Innovative Froyo Shop Spotlight: CrèmeBee in Alhambra, CA

Fro-yo girl here. CrèmeBee’s offerings aren’t innovative in Asia but they are in California. Their offerings reflect several Asian dessert trends: (1) raw honey with organic milk soft serve, (2) cotton candy on top of milk tea or soft serve, (3) nice looking parfaits.

The raw honey with organic milk soft serve was popularized by Honeymee in SoCal. Honeymee opened its first location in LA’s Koreatown. CrèmeBee’s soft serve is organic frozen yogurt; Honeymee’s is ice cream.

The cotton candy is made to order which makes a difference because packaged cotton candy tastes awful. There are two flavors: blue raspberry and purple grape. They make their own marshmallows and they’re cut into cute shapes (white clouds and yellow moons). Other toppings include raw honey, honeycomb, honey boba, pudding, honey castella cake, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce…sensing the honey theme? The plain CrèmeBee is served with raw honey ($3.95).

There are eight creations/parfaits to choose from ($3.95-$5.75) and one flavor of organic soft serve frozen yogurt. They also sell honey flavored teas and floats.

* Cloud 9 with blue raspberry cotton candy, cloud marshmallows and raw honey ($5.75): It’s super cute with that big blue cotton candy cloud. To eat it, you remove the cotton candy and put it on the tray. Tear off some cotton candy and eat it with or separate from your frozen yogurt. The frozen yogurt is plain/milk flavored. It isn’t tangy at all – it’s sweet, creamy and smooth but not as thick as Honeymee’s. The cotton candy is super light and has a hint of blue raspberry flavor. The soft marshmallows were really good – not as sweet as the packaged kind. The portion of frozen yogurt is small and there was a huge hole in the middle but with the cotton candy it felt like two desserts.

The shop is mostly white with a cute bee/honeycomb theme. I think it used to be another froyo shop called Splash Tea & Yogurt and before that A Tea Yogurt and Bluecherry Yogurt. That's four froyo places in the same spot.

CremeBee is having a grand opening celebration on August 29, 2015. The first 50 people will get free froyo. Everyone else will get 25% off that day. Doors open at 1:30 PM.

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

Rating: 4/5

* CREMEBEE, 137 W Main St., Alhambra, CA 91801

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.

Bluecherry Asian Style Pure Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. A friend of mine told me about Bluecherry Asian yogurt. It's sold at several Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area. I wasn't sure what it was - only that it wasn't frozen. It comes in a white plastic cup and looks like regular, non-frozen soft yogurt (e.g., Dannon, Yoplait). However, they gave me a straw, so I thought it might be a drink like Yakult only in a yogurt cup. I peeled off the lid and saw regular looking yogurt. The straw works though, so it's like a thick drink (not watery).

Bluecherry is inspired by Beijing style "sour milk" - a product that is famous throughout China (and has been around a long time). It has a blue and white paper wrapper, like the product you'd find in China.

Bluecherry Yogurt seems to only come in two flavors: Classic and Honey. San Dong House sells one serving for $3 a 8 oz. cup. The product comes from Alhambra, CA (SoCal) and it looks like the Bluecherry store has fro-yo too. The nutrition facts are provided on the paper wrapper but the ingredients are not listed. The wrapper says it's lowfat and all natural.

I tried the Classic flavor. It's sour but not too sour, has a sweet aftertaste and is tangy. There was a mellow smoothness that I really liked. It didn't taste that different from sweetened plain yogurt, so the price tag seems too high.

4 out of 5 stars

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

* SAN DONG HOUSE: 3741 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA
* BLUECHERRY YOGURT BAR: 137 W. Main St., Alhambra, CA