Erewhon Introduces Vegan, Organic Soft Serve in Tonic Bars

Fro-yo girl here. Erewhon just added vegan, organic coconut soft serve ice cream at the Culver City and Pasadena locations. There is one flavor that tastes like coconut. The soft serve is gluten-free, non-GMO, kosher, soy-free, dairy-free, and allergen-friendly. It is not frozen yogurt. 

Coconut Soft Serve: The soft serve was thick, rich, and creamy. It had a strong coconut taste. It seemed sweeter than usual and the 8 oz serving was so large that I got tired of eating it. The glazes sounded very sweet. The 8 oz cup was only $6.

They’re serving a soft serve mix from Coconut Bliss out of a Stoelting counter-top soft serve machine. The machine has a single hopper, so they'll only be able to offer one flavor at a time.

The soft serve is available from the Tonic Bar. It’s not on the menu yet, but I was told that there are two sizes (8 oz & 12 oz) and the option to add any of their glazes (fruit, maple), coffee, goji berries, walnuts, cacao nibs, etc. It sounds like the toppings were already offered at the tonic bar and they haven’t added fresh fruit, granola, and other toppings that would pair well with the soft serve.

Coconut Bliss was acquired by HumanCo in 2020 and rebranded as Cosmic Bliss. Erewhon plans to add the soft serve to all locations in the near future. I’m hoping they also improve the toppings options. Also, I’d really like a smaller cup size (4 to 6 oz). They should be serving Yoga-urt because it's so much better. 

You can find the ingredients and nutritional information on Azure Standard.

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.

Press Brothers Juicery Introduces Coconut Milk Soft Serve

Fro-yo girl here. Plant based vegan soft serve seems like the perfect treat on a hot day. It’s light and refreshing. I was walking through Grand Central Market in downtown LA when I saw the big sign for Press Brothers Juicery’s Coconut Milk Soft Serve.

Press Brothers is Los Angeles owned and operated. They specialize in cold pressed juice which you can find at Grand Central Market and other locations throughout LA. The Grand Central Market shop also has frozen slushies, popsicles and now, Coconut Milk Soft Serve.

PBJ’s soft serve is vegan, organic, gluten free, soy free and probiotic. They add a six strain blend. It’s $4 for a four oz cup. They only had the one Madagascar Vanilla flavor though apparently they do have a chocolate flavor too. Toppings choices are limited to sprinkles, coconut flakes and cacao nibs.

* Madagascar Vanilla Coconut Milk Soft Serve: The cup looked small but 4 oz is a good amount of froyo. I’m not sure how much sugar was added but it was pretty sweet. The texture was smooth but icy. The flavor was not unpleasant but I’d definitely call it subtle. The vanilla flavor was subtle and the whole treat didn’t have a lot of flavor. It was light and refreshing though, without tasting overly processed. And I liked the crunchy, flavorful cacao nibs. I prefer the flavor of Pressed Freeze but PBJ’s soft serve has a smoother texture but the best vegan soft serve by far is from Yoga-urt (1407 W Kenneth Rd, Glendale, CA 91201).

Look for a new location opening in Hollywood (Franklin Plaza).

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

* PRESS BROTHERS JUICERY: 317 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013

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.

Menchie’s is Testing Freshly Made Waffles

Fro-yo girl here. Menchie’s University in Encino is where Menchie’s tests new products and flavors and provides training. Recently they were testing a new dairy-free flavor, dark chocolate made with coconut milk. I headed over less than a week later and the flavor was nowhere to be found. I guess the test flavors aren’t there long. I heard they were testing a Marshmallow Peeps flavor next. If I lived closer to Menchie’s University, I’d certainly go there regularly.

During my visit they were testing a new product: freshly made waffles. They’re sold by the weight for the same price as froyo and toppings. Head to the Menchie’s team member and ask for a waffle. The waffle iron is kept next to the round waffle iron they use to make waffle bowls.

