New at Yogurtland Alhambra: Grab N Go Premium Upgrades

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve been going to Yogurtland Alhambra regularly, because they have peanut butter frozen yogurt. On a recent visit, I noticed a new sign that said Sweeten the Deal. Yogurtland Alhambra is now selling premium upgrades: cake pops, dipped giant marshmallows on a stick, rock sugar sticks, and cookies. The items are by the register and they’re pretty cute.

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

* YOGURTLAND ALHAMBRA: 1 E Valley Blvd., 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.

Yogurtland Introduces Ice Cream for the "First" Time

Fro-yo girl here. Yogurtland is introducing ice cream for the first time ever. I encountered the two new flavors today. They’re classic, full fat flavors: Vanilla and Chocolate. The ice cream is soft serve and doesn’t have live and active cultures (that would make it frozen yogurt, presumably). Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream will be available for a limited time. 

Yogurtland already offered gelato, which is ice cream, but the new flavors are different. Both were rich and creamy but I found them to have less flavor than Yogurtland’s gelato and frozen yogurt flavors. The ice cream texture was different - smooth and chewy. The chocolate had cocoa flecks. Frozen yogurt is way better but you know that I’m biased. Has anyone else tried their ice cream? If so, what do you think of them?

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

Here’s the official Yogurtland press release:

Yogurtland Introduces Ice Cream for a Limited Time

Beginning August 30, Yogurtland is giving everyone’s sweet tooth a reason to rejoice with the limited time addition of premium chocolate and vanilla ice cream. The new serve yourself ice cream gives Yogurtland fans an indulgent option to create their own customized treat.

With the addition of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, Yogurtland is providing a one-stop shop for all to enjoy. Yogurtland guests can swirl up their choice of chocolate or vanilla ice cream, or both, and head over to the topping bar to build their satisfying, delicious masterpiece. With over 60 fruit, candy, cereal, nuts, cookies and other toppings to choose from, Yogurtland offers fans the chance to completely customize both their yogurt and ice cream experience with all their favorite additions.

“One of the many joys for Yogurtland fans is to build their creation to perfectly suit their taste buds,” says John Carlson, senior vice president of marketing, development and operations at Yogurtland. “Now, fro-yo fanatics and ice cream lovers alike will have the chance to do so, all under one roof at Yogurtland.”

Yogurtland’s flavorologists are continually hand crafting craveable flavors that keep fans loving their experience. Yogurtland owns its own dairy and by controlling the frozen yogurt making process, the company can deliver the highest quality flavors, setting new standards for millions of fans.

Presently Yogurtland has more than 320 locations across the U.S., Australia, Guam, Singapore, Thailand, Venezuela and Dubai.

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 Testing New Product: Snow

Fro-yo girl here. Two Yogurtland locations (CSUF Fullerton and Lakewood, CA) are currently testing Yogurtland Snow. Yogurtland Snow is a shaved ice product. It’s made with a milky liquid that’s transformed into ice and shaved in a machine. There are currently two flavors: original sweet milk and matcha green tea. You can also choose one of their flavor creations:

* Mango madness: original snow, fresh mango, mango puree

* Strawberries & cream: original snow, fresh strawberries, strawberry puree

* The original: original snow, red beans, mochi, condensed milk

* Green tea: green tea snow, red beans, mochi, condensed milk

Order Yogurtland Snow at the counter. A team member will make the snow and your flavor creation. You’re also free to further customize your treat by adding froyo, toppings and sauces. It’s priced by weight at the same price as their yogurt and toppings.

The snow isn’t shaved with a Taiwanese style shaved snow machine (the ones that start with a block of snow that’s shaved into thin ribbons as it spins). The texture is more like a Korean style patbingsu (shaved ice). I prefer the Taiwanese style because it’s smoother and lighter. Granted, I don’t eat a lot of shaved ice or snow because I’d rather have frozen yogurt but I have had what’s considered to be the best Taiwanese snow at Class 302 and I’ve had it some other places too.

I tried the Green Tea snow with red beans, mochi and condensed milk. It’s more like a Korean style shaved ice. The texture is like tiny bits of flavored ice. It’s gritty and doesn’t have the smooth, lightness of Taiwanese snow. The green tea flavor was sweet and pleasant but I’d rather have Yogurtland’s matcha green tea froyo than their shaved ice.

I was told it was Taiwanese style snow but it’s Korean style.

After trying the Snow I filled out a survey and received a coupon for $2 off Yogurtland Snow.

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.

Yogurtland’s New Offering: Zoom, the All-New Way to Froyo

Fro-yo girl here. I recently noticed that Yogurtland Chino Hills, CA and West Covina, CA now offer Yogurtland Zoom. Zoom is a blended froyo product. You select the frozen yogurt flavor and the toppings and Yogurtland blends it together for you (similar to Dairy Queen’s Blizzard or McDonald’s McFlurry) using a machine.

I visited Yogurtland West Covina (1000 W Covina Pkwy). Zoom is priced by weight at the same price: 45 cents an ounce. There are taller Zoom cups, longer spoons, and signs with instructions and recipes.

I decided to mix Lucky Mint Crème froyo, Double Cookies & Cream froyo, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and Oreo cookies. I put everything in the cup (you don’t have to fill the cup) and handed it to the Yogurtland associate. The cup is placed into a blending machine and everything is mixed together. It doesn’t take long.

I liked what I blended together – the flavors were complementary. However, I noticed the add ins weren’t blended in well. The chocolate chips still seemed to be intact and there were big cookie chunks too. Other places do a better job blending the yogurt and toppings. The frozen yogurt comes out softer too. I like unblended frozen yogurt and toppings better.

Yogen Fruz is the leader in the mixed/blended froyo category. In Southern California, you can get custom blended frozen yogurt at Yogen Fruz in Tarzana, Humphrey Yogart in Sherman Oaks, 21 Choices in Pasadena and Claremont, and CDM Yogurt in Newport Beach (Orange County). You can also find custom blended frozen yogurt at Blush in Burlingame, CA, Tucker’s in Alameda, CA, Sweet Retreat in San Jose, CA, Oregon Frozen Yogurt in Oregon, WI, Angora Café in Boston and Loving Cup in San Francisco. Frozen Peaks, with locations in New Jersey and New York, offers FP Swirl, their custom blended frozen yogurt.

While a custom blended frozen yogurt can be tasty as it more evenly distributes the toppings so that there are toppings in every bite, it does change the flavor of the frozen yogurt (which can be good or bad). Some toppings don’t taste as good when they’re blended – for example, graham cracker crumbs become gritty when blended into the frozen yogurt, and mochi isn’t transformed, it just becomes smaller. The seeds get separated from the berry flesh. Cookies, candy and sauces make the best add ins. I’ve also noticed that on more than one occasion when a machine is used to blend the yogurt and toppings, sometimes the previous mix contaminates the next mix. The water flushing doesn’t remove all of the previous mix. The texture is also less smooth after toppings are blended in. Getting the right mix of frozen yogurt and toppings including the correct proportions can be tricky. 

Here are some of my recipes:

• Fresh strawberry froyo + frosted animal cookies + sprinkles + white chocolate chips
• Sumatra coffee froyo + crushed Butterfingers + Oreos
• Peanut butter froyo + Nutter Butter bites + peanuts + chocolate chips
• Matcha green tea froyo + Plain tart froyo + Fruity Pebbles 
• Coconut froyo + mango froyo + pineapple sorbet + coconut + fresh pineapple

Do you like custom blended frozen yogurt? Have you tried it? Would you be willing to try it?

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.

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.