Menchie’s April Feature Flavors: Dairy-Free Cookie Sandwich & Orange Pineapple Sorbet

Fro-yo girl here. Happy April! Since it’s a new month, it’s also time for new feature flavors at Menchie’s. This month’s feature flavors have a dairy-free theme. Feature flavors are available for a limited time only, while supplies last.

* Cookie Sandwich made with Blue Diamond almond butter: This is dairy-free soft serve, not frozen yogurt. It does not have any yogurt cultures. It’s lowfat and kosher. If you’re familiar with Menchie’s classic flavor, I Dream of Cookies N’ Cream, Cookie Sandwich has a similar mild, sweet chocolate cookie flavor but it also has the taste of almond butter. It’s creamy but not as creamy and lighter than I Dream of Cookies N’ Cream. Recommended toppings: almonds, Oreos, chocolate shell

* Orange Pineapple sorbet: This is another dairy-free flavor. Orange Pineapple sorbet is made with real pineapple juice concentrate and real orange juice concentrate. It’s nonfat, gluten free, high fructose corn syrup free, and has no artificial colors or flavors. The pineapple flavor is stronger but I could taste the orange too. I like how the pineapple added some tanginess. Recommended toppings: fresh fruit, popping boba.

The Menchie’s I visited did not have the new cup for the Missing Link. P.S. If you haven’t downloaded the new Menchie’s app yet, do it. You’ll get a $5 credit towards your next purchase and double smiles for 60 days from your registration date.

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’s New Dairy-Free Cold Brew Flavor

Fro-yo girl here. There’s a new dairy-free soft serve at Pinkberry: Cold Brew, made with coconut milk. I remember when Pinkberry introduced dairy-free coconut milk soft serve in 2016. Though I usually don’t like coconut anything, I did like their coconut milk soft serve because it was smooth, thick, and not too sweet.

Dairy-free Cold Brew made with coconut milk soft serve: The soft serve wasn’t as smooth as the coconut milk soft serve I had before (at Pinkberry) but that may have been a function of the machine. It was still thick and dense. The coconut milk flavor was pretty strong and so was the cold brew coffee flavor. The flavors were complementary. The coffee flavor was not harsh or bitter. The soft serve was refreshing and felt lighter and cleaner than some of their frozen yogurt flavors.

Pinkberry recommends enjoying their dairy-free Cold Brew soft serve with housemade mocha sauce and chocolate chips. The location that I went to didn’t have the housemade mocha sauce. However, the toppings that I did pick (Almond Roca, dark chocolate crisps, almonds, chocolate chips) were really good too. And the location I went to did have chocolate sauce.

Dairy-free soft serve is definitely a thing right now, and I’m happy to see good dairy-free soft serve at Pinkberry.

Try Dairy-Free Cold Brew through April 18.

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.

Pressed Juicery Testing New Freeze Flavor, Coffee

Fro-yo girl here. Today is World Plant Milk Day. It seemed like a good day for a Pressed Freeze. I was delighted to spot a new test flavor at the Glendale/Americana Pressed Juicery, Coffee.

I’ve never had Pressed Juicery’s Vanilla Coffee drink. It’s made with almond milk, dates, Kona coffee, and vanilla bean. The Coffee Freeze probably has the same short list of natural ingredients. Like other flavors of Freeze, it’s plant-based, vegan, and has no added sugar. 

I no longer see Vanilla Coffee listed on the Pressed Juicery website, so perhaps it's been discontinued or is seasonal.

* Coffee Freeze: The coffee flavor is mellow and smooth. It’s probably not made with dark roast coffee beans? What I like best about Freeze is that it’s not that sweet, it’s very refreshing, and the aftertaste is very clean. It’s one of the better Freeze flavors for sure.

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.

Yoga-urt’s New Flavor, Lavender Blossom

Fro-yo girl here. Yoga-urt introduced a new flavor on Earth Day, Lavender Blossom (with a hint of orange). The color is a beautiful pale purple. I noticed a lot of people were buying it. I did try it but to be honest, I don’t love the flavor of lavender. If I loved lavender, I’m sure I would have loved Lavender Blossom because the lavender flavor is strong. But it has some other spices in it that make it very intriguing. I think I would have preferred orange with a hint of lavender than the other way around. The texture was super thick, typical for Yoga-urt. You can really taste the quality of their product. Of course, lavender blossom is organic, vegan, kosher, gluten free, pro-biotic, and all natural.

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

* YOGA-URT, 1407 ½ W Kenneth Rd., Glendale, CA 91201

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.

New Strawberry Almond Freeze from Pressed Juicery

Fro-yo girl here. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Pressed Juicery has a new flavor of juice, Strawberry Almond and also a new Freeze flavor (finally - it's their first new Freeze flavor since Freeze was introduced). Strawberry Almond juice is made with beet, almonds, vanilla bean, coconut water and strawberry. Strawberry Almond Freeze is made with the same ingredients plus dates for sweetness.

* Strawberry Almond Freeze: So, I tried the Strawberry Almond juice and they added coconut water, so it’s thinner than their regular Vanilla Almond Milk. The coconut water lightens up the juice. It’s sweet and the strawberry flavor isn’t that strong. The Strawberry Almond Freeze is similar. It tastes sweet, without any added sugar, but the strawberry flavor is weak. Also, the texture is thick, icy and gritty. It needs more almond milk. But it is a healthy, clean tasting treat.

3 out of 5 stars.

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.

Magpies Softserve Opens in Silver Lake

Fro-yo girl here. Silver Lake’s newest dessert shop, Magpies Softserve started swirling yesterday. When I heard the call for free swirls, I decided to check it out. They don’t have any frozen yogurt but they do have Taylor machines swirling up 7 flavors of artisanal soft serve a day and housemade toppings. The flavors sound fun and interesting; they include yuzu honey, strawberry rhubarb, sweet cream, sweet corn and honey and Cuban espresso. There are non-dairy options.

Unlike most soft serve spots, Magpies makes their own soft serve without mixes or powders. Toppings include housemade sauces, chocolate honeycomb, maple coconut chips, almond brittle and more.

They’re new so the menu hasn’t been completely finalized but they plan on having cold brew coffee, coffee floats and ice cream cakes.

Prices: Junior $3.95, Regular $4.95, from scratch toppings 95 cents

The shop is small and located in a strip mall across the street from Gelson’s. I’m not sure if the décor is all in place yet but looks like it’s going to be minimal. The cups were clear plastic ones with stickers

I think they were too busy to hand out samples on opening day, so I was only able to try one flavor. The yuzu honey soft serve tasted like plain soft serve with a hint of yuzu. I was hoping for more yuzu flavor. The soft serve was creamy and smooth but on the bland side. The toppings were fantastic though. Try the butterscotch rice krispies for a crispy, chewy, buttery treat.

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

* MAGPIES SOFTSERVE: 2660 Griffith Park Blvd., Los Angeles (Silver Lake), CA 90039

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.