Froyo for Breakfast

Fro-yo girl here. Do you ever crave frozen yogurt in the morning? Ever think that most frozen yogurt shops open too late? 

My answer is yes to both of course. I miss Jubili Frozen Yogurt on Fillmore, which used to open at 8 AM and made wonderful frozen yogurt parfaits.

The good news is that you can get Fraiche’s frozen yogurt early in the morning. The SF and Palo Alto locations open at 7 AM on weekdays (8 AM on weekends) and the frozen yogurt is ready early (as soon as they open or shortly thereafter). The Stanford campus location opens a bit later but it does have steel cut oatmeal and housemade mochi.

My favorite thing to get is their SF Chronicle special ($6.25): Slow cooked, warm steel cut oatmeal, your choice of five toppings in between and your choice of yogurt or frozen yogurt on top. The toppings insulate the frozen yogurt so it doesn’t melt that quickly but even when it melts into the frozen yogurt, it tastes amazing. My favorite toppings are extra housemade mochi, fresh fruit and something crunchy, like Batter Bakery's granola which has nuts and coconut.

They sometimes run out of steel cut oatmeal so it pays to go early. Should you not feel like having frozen yogurt for breakfast, they have steel cut oatmeal, yogurt muffins, green juice, housemade Greek (non-frozen yogurt), kombucha and more.

Caffe Ambrosia in the FiDi area of downtown SF is open early but they don’t turn on their frozen yogurt machines till later (around 10:30 AM). Caffe Ambrosia was nice enough to say that you could call first and ask them to turn it on earlier.

Pinkberry Union Square opens at 10 AM which is earlier than most places. I’m not sure about the hours for the Walgreen’s frozen yogurt machines but the location opens at 7 AM.

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

* FRAICHE YOGURT: 1910 Fillmore St., San Francisco, CA 

* CAFFE AMBROSIA: 14 Trinity Place, San Francisco, CA
* PINKBERRY: 170 O’Farrell St., San Francisco, CA

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.

Fraiche Palo Alto Moves to Larger Space

Fro-yo girl here. Fraiche just moved from its original and very first location at 644 Emerson to 200 Hamilton (just down the street from the old location). It’s a larger space (the old A.G. Ferrari location). Today was the first day and it was chaotically busy.



I like how the new decor is more feminine and cozier. They’ve added more seating. The menu hasn’t changed much (fresh housemade Greek yogurt, frozen yogurt, Blue Bottle Coffee, steel cut oatmeal, juices, baked goods) but they added a new fro-yo machine with two new flavors: hibiscus grapefruit sorbet and Oreo cookie.



I also spotted some slices of bread from Mayfield Bakery which can be topped with various spreads including an interesting tangy yogurt spread. The savory loaf was another new addition. It’s made with Fraiche yogurt.

I was happy that the homemade mochi made the move too.

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

* FRAICHE YOGURT: 200 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto, CA

Mochi for Sale Online

Fro-yo girl here. When it comes to fro-yo toppings, mochi is my very favorite topping. I've been fond of it ever since I remember (long before I tried frozen yogurt). I remember mum used to make glutinous sweet rice patties for me. She'd add water to sweet rice flour till it formed a dough, shape patties and pan fry them till golden. They were sticky and chewy. Or she'd use the same dough and shape it into small balls that she'd drop into a boiling pot of red bean soup. Those chewy balls coated with red bean soup were the best.

I'm sure fro-yo is responsible for rising mochi sales and the introduction of new mochi products.

There's even several places you can order mochi online, including:
* SunnySweetNovember on Etsy: tiny bits that seem perfect for fro-yo, flavors include vanilla, chocolate truffle, cayenne, lemon, cinnamon, coconut, matcha, hazelnut, butter, almond, orange zest
* Simply Mochi: limited to the Bay Area, these are creative filled dessert mochi, like Oreo Cheesecake
* Fugetsu-do: your traditional Japanese mochi can be ordered from JapanSuper.com
* Nutsonline.com has chocolate covered and black sesame mochi bits

I found some mochi recipes that seem really easy. Baking the mochi probably is better than microwaving it...will have to try with the sweet rice flour that I bought today.

