offering small yogurts with toppings for 10 cents.

The location that I visited had colorful balloons, birthday candles (four colors, made out of edible white  chocolate), and edible glitter for your froyo. You could choose the flavors and toppings that you wanted. I opted for the "birthday style" birthday swirl featuring  two of their new flavors, Raspberry White Chocolate (it has a tartness that I really love) and Sea Salt Chocolate, with dark chocolate crisps, raspberries, edible glitter and a birthday candle.

Here are my pictures from the birthday celebration at the Americana (759 Americana Way, Glendale, CA).

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.

Green Mountain Creamery Greek Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. I found Green Mountain Creamery Greek Yogurt at Sprouts on sale (5 for $5). Each cup is 5.3 ounces and fat free. The yogurt is manufactured in Vermont with all natural ingredients and made with rBST free Vermont milk. It’s sweetened lightly with sugar. The fruit flavors are made with real fruit and berries. Each cup has live and active yogurt cultures.

* Maple Greek: I really liked this flavor. It’s a simple flavor – just yogurt and maple syrup, but the maple syrup adds something special. The maple flavor is subtle but present. It’s fairly sweet but still has that lovely yogurt tang.

* Vanilla Greek: The texture was great – smooth, thick, creamy. I also liked how it wasn’t too sweet but the vanilla flavor was too subtle for me and it didn’t taste like vanilla beans (tasted more like vanilla extract). I didn’t see any bean specks.

Available flavors: Blueberry, Cherry, Coffee, Maple, Peach, Pineapple, Plain, Strawberry, Vanilla

Ingredients (Vanilla Greek): Cultured pasteurized Grade A Nonfat Milk, sugar, native corn starch, natural flavor, pectin. Contains the following live cultures: Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidus, Lactobacillus casei.

To find out where to buy Green Mountain Creamery, visit their website: http://greenmountaincreamery.com/

4 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.

21 Choices Customer Appreciation Day

Fro-yo girl here. Today is 21 Choices Free Day (aka Customer Appreciation Day), a thirty year tradition. All 21 Choices locations are participating by providing guests with their choice of a small frozen yogurt all day.

At the Old Town Pasadena locations, there are 6 flavors to choose from and you can get more than one flavor plus free toppings.

Pasadena free fro-yo flavors: 

• Madagascar Vanilla Bean
• Belgian Chocolate
• Oreo Cookie Magic with Oreos, cookie dough and rainbow sprinkles
• Nutella Chocolate Chip
• Non-Dairy Build Me Up Butter Cup with natural peanut butter, carob chips, flaxseed oil and organic soy milk
• Baja Strawberry with fresh strawberries and mangos

The line moves quickly and they’re still happy to give you free samples.

Thanks 21 Choices! Love you too.

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

* 21 CHOICES: 85 West Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91104 

About 21 Choices

“Gourmet frozen yogurt made fresh all day long using only the best and freshest ingredients available. 21 Choices uses only the best and freshest ingredients like fruits, nuts, chocolates and coffees to make each and every yogurt. 21 Choices will make almost any yogurt your imagination can think of right in front of you in our Mix-in machines or on our frozen table top. Additionally, we make 6 different gourmet soft serve choices everyday that are unmatched anywhere.”

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 Froyo Shop Picture: Easy Breezy 3

Fro-yo girl here. Happy days are ahead…work is underway on Easy Breezy’s third location in San Francisco. They’re taking over the former Frapez spot at 4029 18th St. It’s a small space and the first frozen yogurt shop in the Castro (finally!)

The Easy Breezy sign isn’t up yet but the construction zone sign is good till March 22…hopefully the construction will be finished by then.

Easy Breezy is one of my favorite frozen yogurt shops, thanks to its creative, hand-crafted delicious flavors that you can’t find elsewhere. They offer organic yogurt, organic non-dairy options, and frozen custard/yogurt blends. And Easy Breezy was the very first shop to be awarded three swirls from the International Frozen Yogurt Association’s Swirl o f Honor program.

Be sure to visit their other locations (4028 24th St./Noe Valley and 718 Irving St./Inner Sunset) while you wait for the one in the Castro to open.

P.S. Happy birthday to Easy Breezy 2 (Inner Sunset) which turned 1 this week (on 1/19).

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

* EASY BREEZY 3: 4029 18th St., San Francisco, CA

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.

Froyo Shop Graveyard: Yogurtland Closes in San Francisco

Fro-yo girl here. I recently returned to San Francisco, which meant that I had planned to visit my old Yogurtland location on Ocean Ave. in Ingleside. Sadly, it closed for good this week. Sunday, 1/18, was the last day. There was a nice note on the door thanking patrons. Also, they’ll accept “You Rule” school certificates at the Burlingame location. I could still see the tiled wall inside, tables, chair and equipment.

