Thursday, May 21, 2015

Breakfast at Yogurtland







Fro-yo girl here. Breakfast at Yogurtland? Yogurtland is currently testing a variety of new products. The Yogurtland Lakewood, CA location started serving breakfast since February 2015. Yogurtland’s Jeffrey location (14775 Jeffrey Rd., Ste. J) in Irvine, CA started serving breakfast on May 20. Soon, the Yogurtland location in Fullerton, CA (501 N State College Blvd.) will also offer breakfast. The "breakfast" items are available all day. Yogurtland Lakewood opens at 7 AM. Yogurtland Irvine opens at 9 AM.

New items include freshly squeezed juice, Fresh-Yo fresh yogurt, yogurt parfaits, Illy coffee, build your own acai bowls and pastries. The pastries are the Croiffle (croissant and waffle combo) and the Cinnaffle (cinnamon roll and waffle combo). Other pastries included butter croissants, strawberry croissants (croissants with pastry cream and fresh strawberries), Danish, and Danish bites.

The prices varied by location. In Lakewood, the Croiffle and Cinnafle are $2.50 each but sold by weight if you want to add froyo and toppings.

Fresh-Yo comes in two varieties that are dispensed from a machine (you press a button to dispense the yogurt): Greek plain yogurt and classic vanilla yogurt. You can add toppings if you’d like. The texture of both flavors seemed similar (I was expecting the Greek yogurt to be thicker). The vanilla doesn’t have an intense vanilla flavor and it’s not too sweet. The plain Greek isn’t sweetened so it has a sour flavor.

The Acai is in a machine – pull the handle to dispense. The acai blend has pear, blueberry, banana, blackberry and strawberry. I don’t eat bananas so I couldn’t really judge it.

The Croiffle is a butter croissant that’s been made into a waffle. It was soft, buttery and good with a dipping sauce. The Cinnaffle was much more substantial – a cinnamon roll pressed in a waffle iron. It’s heavy, dense and chewy. I liked how it wasn’t iced. The Cinnaffle had a generous amount of cinnamon and I liked the hint of orange. It was difficult to eat with the fork and knife because it was so thick, dense and chewy. The Croiffles and Cinnaffles are already made. You can ask to have yours heated.

The Cinnaffle, Croiffle and strawberry croissants looked different in Irvine. The Cinnafle had a dusting of cinnamon sugar (the one in Lakewood did not) and the croissants looked flakier. Also, the Irvine location smelled like fresh baked goods, the Lakewood location did not.

You can top any of the new pastries with frozen yogurt, yogurt or acai. They had new sauces: honey, cookie butter, marshmallow, chocolate hazelnut, peanut butter and salted caramel, plus new fruit purees (e.g., cherry, blueberry, peach, strawberry) in squeeze bottles.

The new refrigerated case had bottle drinks like Zico coconut water, Illy coffee, Honest Tea, San Pellegrino and Yogurtland’s new juices. The juices are made on site and come in four varieties: Green Thumb (apple, pineapple, orange, spinach, kale banana), Carrot Patch (carrot, pineapple, orange, lime), Beet Box (apple, carrot, pineapple, beet, spinach, kale), Berry& Banana (apple, strawberry, carrot, banana, blueberry). It’s $3.50 for 12 ounces. The juices are not cold pressed so they’re chunkier/have more texture and fiber.

I loved the new blue Yogurtland forks and knives.

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.

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