Casa Coco Ice Cream/Froyo, Home-Based Frozen Desserts Business in Los Angeles

Fro-yo girl here. I found out about Casa Coco Ice Cream through LA Taco’s September 2020 article on the ice cream maker, Mercedes S. “She is a transgender Chicana chef who makes high-quality seasonal sorbets and ice cream to sell out of her home in the perpetual summer that is Los Angeles.” Past flavors (e.g., quince, vanilla + yuzu sorbet, feijoa with pink pepper, fennel flower w/ strawberry, cardamom + tiger fig blondie) sounded interesting. Honestly, all the flavors sounded good but I had to try the froyo (not offered too often).

Placing the order was easy. New flavors are announced every week. Send a direct message to reserve your pints, pay and then pick up a few days later on Friday or Sunday.

Pomegranate froyo: The pint was labeled with the flavor but the ingredients were not listed. Since it’s a home kitchen, that doesn’t bother me. Pomegranate froyo was described as “Scott Farms wonderful pomegranates (behemoths of their season) juiced and syruped, blended one-to-one with ever-mighty Karoun labne, churned to tangy-sweet lightness. Little bit of cherry laffy taffy going on? Chewy? Chewy.” Juicing pomegranates is hard work. I like pomegranates and Karoun labne, so I was very excited to try it. The froyo is high quality and full of flavor – no doubt about that. The vibrant color was beautiful as well. Even after several days in my freezer, the froyo wasn’t rock hard. It stayed soft and had a stickier consistency. The flavor was tangy and fruity. I could definitely taste the labne. I did find it a little sweeter than I personally prefer but getting the sweetness right is hard because people like different levels of sweetness. I like froyo that’s very tangy. Quality froyo – it did remind me of Laffy Taffy but with yogurt flavor.

One pint is $10, 2 for $18, 3 for $26, max 3 pints per order.

If you’d like to try Casa Coco, you can order via Venmo/Cash app and find the flavors of the week on Instagram @pulquemami. The pickup location is in Arlington Heights (Central Los Angeles). 

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.

Pomegranate the Favorite Fruity Tart Flavor, Red Velvet the Flavor of the Year

Fro-yo girl here. I recently asked you, the readers, which tart fruity flavor was your favorite. I chose flavors that were fairly common. And the results show...that pomegranate is the clear winner with 41% of the vote. Blueberry tart was the second most popular with 19% of the vote, followed by mango (14%), pineapple (11%) and lychee (8%).

I know quite a few people who like pomegranate tart fro-yo the best, so I wasn't surprised that pomegranate took top honors. Two years ago, I named pomegranate tart as the fro-yo flavor of the year. Last year was the year of acai and this year it's looking like red velvet fro-yo is the flavor of the moment. YoCream came out with red velvet fro-yo this year but red velvet is popular all around - especially at cupcake shops. Even The Cheesecake Factory has a red velvet cake cheesecake.

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

Tuttimelon Pom Fro-yo Is Back!

Fro-yo girl here. I noticed the new signs in the window of the West Portal Tuttimelon location announcing the return of Tuttimelon Pomegranate fro-yo. They have new postcards with the pom fro-yo on the front and pictures of a banana split and fro-yo brunch parfait on the back. The banana split features 2 gelato flavors, 1 swirl of fro-yo, nuts, banana and chocolate syrup. The brunch parfait is smaller than their regular parfait; it features original tart fro-yo (you can get it w/ flavored tart but it costs extra), your choice of 1 fresh fruit topping, granola and honey for $2.99.

Their pomegranate fro-yo is now made with Pom Wonderful! I thought about their pom fro-yo all day but I didn’t get back to SF in time to go to the West Portal location. I went to the Irving Tuttimelon location but they didn’t have pom (they have blueberry tart and original tart right now). Sadness. I still want my pom fro-yo.

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

* TUTTIMELON WEST PORTAL: 44 West Portal Ave., San Francisco, CA

Update: I tried the pom fro-yo and it's soooooo good - better than ever, smooth, tart, fruity, and truly tuttilicious. It's my favorite Tuttimelon flavored tart.

Free Red Mango Pomegranate Fro-Yo Today at 4 PM

Fro-yo girl here. I’m excited that pomegranate is now the new “in” tart fro-yo flavor with Red Mango officially launching its new Pomegranate by POM Wonderful flavor today (free small pomegranate fro-yo to the first 100 customers starting at 4 PM). Pomegranate tart happens to be one of my favorite tart fro-yo flavors (tied with mango tart). You can see that I was excited by the return of pomegranate seeds just a few weeks ago.

November also happens to National Pomegranate Month and Red Mango is beating Pinkberry/Stinkberry to the punch (Pinkberry will introduce its pomegranate fro-yo next week according to NYMag - but I've seen reports that it is already available at some locations). The partnership with POM Wonderful is also a smart idea. POM Wonderful is a premium, all natural juice and Red Mango also positions itself as premium and all natural. It’s taken SO long for Red Mango to come out with a new flavor that I think they’re going to see a huge response. Also, their Pomegranate fro-yo is there for a limited time.

I’m confident that Red Mango’s pomegranate fro-yo will be much better than Stinkberry’s. I’ll review their pomegranate fro-yo later today.

Update: It's tasty (the RM pomegranate fro-yo). Of course it tastes like pomegranate since it's flavored with 100% pomegranate juice concentrate (from POM Wonderful) but they also add quite a bit of sugar so that the end result isn't sour at all but is tangy and extremely creamy. I personally like the tartness of pomegranates so I'd prefer the flavor to have less sugar, but Red Mango has sweeter fro-yo so the flavor they introduced meets my expectations.

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