Since it was the only location in SF, I used to go every week until I moved. I remember being there the day it opened, Monday, December 17, 2012. It was also the day they showed the final episode of Gossip Girl...Yogurtland was there for me then and on many other days. I felt so sad when I heard that my Yogurtland closed that I had to go get some froyo.

Yogurtland SF, you will be missed.

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.

First Yogen Fruz U Serve Visit

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve been to a couple of Yogen Fruz locations since they first opened in the Bay Area in 2008. I remember being at the grand opening of the San Francisco Embarcadero location, a location which just closed this year. They were different from other froyo shops because they had the Mix It custom blended frozen yogurt creations. This blended creation was developed by Yogen Fruz and featured its probiotic proprietary frozen yogurt.

Mix It allowed the customer to choose the base frozen yogurt (lowfat vanilla, lowfat chocolate, nonfat vanilla or nonfat tart frozen yogurt base) and fruit. The fruit and bar of frozen yogurt would then be blended together in the Yogen Fruz machine. The end result was thick and creamy with fruit chunks and seeds (for fruit with seeds). The mixing process wasn’t thorough, normally you’d see some unmixed froyo in your cup. The Mix It style was popular in Canada, where Yogen Fruz got its start in 1986.

Yogen Fruz also offered Top It, which wasn’t a custom blended frozen yogurt product but was similar to the other soft serve style frozen yogurt products found at most froyo shops.

It wasn’t clear whether the mix in style frozen yogurt would catch on in the US. In an interesting turn of events, Yogen Fruz entered a licensing agreement with Jamba Juice which provided Jamba Juice with the right to use the Yogen Fruz operating system and registered trademarks in 2011. Jamba Juice’s Whirl’ns frozen yogurt was a mix in style frozen yogurt. It was offered for a few years but phased out in 2013. Mix In style frozen yogurt has caught on elsewhere though – “Today, Yogen Früz has grown to more than 1400 locations operating in over 46 countries around the world.“

In 2010, Yogen Fruz opened its first self-serve location; their self-serve offering is called U Serve. I don’t recall hearing about any U Serve locations in the Bay Area but it is available in Los Angeles. The first Yogen Fruz location in LA (Tarzana, opened in 2008) added U Serve about a year ago. They also kept the Mix It froyo option.

U Serve is similar to your usual self-serve froyo. Grab a cup, choose from 10 self-serve froyo flavors, and add toppings. It’s 49 cents an ounce. The toppings were typical: fruit, mochi, syrups, popping boba, candy, cookies, chips, nuts, rainbow sprinkles, graham cracker crumbs. The froyo flavors were similar to ones you’d find at most froyo shops.

Froyo flavors of the day:

• Greek style: more flavorful than the tart, smooth, has an interesting taste, maybe honey, light texture 
• Passionfruit
• Espresso
• Pistachio
• Red velvet
• Strawberry fields
• Mangolicious sorbet
• Tart: light, smooth, not that tart (on the sweet side)
• Vanilla
• Chocolate

U serve froyo tastes a lot different than the Mix It style yogurt. It’s much lighter. Granted, it is of course a different style of froyo but I was still expecting some similiarities. I’m not sure how U Serve's frozen yogurt differs from Yogurty’s which is a Canadian self-serve froyo chain owned by International Franchise Corp. (the same company owns Yogen Fruz).

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.

Froyo Shop Graveyard: Cherry on Top in Monrovia Closes

Fro-yo girl here. Winter is a tough time for frozen yogurt shops. Demand tends to drop once it gets colder. While summer is the time that froyo shops hope to open, winter is the season that they tend to close. 

Breaking news...Cherry on Top in Monrovia, CA just closed its doors for good. There was an eviction notice from the LA County Sheriff posted on their door dated January 7, 2015. The last post by Cherry on Top Monrovia on their Facebook page was on December 8, 2014.

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

* CHERRY ON TOP: 176 West Foothill Boulevard, Monrovia, CA 91016

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: Yogurtland San Luis Obispo

Fro-yo girl here. San Luis Obispo/the Central Coast is getting its first Yogurtland. The windows were papered over so I couldn’t see how much progress had been made inside. It’s downtown, directly across the street from Bali’s Yogurt and also very close to Teaberry and Yogurt Creations. The location was previously occupied by H & G Clothing.

The first Central Coast Menchie's opened in Santa Maria on December 18, 2014.

* YOGURTLAND SAN LUIS OBISPO: 956 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

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.

New Flavors to Love at Pinkberry

Fro-yo girl here. Pinkberry announced three new flavors to love on January 9th and of course I had to try them. I brought Mr. Froyo along since he loves chocolate frozen yogurt.

