Juice Served Here Offers Food, including Coco Yogurt

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve tried Juice Served Here before. Their “never conventional” cold-pressed juices and beverages are more creative than the other juice places. I like how they blend nut milk with green juice to create Green Milk. They also use unusual ingredients like lucuma, maca, charcoal, clay, rose oil, colloidal gold and pearl powder.

Recently I walked by and saw a poster for Coco Yogurt in the window. Juice Served Here collaborated with The Springs of DTLA to introduce new plant based foods menu that includes overnight oats, chia pudding, salads, sandwiches and bowls. Most items are vegan, mostly organic and and sometimes gluten free. They even have new cleanses that include food and juice.

The Coco Yogurt was kept in a fridge by the door, along with their other packaged grab and go foods. It was $7 something.

* Coco Yogurt: This is a dairy-free, vegan yogurt with probiotics made with young Thai coconut meat, fresh coconut milk, vegan probiotics, blueberries, maple syrup, agave, rolled oats, 7 spice, grapeseed oil, ginger and freeze dried pineapple. The 7 spice granola is in a separate compartment perched on top. The coco yogurt is covered in a blueberry puree. I really liked the granola. The intriguing 7 spice blend reminded me of Chinese five spice. The oats were in big clusters, soft but crunchy in different areas. The blueberry puree wasn’t too sweet. The yogurt was quite creamy, though not as rich or thick as Greek yogurt. It also wasn’t tangy. The coconut flavor wasn’t overpowering or too strong. I’d call it mild. A cup of yogurt is filling and satisfying. I recommend keeping the granola on top rather than mixing it into the yogurt.

I’m hoping to go to The Springs soon to try more of their healthy, plant-based food.

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.

Nature Republic Greek Yogurt Packs

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve been a longtime fan of Korres Yoghurt skincare line and I was excited to find another Greek yogurt product at Nature Republic. Nature Republic is a South Korean cosmetics company with retail locations in Asia and the US.

I spotted three types of yogurt packs: Blueberry for skin elasticity, Orange for skin brightening and Plain for nourishing. Plain smelled the best (like apricot).

The plain yogurt pack is meant to be applied at night as a sleeping mask. It gets absorbed into your skin so there’s no need to rinse it off. You can also use the product in the day as a nourishing cream. You’re supposed to apply a generous amount but I didn’t want to get it on my pillow.

The plain yogurt pack looks like yogurt (white) and it’s thick and creamy like Greek yogurt. Yogurt is good for moisturizing and soothing your skin. I put some on my dry skin and it felt instantly soothed. Every time I wake up after using the pack, my skin feels soft.

Nature Republic’s yogurt pack is made with shea butter, jojoba seed oil, lactobacillus ferment, lactococcus ferment lysate, streptococcus thermophilus ferment, yogurt extract, etc. It’s made in Korea. One tub is 4.39 fl oz and sells for $12.90. It looks like a cup of yogurt and comes with a spatula.

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 Introduces a New Coffee Karma Flavor

Fro-yo girl here. Yoga-urt just came out with a new flavor, Coffee Karma made with organic Groundwork Coffee. It’s housemade, organic, vegan, dairy-free, kosher, all-natural, gluten free, soy free and has probiotics. I love coffee. I love coffee flavored frozen yogurt. Coffee Karma has a fresh brewed coffee flavor. It’s the right amount of coffee – not too intense, not too bitter. And it’s not too sweet. Thumbs up.

Recommended toppings: Housemade chocolate sauce, cacao nibs and chocolate chips. It’s currently swirling with Chocolate Bliss because coffee and chocolate were meant to be together. Chocolate brings out the coffee flavor.

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.

Menchie’s January Flavors and Dragon Quest Builders

Fro-yo girl here. Menchie’s has two promotional, limited time flavors of the month: Carrot Cake and La Crème Brulee. I haven’t run into La Crème Brulee yet.

Carrot Cake is a low-fat flavor made with real carrots, cream cheese and cinnamon. I don’t eat carrot cake but I imagine the carrot flavor wouldn’t be that noticeable because of everything else in the cake. That’s the case with Carrot Cake frozen yogurt, which mainly tasted like cinnamon and cream cheese to me, followed by a cakey flavor. It seemed sweeter than usual, perhaps because of the cream cheese. It’s an indulgent flavor. Recommended toppings: almonds, white chocolate chips, Cool Whip.

Menchie’s has also partnered with Square Enix for the Dragon Quest Builders promotion. Dragon Quest Builders video game has exclusive in-game content from Menchie’s. Also, during the month of January, Menchie’s locations in the US will carry limited edition Dragon Quest Builders yogurt cups and in-store signage. There’s a Menchie’s sweepstakes for registered MySmileage members too. You can enter the sweepstakes at: http://registrationinfo.net/DQBsweeps

I picked up my Dragon Quest Builders cup and took pictures of the in-store signage.