A team member pours the batter onto the waffle iron. After a few minutes the hot waffle is ready. The waffle is rectangular (6 squares long, 3 squares wide). It’s a light waffle with deep pockets. The texture is soft and slightly crispy. It is not a liege waffle; the denser liege waffle would hold up to froyo better. Froyo gets absorbed into the Menchie’s waffle and quickly makes it soggy. Pro tip: Put your froyo on the side, not on top of your waffle.

The waffle flavor was okay but not better than those waffles you can make for yourself with a waffle iron at a hotel. The fact that the froyo makes the waffle soggy is a big negative. 

My two cents: If Menchie’s wants to offer waffles, they should make the batter more interesting and make a denser waffle that doesn’t get soggy so easily. Flavored waffles (made with flavored batter) like peanut butter or chocolate sound much more appealing than plain waffles. Or offer waffle bites dipped in different kinds of chocolate, peanut butter, etc. 

I actually like Liege waffles but they’re pretty filling so I probably wouldn’t get one plus add froyo to it.

Menchie’s University is also selling snacks by Brookside, IceBreakers Mints, IceBreakers Ice Cubes and Hershey’s Kisses Deluxe.

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

* MENCHIE’S UNIVERSITY: 17245 Ventura Blvd., Encino, CA 91316

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.

Menchie’s Tahitian Vanilla Coconut Milk Flavor Review

Fro-yo girl here. Menchie’s has introduced its first dairy-free coconut flavor, Tahitian Vanilla. None of my local Menchie’s locations carries the new flavor but I finally found it at the Fremont, CA location. 

* Dairy-free Tahitian Vanilla made with coconut milk: It’s lowfat, kosher, gluten free and made with real Indonesian coconut milk and Tahitian vanilla. The coconut milk soft serve had many visible vanilla bean specks, so I was expecting a lot of vanilla bean flavor. 

Unfortunately, I did not find the vanilla flavor or much coconut flavor for that matter. The flavor was thick, icy and pretty sweet but ultimately very bland. I’m not sure why it was so devoid of flavor.

Recommended toppings: Coconut, Cap'n Crunch, Oreos, cheesecake

The coconut milk flavor does not have live and active cultures.

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.

Pinkberry Coconut Milk Swirl, Redesigned Menu, New Toppings

Fro-yo girl here. It was just last year when Pinkberry introduced its first dairy-free offering, Tropical Mango. Now they have Coconut Milk Swirl, soft serve that’s made with coconut milk. It’s dairy-free, gluten-free, and doesn’t have live and active cultures (so there’s no tang). It hasn’t been easy to find a Pinkberry location that carries their Coconut Milk Swirl but I tracked it down and found it at the Union Square location in San Francisco.

I tried the Coconut Milk Swirl in Coconut. I’m not a big fan of coconut but I liked their Coconut Milk Swirl. First, the texture was very pleasing: smooth, dense, creamy, thick. It tasted like coconut of course and it was mellow and not super sweet. Hopefully I’ll find the two other Coconut Milk Swirl flavors, dark chocolate and salted caramel, soon. I imagine it would be tasty in fruit flavors like lime.

Coconut Milk Swirl is better than CocoWhip, the Australian vegan, biofermented, frozen yogurt made with coconut water, organic bio-fermented coconut powder & vegetable sourced stabilizers. CocoWhip is light and airy but very, very bland.

I've tried a coconut milk soft serve at another froyo shop and that was gritty, dense and icy. 

The San Francisco Pinkberry location has a new redesigned menu which has design your own smoothies on one side and the soft serve menu on the right. The smoothies can be made with any of their soft serves and you can add fruit, toppings and Superfood boosts.

The soft serve has three categories: frozen yogurt, coconut milk and just fruit. The Union Square location had one coconut milk swirl flavor, coconut.

I also noticed new toppings: handcrafted toasted marshmallows (toasted to order) and cubes of fresh honeycomb. 

It looks like you can order Coconut Milk Swirl in Coconut and Dark Chocolate from the 7288 W. Sunset Blvd. location in Los Angeles from Postmates. Order it online from Postmates: https://postmates.com/la/pinkberry-los-angeles

After my visit Pinkberry emailed a list of locations with Coconut Milk Swirl: http://www.pinkberry.com/dairyfreestores/

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.