* Microwave mochi recipe: http://www.ehow.com/how_2075110_make-mochi.html
* Baked mochi recipe: http://www.ehow.com/how_4876667_make-mochi-recipe.html

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

Streets of Fro-yo

Fro-yo girl here. Once a year I talk about fro-yo hot spots, cities where the most fro-yo activity is occurring. Today I wanted to recognize specific streets in San Francisco. Which SF street has the most fro-yo shops?

Right now it's Fillmore St., so let's take a look at the fro-yo shops on Fillmore.

* JUBILI - 1515 Fillmore St. Now that Yogurt Bar has closed, Jubili is the oldest tart fro-yo shop in SF. The fro-yo hasn't changed much recently (same flavors) but they added cupcakes and cookies (a line called Velveteen Sweets). I wonder why they stopped coming out with new fro-yo flavors?
* FRAICHE - 1910 Fillmore St. Fraiche's organic fro-yo is really great right now and their homemade mochi cubes are the best. I like how the mochi is bigger and fresher than the mochi at other fro-yo shops. Their newish pumpkin flavor is amazing and I like those yogurt muffins too.
* YOPPI YOGURT - 2208 Fillmore St. They opened up recently and brought self-serve fro-yo to this street. It's a cute shop (like those Yoppi characters) though on the small side for a fro-yo shop.
* ROYAL GROUND COFFEE - 2060 Fillmore St. Okay, it's not a fro-yo shop but they do have one machine. I would avoid it. Fro-yo feels like an afterthought here.

Quickly on Fillmore had a frozen yogurt sign but when I went inside, they didn't have fro-yo.

Union Street and Irving Street are also good streets for fro-yo.

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

My New Lunchtime Obsession

Fro-yo girl here. At first I was skeptical about combining warm steel-cut oatmeal with cold fro-yo, but it's a combination that really works. Now I find myself craving Fraiche's SF Chronicle Special ($5.95 + tax): steel cut oatmeal, your choice of five toppings, fresh or frozen yogurt (choose frozen!). The creamy organic fro-yo, fresh fruit toppings and oatmeal are all simple and natural. The oatmeal makes the snack substantive enough to have for lunch. The toppings insulate the fro-yo from the oatmeal and even if it does melt a bit, it still tastes great with oatmeal. Plus, you can get homemade mochi as a topping!

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

* FRAICHE: 1901 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA, 94115

2009: The Fro-yo Year in Review

Fro-yo girl here. Back in January 2008, I developed my wish list for 2009. Most of my wishes had come true by June 2009. Here’s a look back at what I wished for and what actually happened.

* Soy fro-yo: Not much has changed. It’s still offered by Fraiche but hasn’t caught on. WholeSoy & Co. offers pints of organic soy fro-yo at health food supermarkets but I haven’t seen it yet: http://www.wholesoyco.com/product_frozen.html and it doesn’t come in any tart flavors
* Kefir fro-yo: Culture offered it a few times but not for long. Apparently it didn’t agree with their fro-yo machines. Starfruit Café in Chicago added a second location in 2009.
* New fro-yo flavors: There was much progress in this area from all over the world. In the Bay Area, Blush introduced the first organic cookies n’ cream flavor, along with guava and pina colada. Tuttimelon launched many new flavors including passionfruit, coconut, guava, and almond. Pinkberry added passionfruit, coconut, and chocolate. Red Mango added pumpkin spice and the unique Tangomonium. Sadly, some unique flavors like Chill Café’s Red Tea are no longer available.
* Mochi at Culture Organic Frozen Yogurt: I’m very frustrated that they still don’t have mochi. It’s almost unforgivable. I know that they aren’t like other fro-yo shops but mochi is my favorite fro-yo topping.
* More homemade mochi all over: This really happened at places like Sweet Orchid in Fremont, Coco Swirl, Hello Desserts, Yogurtastic, and Fraiche. And flavored mochi became fairly common.
* Tuttimelon’s growth continues: Tuttimelon continues to be the largest fro-yo player in the Bay Area, expanding into almost every SF neighborhood, the South Bay, Peninsula, East Bay, Asia, and Canada. Most of the new locations are self-serve.
* Fro-yo at Target and Trader Joe’s: Trader Joe’s offers frozen tart fro-yo. Target carries Ben & Jerry’s fro-yo.
* Tart fro-yo in your local supermarket freezer section: Trader Joe’s, Dreyer’s, Haagen Daaz and Cefiore answered the call for supermarket tart fro-yo.