Sea Salt Chocolate Pinkberry is described as a “smooth, creamy chocolate flavor with a touch of Maldon sea salt that will delight any true chocolate lover.” Mr. Froyo felt this was a lighter chocolate flavor that had just a hint of salt (he thought it would be saltier). I thought the level of salt was right – who wants really salty froyo? The sea salt is already in the mix but you can also have them add more salt on top.

Recommended toppings: Almonds, chocolate crisps, chocolate curls, Almond Roca, strawberries

Raspberry White Chocolate Pinkberry is “a fruity and refreshing treat made with natural raspberry puree and white chocolate that will make your taste buds swoon.” This flavor was our favorite. It tastes much more like raspberry than white chocolate. The white chocolate is subtle. The raspberry has a natural tangy refreshing quality and the white chocolate gives it a sweet finish. It’s a pretty pale pink too, perfect for Valentine’s Day. I thought it would be sweeter and was happy that it was tangy.

Recommended toppings: Raspberries, pomegranate sauce, chocolate chips, coconut

Passionfruit Pinkberry is not a brand new flavor but it’s back in time for Valentine’s Day.

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

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

Froyo Wish List for 2015

Fro-yo girl here. It’s time for the seventh edition of my annual wish list. Last year I wished for:

* Froyo pie or cake. Mr. Froyo made a froyo pie for me.

* Yolato frozen yogurt gelato bars in CA. I don’t think this happened (sad face). The Yolato bars are the best.

* Froyo made out of Icelandic yogurt (skyr). This does exist (e.g., in Denmark you can go to a supermarket and get a tub of Cheasy frozen skyr) but I certainly haven’t seen it in California.

* Froyo spoons. I did get plenty of new ones including some from Seattle, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Greece.

Some of my wishes from 2013 and earlier haven’t come true either. I’m still waiting to be served by a robot/frozen yogurt vending machine. On the other hand, I had wishes come true that I hadn’t even thought of, like visiting Yogurtland HQ, judging frozen yogurt at the NRA Show and attending the Critics Choice TV Awards (free froyo included).

Here’s my froyo wish list for 2015:

* Yogorino (or something similar to Yogorino) come back…Mr. Froyo misses you.

* More froyo HQ visits

* Making frozen yogurt the official state food of California

* A Food Network show dedicated to frozen yogurt or a froyo truck on the Great Food Truck Race

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.

Winners Unveiled in the Yogurtland 2nd Annual Fan Choice Awards

Fro-yo girl here. Yogurtland’s Fan Choice Awards are back, from January 5th – March 1st. Fans voted on their favorite flavors last fall and the votes were tallied. The winners have been revealed for the ten award categories.

In stores starting January 5

• Best All Around: Salted Caramel Pecan
• Best Beverage: Caramel Macchiato
• Best Chocolate: Peanut Butter Cookies & Cream
• Best Sorbet: Raspberry Lemonade Sorbet
• Best Tart: Wild Berry Tart

In stores starting February 2

• Best International: Geneva Chocolate
• Best Caramel: Toasted Coconut Caramel
• Best Sweet Tooth Treat: Rocket Pop Sorbet
• Best Bakery: Birthday Cupcake Batter

These fan favorites are available while supplies last. I spotted a new topping, Salted Caramel Bits. They’re like chocolate rocks but they taste like salted caramel. They’re not as crunchy as I expected. The saltiness is really good with certain froyo flavors (sweet ones like chocolate, caramel macchiato, Sumatra coffee, vanilla).

They also have a Fan Choice Awards backsplash up – take a picture of your treat and tag it #YogurtlandFCA

Flan didn't make the cut (crying inside).

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.

New Flavor at Menchie’s: Sweet ‘n’ Tangy Peach Mango

Fro-yo girl here. Menchie’s new flavor of the month is Sweet ‘n’ Tangy Peach Mango made with real peaches and mango. It’s nonfat and a good source of calcium, according to the signs they had. I gave it a try and was struck by the flavor of canned peaches. I could taste the mango after but mostly tasted canned peaches with an unpleasant syrupy aftertaste. The yogurt was smooth and creamy though. 

It’s called sweet ‘n’ tangy but it was much more sweet than tangy. It didn’t seem tangy.

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.

First Froyo Date of 2015

Fro-yo girl here. My first swirl of 2015 was a cup of Sumatra coffee froyo with crushed Butterfingers, chopped almonds, mini Nutter Butters, whipped cream and Speculoos cookie from Yogurtland. I had a froyo date with Mr. Froyo, who had a cup of peanut butter froyo with granola.

I've created a new Pinterest board to track my froyo consumption for the new year: http://www.pinterest.com/froyogirl/2015-froyo-consumed-by-fyg/

Hope your New Year’s resolution is to eat more froyo. 

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.