Fro-yo girl here. When 21 Choices reopened in its new spot on the corner of Fair Oaks and Union, they added vertical batch freezers. These freezers allowed them to offer something new, Crunchy Choices. Basically, it’s like their regular soft serve frozen yogurt, but with bigger pieces of toppings, e.g., brownies, cake, marshmallows, chocolate chips – that is, the froyo is crunchier. I finally tried Crunchy Choices. It’s scooped out of the batch freezer but has a similar consistency to the soft serve with more texture because of the toppings. You can also have them add mix-ins on the marble slab.
Crunchy Choices of the day:
Nutella Caramel Brownie made with Nutella, Guittard caramel, house made brownies & Guittard chocolate chips
Fluffy Peanut Butter made with organic soy milk, natural peanut butter, marshmallows & Guittard chocolate chips. I could see the marshmallows and the chocolate chips. The yogurt had a fluffy, whipped texture which was pleasant. It tasted like peanut butter, so I liked it, but I think the marshmallows made it too sweet.
Crunchy Choices are good choices. They’re as good as the soft serve.
Prices: Small $4.25/ Medium $5.25/ Large $6.25
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* 21 CHOICES: 44 N Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105
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.
Fro-yo girl here. Is it just me or does it seem like 21 Choices Frozen Yogurt has been closed a lot these past few years. The renovation of their old space on Colorado Blvd. took forever and then they moved into a brand new spot around the corner. Space NK, the beauty retailer, took over their old spot. Then they closed right before the safer at home order was issued. I think they closed on 3/16 and no updates were provided after 3/18, until they reopened on May 22.
They quietly reopened just in time for Memorial Day weekend. I visited to see if anything had changed. They’re making their non-dairy soft serve with housemade oat milk now. The employee had a face shield on and the yogurt and toppings are behind a shield as well. Mix ins are still available. Everyone who enters is required to wear a mask.
I tried their non-dairy oat milk soft serve for the first time, opting for Peanut Butter Coconut mixed with toffee chips. The toffee chips took over the flavor and made the pb and coconut seem mild, but the base was fairly creamy. It tasted pretty clean with a hint of oat flavor.
I hope the soy milk base will still be offered. I did see some soy milk in the fridge, but not much of it. It’s so hard to find soy-based soft serve/frozen yogurt. They also had cashew milk, almond milk, and macadamia milk in the fridge.
I’ve been going to Old Town Pasadena periodically during the safer at home order and many businesses remain closed, including restaurants and retailers. Only a handful are open for takeout, like True Food Kitchen, Motto Tea Café, and Starbucks. Some retailers are offering curbside pickup. Madewell is behind on rent. The food hall on Union and Fair Oaks is expanding and taking over the old Gap and Crate & Barrel spaces.
There hasn’t been much foot traffic in the area for months. It could be tough for that area for a long time if the crowds don’t return.
P.S. 21 Choices just reopened in Claremont Village (Claremont, CA) as well.
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* 21 CHOICES: 44 N Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105
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.
Fro-yo girl here. It’s hard to believe that Fro-Yo Girl Speaks is over 10 years old. Today marks the eleventh anniversary of my very first blog post. Eleven years is a long time and I still love froyo. Here’s a quick overview of what I’ve been up to over the last year.
Pasadena fro-yo update: My favorite Yogurtland location on Lake Ave. in Pasadena changed ownership late last year, raised prices, and went down hill. I’m very sad about it. I miss the owner, Steve, and the employees (the old ones left). Yogurtland Old Town Pasadena closed. I haven’t been going to Yogurtland as often as I did in previous years. On a positive note, 21 Choices just reopened, after moving from De Lacey and Colorado to chose to the new food hall on Union at Fair Oaks.
Progress towards meeting the blog’s original goal: I had to change my old goal of going to every froyo shop in the Bay Area to going to every froyo shop in greater Los Angeles. The rate of new openings has slowed and more froyo shops have closed, so I’m making good progress. I think I’ve been to every froyo shop within a 15-20 mile radius of my residence. I’m moving onto the 20-30 mile range, including Downey, Compton, and Santa Monica
Froyo spoon collection: I was able to sell about half of my extra froyo spoons on eBay. Hope I can sell more spoons in the future.
Soft and grand openings attended this year: So far, I’ve been to the openings of Yoga-urt in Echo Park, Menchie’s Sycamore Hills (Upland, CA), 21 Choices Frozen Yogurt in Old Town Pasadena and Eb & Bean #3 in Portland, Oregon.