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 Introduces New Pinkbee’s Strawberry

Fro-yo girl here. Last June Pinkberry launched Pinkbee’s lowfat ice cream with the optional topping of the Honeycomb Drizzle. Now they’ve announced a new Pinkbee’s flavor, strawberry, available starting January 4, 2017. Pinkbee’s Strawberry ice cream is a fitting seasonal flavor with Valentine’s day around the corner. It will be available until February 28. Try the Strawberry Sweetheart combination, featuring Pinkbee’s Strawberry topped with fresh strawberries and chocolate drizzle.

I spotted and tried Pinkbee’s Strawberry a few months ago but it was a tiny melted sample so I didn’t get the full experience. I tried it again. The nice thing about it is that it’s made with a strawberry puree that has bits of strawberry in it. Also, it’s not too sweet. The texture is thick and creamy but it doesn’t feel too heavy. However, it has no tang and it doesn’t have the wonderful qualities of frozen yogurt. The aftertaste isn’t as nice as the frozen yogurt either. But if you like soft serve ice cream, it’s worth trying. My recommended toppings are strawberries, raspberries, yogurt chips, almonds and Almond Roca.

I first tried Pinkbee’s in 2014 at Pinkberry Koreatown (Los Angeles). I tried it shortly after trying Honeymee for the first time. Both Honeymee and Pinkbee’s are milk flavored soft serve ice cream products. They were inspired by the milk soft serve with honeycomb popularized by the South Korean chain, Softree. Pinkberry Koreatown also had a matcha Pinkbee’s flavor.

Pinkbee’s is definitely creamier than Pinkberry’s frozen yogurt product. It’s made with low-fat milk, so it is a lighter soft serve ice cream. Honeymee and Milkcow (a Korean chain) offer a creamier, richer milk soft serve that I actually prefer but the lighter version makes sense for Pinkberry. Anyway, I prefer their frozen yogurt to their ice cream. I know a couple of Pinkberry fans who don’t like Pinkbee’s but that’s probably because they love froyo.

Speaking of soft serve ice cream, several soft serve shops opened in Los Angeles last year, including Magpies in Silver Lake, SomiSomi in Koreatown, Matcha Matcha in Arcadia, Drips & Swirls in Koreatown and Beeline (now called Tea Master) in Little Tokyo. Beeline/Tea Master has the best matcha soft serve but I haven’t tried the new Matcha Midori which opened this year.

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.

SnapFit Frozen Yogurt No Longer Opening in Brea, CA

Fro-yo girl here. A few months ago I started tracking SnapFit Frozen Yogurt. I planned on visiting their Canoga Park, CA location but it closed in July 2016, before I made it out there. However, they planned on opening a location at the Brea Mall.

According to the Brea Mall website, the SnapFit store was expected to open in late August 2016. This opening date kept getting pushed back – to October 1, then November and finally the store was removed from the website. Their Facebook page was last updated on May 31, 2016. This was also the date of their last tweet and Instagram post.

SnapFit sounded interesting and healthier; the frozen yogurt was all natural with no sugar added. It was made with farmstead yogurt and lowfat milk. Plus, the frozen yogurt was made to order with liquid nitrogen.

It seems like SnapFit just disappeared.

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.

Froyo Wish List for 2017

Fro-yo girl here. It’s the new year and time for my ninth annual froyo wish list. Before I share my wishes, I’d like to review my 2016 wishes.

My 2016 wishes:

* Going to more countries to try their froyo (e.g., Llaollao, Frozen by a Thousand Blessings, Sour Sally, Berry Culture, The Local Frozen Yogurt, Pick Yo)

Update: This didn’t happen. I didn’t even leave California.

* I'm still looking for good tart froyo at the supermarket (or popsicles).

Update: Jeni’s Ice Creams always makes wonderful froyo. While they’re carried by supermarkets, very few carry their frozen yogurt flavors. However, I live in LA, so I can always go to the Jeni’s scoop shop for froyo.

* Collecting froyo spoons from other countries, including the Hello Kitty spoon from Yogen Fruz Mexico, the Hello Kitty spoon from Yoppi Yogurt Taiwan, Moyo spoons, Sour Sally hand spoons, etc. I still need Joji spoons from Florida.

Update: I didn’t have any luck with the spoons I mentioned but a friend brought back some special froyo spoons from Norway.

For 2017, my froyo wishes are:

• To try Pinkberry Pops: They’re now available in UAE, KSA, Lebanon, Qatar and Turkey. I would love to try one without traveling to the Middle East!
• To try Llaollao: Llaollao seems to be everywhere (e.g., Russia, Slovenia, Cambodia, Uruguay, Chile, El Salvador) except North America.
• For Menchie’s to add flavor finder feature on the Menchie’s My Smileage mobile app: I’d like easy access to list of flavors carried by specific Menchie’s locations
• For Daphne’s Greek to be converted to their new concept, Yalla somewhere close to me: I’d like a closer Yalla so that I can get my Greek froyo w/ baklava fix on a regular basis. I’m obsessed. I doubt Souvla SF would open here any time soon.

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.