I’m fairly happy with 2009 because most people in the Bay Area can now get fro-yo without driving too far and fro-yo shops keep on opening. There were also unexpected surprises like my new collection of Yogurtland spoons.

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

New Yogurtland Logo

Fro-yo girl here. Here’s a picture of the new Yogurtland sign. They’re coming out with a new tagline too. I’m told that the San Ramon location is the only one with the new sign so far. I also took a picture of their soft, chewy pink and green mochi cubes, made for Yogurtland in Sacramento. They aren’t strongly flavored. The green tastes like lime and the pink is strawberry.

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

Mochi Update: Invasion of the Rainbow Colored Mochi

Fro-yo girl here. I first blogged about my favorite topping, mochi balls, in October 2008 and it’s time for an update because the Korean brand that is used by most tart fro-yo shops, Dae Doo Food Co., very recently introduced a colored version of mochi (bingsoo rice cake). The new colored mochi balls aren’t flavored. They taste the same as the white version. The mochi balls come in pink, green, yellow and blue. They’ve been spotted at Fro-ggie and Tuttimelon.

Someone in the US should seriously manufacture mochi balls for fro-yo shops (and make some flavored versions too). I worry that Dae Doo Food Co. won’t be able to keep up with mochi demand.

Since my October posting, several other fro-yo shops started offering homemade mochi balls and they deserve to be mentioned here: Hello Desserts, Yogurtastic, and Pink Swirl. I wish I could say more but I haven’t had tried the homemade mochi at Hello Desserts or Yogurtastic. The Pink Swirl variety comes from a Japanese bakery in Los Angeles, Fugetsu-do: http://www.fugetsu-do.com/buymochi.htm

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

* HELLO DESSERTS: 1698 Hostetter Rd, San Jose, CA
* YOGURTASTIC: 3924 Washington Blvd, Fremont, CA
* PINK SWIRL: 43423 Mission Blvd, Fremont, CA
* FRO-GGIE: 1554 Washington Blvd, Fremont, CA 94539
* TUTTIMELON SAN MATEO: 165 E. 4th Ave., San Mateo, CA
* TUTTIMELON POLK: 2125 Polk St, San Francisco

SoCal Fro-Yo Report: Flavored Mochi Balls at Twist

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve found another place in SoCal that’s worthy of extra attention from fro-yoholics, or should I say mochiholics. It’s called Twist and at 28 cents an ounce, they claim to be the cheapest self-serve fro-yo shop in the US. The sheer variety of fro-yo and toppings is astounding: 14 flavors of fro-yo (sweet, tart), over 50 toppings including fresh fruit (and my favorite, pomegranate seeds).

The fro-yo is good but the real attraction at Twist is their flavored mochi balls, made exclusively for Twist.

During my visit they had the following mochi balls:
* Plain
* Pineapple
* Blueberry
* Strawberry
* Chocolate
* Coconut

I tried plain, pineapple, blueberry and strawberry. The mochi balls were soft, chewy and tiny (I prefer larger mochi balls). They should tone down the food coloring though. While I prefer the mochi topping at sno:la, Twist is much cheaper and more convenient (in terms of parking). If there are other places in SoCal where you can find homemade mochi balls, drop me a line – I need to know.

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

* TWIST FROZEN YOGURT: 12105 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA

SoCal Fro-Yo Favorite: sno:la

Fro-yo girl here. I apologize for my absence. I've been busy eating fro-yo (of course) in SoCal. Though I haven't been able to visit every SoCal fro-yo shop, I've fallen in love with one above all others in the area, sno:la.

Why sno:la? Their organic Italian tart stands apart from other tart fro-yos. It's quite sour and tastes closer to plain yogurt. The flavor is pure and fresh. And it's better for you too. It is made without any refined white sugar.

They also have unique fro-yo flavors like fig & date, pumpkin pie, sour cherry, and gojiberry. I get the sense that the flavors come from the fruit, not powders or syrups.

Toppings are also better than what you'll usually find, including their own sauces (e.g., sour cherry), aloe vera, nata de coco and best of all, homemade mochi (plain, green tea, strawberry). Their mochi topping is the freshest I've had and it also seems to be all natural. Get this - they don't cut the mochi till you order it!

sno:la is a green business. Look around the shop and you'll see recycled materials. Cups and utensils are biodegradable. They also donate to Slow Food USA and United Nations World Food Programme.

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

* sno:la - 244 North Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills, CA