Current froyo obsessions: We're regulars at Yoga-urt in Glendale and Echo Park. So much about Yoga-urt is amazing - the vegan, organic soft serve, those crunchy gluten-free housemade cones, the housemade chocolate sauce. Drool. I still go to Souvla every time I go to SF. And I think about Pita GR's Greek frozen yogurt all the time but Downey isn't close, unfortunately.
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.
Fro-yo girl here. After enduring a grueling ten-month building renovation in late 2016-April 2017, 21 Choices reopened at its original location in Old Town Pasadena. And then it closed again at the end of last year!!! This time, the closure was accompanied by a move to the new food hall on Union Street. Pasadena froyo eaters, 21 Choices is back open! The soft opening started on Friday, October 4 and it continues this weekend. They were giving out free froyo on Friday night. And they're giving out free froyo (one small per person) today, Saturday, October 5. No mix-ins are available yet, but they'll be ready for mix-ins on Sunday.
The opening flavors are:
- French vanilla
- Belgian chocolate
- Baby Oreo
- Pumpkin spice
- (Non-Dairy) Build Me Up Buttercup
- (Non-Dairy) Strawberry Mango:
The new space is nice. You can’t miss it if you’re driving down Union or Fair Oaks. I spotted two marble slabs for mixing froyo with add-ins, soft serve machines and new vertical batch freezers. Yes, they have a new product called Crunchy Choices. It will feature a yogurt base with larger pieces of cookies, cake, and other add-ins. During my visit they didn’t have the toppings out. I wonder where all the toppings will go.
Soft serve prices: Small $4.25/ Medium $5.25/ Large $6.25
Welcome back, 21 Choices!
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* 21 CHOICES: 44 N Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105
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.
Fro-yo girl here. 21 Choices last day at their Old Town Pasadena location (85 W Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA) was yesterday, December 30. Today they were moving out their signs, machines, and equipment. They will reopen in early 2019 at the corner of Fair Oaks & Union at the new food hall. The old location has its windows papered over but the door was open and there was a truck and trailer parked on De Lacey filled with items from 21 Choices.
At the moment, the only froyo shop in Old Town Pasadena is Yogurtland. Yogurtland is open on New Year’s Eve from 11 AM – 6 PM and New Year’s Day from 12 PM – 10 PM. Regular hours resume on Wednesday, January 2, 2019.
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.
Fro-yo girl here. 21 Choices is moving soon to a new location, not far from their current location in Old Town Pasadena. The new location will be the corner of Fair Oaks and Union – in a new food hall that’s currently under construction. Expect the move to take place in early 2019.
I love the current location – it’s so central. It will be hard to see it become something else…
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.
Fro-yo girl here. I know I’ve posted several updates about 21 Choices reopening. The retrofitting of their building took longer than anticipated. However, I do have good news to report. Today, the window shades at 21 Choices were down for the first time in months and I spotted four people inside. One guy was polishing the floors. The shop looks ready to reopen. They even had froyo in the machines today and some toppings…BUT they are waiting on one last permit, so they’re not sure exactly when they will reopen. It will be any day now – tomorrow, Sunday or Monday is the best guess. And yes, they really missed you too.
The other businesses in that building have all reopened, including a new clothing retailer from NYC.
Check 21choices.com – if you see the flavors listed for Pasadena, you’ll know that they’ve reopened. This is my last update till they actually reopen.
UPDATE: They'll reopen on April 22, Earth Day!
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* 21 CHOICES: 85 W Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91105
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.
Fro-yo girl here. It’s been a long time since 21 Choices brought smiles to the faces of Old Town Pasadena visitors. Their building was closed for months for earthquake retrofitting. Some despaired that 21 Choices would never reopen.
Good news Pasadena froyo eaters. Progress has been made and the 21 Choices equipment has been taken out of storage. The froyo machines are back.
The new sign says that they are “hiring for store opening in late February-March.” 21 Choices Pasadena is almost back.
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* 21 CHOICES: 85 W Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91105
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.
Fro-yo girl here. The white spray that they sprayed the windows of 21 Choices with has started to wear away. The building retrofit is taking forever. While there is no new sign at the location, the 21 Choices website now says, “The construction to our building seems to be finishing up! We do not have an opening date yet but are hoping to be back next month.”
Meanwhile, you can stop by and peek inside. The 21 Choices sign is still up and you can see the menu board.
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.
