Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Pinkberry Chilly Bliss Bag


Fro-yo girl here. If you love Pinkberry and enjoy home fro-yo consumption, you absolutely need to get the new Pinkberry Chilly Bliss Bag for $9.99. Use the Bliss Bag (a cooler bag) and get $1 off your future take home Pinkberry purchases...it pays for itself with 10 take home purchases. The bag features the same aqua & lime colored thin stripes as their take home container and the exterior of some of their stores - nicely coordinated. The roomy cooler bag would look cute at the beach.

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

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Future Fro-yo Shop Picture: Yogurtland Palo Alto


Fro-yo girl here. Yes, it's true...I spotted the Yogurtland Coming Soon sign at the Modernbook shop on University Avenue. While Palo Alto has plenty of quality fro-yo, it lacked a good self-serve fro-yo place (L'Amour Frozen Yogurt is expensive and inferior). It looks like the sign hasn't been there for long. I'm still reeling from the closure of Satura Cakes, so seeing Yogurtland is on the way picks up my spirits. It's going to be even more difficult to pick which fro-yo shop to go to in Palo Alto.
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* YOGURTLAND PALO ALTO: 494 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA

Friday, April 15, 2011

April 's Flavor: Wildberry Tart at Tuttimelon West Portal



Fro-yo girl here. Maybe it's the feeling that spring has arrived, but lately, I can't stop craving fro-yo. The Wildberry Tart sign at Tuttimelon West Portal caught my eye a few weeks ago...but I got distracted by the opening of Teaway Express, TuttiSpoons, and a trip to Seattle.





Unfortunately, Tuttimelon West Portal doesn't have the TuttiSpoons but they do have an April fro-yo flavor that's worth trying - Wildberry Tart. Wildberry is made with the juice of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.It's a delicious combination of berry flavors. The blueberry notes are the most prominent, followed by raspberry and then strawberry. The fro-yo is thick and creamy with a sweet finish and that Tuttimelon tartness that I've grown to love.

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

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

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Julie's Organic Lemon Frozen Yogurt Sandwiches Review


Fro-yo girl here. Julie's Organic has one variety of frozen yogurt sandwiches, Lemon Yogurt with Vanilla Cookies. A package of sandwiches in a cute tube costs $5.69 at Whole Foods.

The round vanilla cookies have a pretty pattern but the taste and texture (hard, crumbly, like sand cookies) are strange. I realized after the fact that they were vegan cookies. The frozen yogurt is sweet and lemony, which is disappointing since I love a good tart lemon flavor. I also didn't like the thick, sticky, gelato like consistency.

3 out of 5 stars.

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

Saturday, April 9, 2011

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.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Fro-yo Tweets

Fro-yo girl here. Since I joined Twitter, I've tweeted over 2,500 times. I love using it to follow fro-yo shops all over the world (though I tend not to add the ones that don't tweet in English), follow fro-yo conversations, retweet fro-yo news and promotions, and more. Free fro-yo announcements are a favorite of mine, plus learning about new shops and new flavors.

I just don't understand fro-yo shops that create Twitter accounts and don't tweet...or very rarely tweet even though it's free and takes very little time. Bericup's last tweet was on the day it opened. Yo-Go Frozen Yogurt doesn't even have one tweet. What a shame and what a lost opportunity. I'm sure many fans of the shop who are on Twitter would love to receive timely information from the fro-yo shop and it helps keep the shop on someone's mind.

One thing I always wonder is what flavors are currently at the shop. Some old school fro-yo shops put this in a recorded message that plays when you call the shop. Some put the flavors on their website...but when flavors change often, it seems easier to just post these on Twitter (or Facebook). A new flavor or the return of an old favorite can prompt me to visit the shop.

I also like the more creative fro-yo tweets that encourage readers to respond, like ones that pose fun questions, e.g., 21 Choices asked "if you were a frozen yogurt, you would be?" Contests, special promotions (e.g., mention the secret word and get a free topping), events, celebrity sightings, sharing pics of customers w/ their fro-yo, sharing positive testimonials - fro-yo shops have so much to talk about.

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

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Yogurt Review: Skyr & Eros


Fro-yo girl here. During my Whole Foods shopping trips, I found two yogurt lines that are exclusive to Whole Foods, Skyr.is and Eros. Technically you can get Skyr.is elsewhere (Iceland) but in the U.S. only Whole Foods carries it.

Skyr.is is imported from Iceland and at $3.39 each (6 oz. cup), the most expensive yogurt I've seen (though I think the price has dropped to $2.99). Whole Foods SF had three flavors: blueberry, plain, strawberry. There's a vanilla one too, but I didn't see it there. I tried blueberry. The list of ingredients is short: milk, sugar, blueberry juice, elderberry juice, citric acid, live & active cultures.

* Skyr.is blueberry yogurt: very creamy, smooth, dense and thick, more tangy than sour, liked the bright fresh fruit flavor but it was definitely sweeter than Siggi's...I still prefer Siggi's. 4.5 out of 5 stars.


Eros Organic Greek Yogurt is made for Whole Foods and it claims to be the first and only yogurt made with Certified Humane Raised and Handled organic low fat cow's milk from small family farms. It uses an all natural evaporation method to thicken the yogurt, not powdered milk solids or gelatin. It comes in Plain, Vanilla, Honey, Strawberry and Blueberry and is $1.99 for a 6 oz. cup. I chose honey which is made with 2% milk, wildflower honey, pectin, live & active cultures.

* Eros honey yogurt: definitely tangy, very thick, creamy, and heavy. The texture was oddly sticky (in an unpleasant way) and the honey had a bitter aftertaste. 3 out of 5 stars.

Skyr is even thicker than Greek style yogurt. It's technically a soft cheese.

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