Apple Pie the Flavor of the Month

Fro-yo girl here. The poll results are in. I recently asked readers to select the fro-yo flavor that best represents November. Apple pie won easily, with 51% of the vote. Caramel came in 2nd place with 24%, followed by cheesecake (19%), cookies n’ cream (2%) and peanut butter (2%).

Poll takers might not have realized that November is Peanut Butter Lovers Month and National Apple Pie Day is May 13. It was started as Peanut Butter Lovers Day on November 4, 1990. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg applied for the first patent for peanut butter on November 4, 1895.

Something about the fall evokes warm, baked, comfort foods and squash. Apple pie, apple pie filling, warm sauces, caramel, brownies, sweet potatoes, apples, cranberries, and cinnamon. I’ve seen apple pie fro-yo and warm apple pie filling...topped with cinnamon.

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

Mochi at Culture Organic Frozen Yogurt, Finally

Fro-yo girl here. Thanksgiving is over and I’m feeling grateful that Culture finally added mochi as a fro-yo topping this month. I waited over three years for this moment.

Their mochi is good (soft and chewy) but small. I like big, pillowy mochi cubes.

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

* CULTURE ORGANIC FROZEN YOGURT: 340 S. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA

Happy Fro-yo Thanksgiving

Fro-yo girl here. Happy Thanksgiving fro-yo fans! I hope you enjoy the day and save room for fro-yo. Thanksgiving is about being grateful for one’s blessings and spending time with loved ones. I thought I’d share a drawing by my niece, Fro-yo Niece. It shows us going out for fro-yo. It looks like I’m having mango tart fro-yo with strawberry sauce and fresh blackberries.She’s having strawberry fro-yo with fresh strawberries and a wafer cookie. I’m looking forward to having fro-yo for dessert on Thanksgiving, of course.

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

Tagtile: Identify & Engage Your Customers, Grow Your Business

Fro-yo girl here. I wanted to tell my readers about Tagtile, a new and better way for local businesses to build customer loyalty and increase repeat purchase rates.

Paper stamp cards can create loyalty by rewarding purchase frequency but the merchant doesn’t learn much about the customer base. Twitter and Facebook are good for announcements and promotions, but they’re not good for tracking which customers respond.

New mobile loyalty apps like Tagtile make it more convenient for customers to collect stamps (or tags) and receive targeted offers, messages and reminders on their mobile phones. To earn a tag using Tagtile, the customer launches the Tagtile app and taps his/her phone next to the Tagtile Cube. The Tagtile Cube tracks in-store transactions. The Cube works without an internet connection or it can be integrated with most Point of Sale systems.

By connecting customer identity information with purchase history, Tagtile enables businesses to build a rich database of their users and leverage that data to run highly targeted direct marketing campaigns. The online merchant console makes it easy for merchants to learn about their customer base, including visit frequency, number of first time customers, daily usage, offer redemption rates and more. It also includes mobile marketing tools that enable the merchant to send special offers and notifications to their customers.

Tagtile is founded by alumni from Google and Stanford University and is based in San Francisco.

For additional information and to get started, visit the Tagtile website or email hello@tagtile.com

Download the free Tagtile mobile app from iTunes and Android phones.

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

Meisan Blueberry Nodoame Review

Fro-yo girl here. I found another Japanese yogurt candy. Meisan Blueberry Nodoame is a hard candy that comes in a pouch. Each piece is individually wrapped. The candy is a round, thick disk, like a Life Saver but without a hole.


The blueberry flavor is strong and good but there’s also a bitter flavor that isn’t pleasant. Must be the herb extract they added. There is no yogurt flavor (disappointing) though the ingredients include concentrated yogurt. I think it might be a cough drop. If it is a cough drop, it’s a good one, similar to Ricola’s Mixed Berry but better.

A 2.96 oz. bag is $2.49 at Marina.

3 out of 5 stars.

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

The New Wave of Universal Frequent Buyer Cards

Fro-yo girl here. I recently noticed a surge of new universal loyalty card/app vendors at local Bay Area businesses. As someone who carries around a staggering amount of fro-yo loyalty cards, I welcome any type of universal loyalty card program.Due to wallet bloat, I have to restrict my card carrying to my very favorite places.

These are the four universal frequent buyer cards that I’ve encountered:

* FIVESTARS: The merchant registers you by asking for your phone number. Users get a plastic card and a plastic tag with a barcode that they can attach to a keychain. To earn points, the merchant scans the barcode. There is no mobile app, so you can’t see where you’ve earned points unless you register online (then you can check your points on their website). It’s easy to use but seems old school.

* PERKVILLE: An email based loyalty program popular with stylish coffeehouses, Perkville users enter their email address into the merchant’s iPad. Since I’m too lazy to type in my email address, I haven’t joined. However, they feel that their solution is superior since customers don’t have to download a mobile app and it can be used by just about anyone.

* STAMPT: Users download a free mobile app. To earn a stamp, you launch the Stampt app, select the business and take a picture of the QR code that the merchant supplies. It’s fairly easy to use but doesn’t seem to be engaging users (e.g., I don’t see people using it). I do like how it tracks your stamps on your active cards on your mobile phone and shows you nearby offers.

* TAGTILE: This was my favorite loyalty card experience. I downloaded the free mobile app. To earn a tag, I launched the app, selected the business, and waved my phone close to the Tagtile Cube. It was the easiest and coolest to use. The app shows me where I’ve earned tags and where the other offers in the area are. The Cube tracks in store transactions and can be integrated with most point of sale systems.

I noticed some businesses were using more than one vendor because they had multiple offers. Adoption rates seem to be higher at coffeehouses but I think fro-yo shops are a perfect fit for these new loyalty programs. If I didn’t have a smartphone, Five Stars would be my favorite but since I do, I find Tagtile to be the most compelling solution.

Customers with existing stamp cards can ask the merchant to add stamps to their new universal loyalty card.

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

Fro-yo & Pho: The Pho Bar vs. Yo Pho

Fro-yo girl here. The Bay Area now has two establishments that serve pho and fro-yo: The Pho Bar in Berkeley and Yo Pho in Milpitas. I tried both to see which had the better pho and the better fro-yo.

* Pho vs. Pho: The Pho Bar’s pho is yuppified with hormone free meat and elegantly cut onions and scallions. It comes with the typical pho add-ins. It’s a pretty bowl of soup, not the most flavorful but good. Yo Pho’s broth is dark but lacks richness. They claim to specialize in Northern style pho, which would explain the simpler broth. Pho Bar’s was $1.50 more but they provided more meat of higher quality.
Winner: The Pho Bar


* Fro-yo vs. Fro-yo: Pho Bar has one flavor of fro-yo, Sketch organic tart, it’s refreshing, icy and explosive in flavor. So good! You can add seasonal fresh fruit but that’s the only toppings option they offer. Yo Pho offers 10 flavors of self-serve fro-yo and toppings for 30 cents an ounce. The fro-yo was runny and tasted weird.
Winner: The Pho Bar

Pho and fro-yo may seem a strange combination but The Pho Bar masters it.

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

* THE PHO BAR: 1828 Euclid Ave., Berkeley, CA
* YO PHO: 242 Serra Way, Milpitas, CA