Favorite Froyo Flavor of 2014

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve eaten a lot of froyo this year, about 140 cups and I’ve tried my share of new froyo flavors.

My favorite new flavors this year:

• Menchie’s Just the Cookie 
• Menchie’s Zesty Lemon Meringue 
• Pinkberry’s Mint Chocolate Cookie
• Yogurtland’s Black Currant Berry Tart
• Yogurtland’s Cookie Butter 
• Yogurtland’s Flan

It looks like I really like cookie flavors, that is, froyo with bits of cookie in it. I do love tart flavors but there weren’t as many new tart flavors introduced this year.

My very favorite new froyo flavor of 2014 is…Flan by Yogurtland. Flan was part of the Second Annual Flavor Quest, representing Spain, and I described it as “rich, creamy and with an intense caramelized sugar taste, even better than the earlier Creme Brulee flavor (from Yogurtland) perhaps due to the addition of sweetened condensed milk.”

I’m really hoping it comes back as part of the Fan Choice Awards! Fingers crossed.

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 Christmas Gifts

Fro-yo girl here. Thank you Santa for adding to my froyo collection.

* Cookie cutters: Chloe’s Kitchen’s set of five cookie cutters are actually cupcake cookie cutters but they look like cups of froyo.

* Shopkins, Season 1, Frozen Edition: Shopkins are tiny collectible figurines inspired by grocery store items. You can view all the Shopkins toys (148) on the Shopkins website. If you create an account, you can track the ones you have and want online. There are two froyo toys called Yo-Chi. Yo-Chi's favorite hobby is swirling around the dance floor and she's known to be well cultured.

#131-1 Yo-Chi features a pink cup, pink spoon, berries

#123-1 Yo-Chi features an orange cup, orange spoon, berries

* Yogurtland gift cards: I visit at least once a week so I could really use these.

Did you receive froyo gifts this Christmas?

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.

2014 Bay Area Froyo Year in Review

Fro-yo girl here. It’s time to look about at the year in froyo in the Bay Area. Since I’ve moved to SoCal, this will be the last Bay Area yearly review.

Closings slightly outpaced openings. Most of the openings occurred in the South Bay (San Jose area), followed by San Francisco openings. New froyo shops continued to replace old ones (e.g., Pure Yum, Yogurt in Love, Over the Moon). With two new San Jose locations opening in 2014, Yogurtland has the most locations in the Bay Area of any chain. They plan to open a location in Mountain View, CA soon. Red Mango opened a location at the San Jose International Airport last month.

Bay Area Openings 

• Easy Breezy Inner Sunset (San Francisco)
• Fusion Mix (Fremont)
• Honeyberry (Oakland)
• Loving Cup Hayes Valley (San Francisco)
• Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt (Oakridge Mall, San Jose & Dublin)
• Over the Moon Ice Cream & Cookies (2 locations, they took over Yogorino’s SF locations and kept the yogurt machines, and they still serve froyo)
• Pure Yum (Fremont, former FreshBerry location)
• Red Mango (San Jose International Airport)
• Souvla (San Francisco)
• YoDo Yogurt (Campbell)
• Yogurt in Love (Los Gatos)
• Yogurtland Brokaw, Cambrian Park, Cottle Rd. (San Jose)
• Yogurtland (Morgan Hill)

Most of the closings occurred in San Jose. Notable closings include Yogurt Delite’s two locations in San Jose. Both locations survived for decades. Tuttimelon closed its flagship Irving St. location (they moved from the original location on Irving St. to a larger location – the larger location closed) and one of its earliest locations on Chestnut St. in San Francisco. Icebee was the earliest self-serve shops in SF and it recently closed. Yogen Fruz opened its first location in the Bay Area at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco in early 2008, that location closed this year. Tutti Frutti closed several locations this year. The shops that closed were diverse – some were new self-serve shops and others had been around for decades. Some sold froyo only and others like Next Door Sweets and Good Bellies had many offerings plus froyo.

Bay Area Closings

• Cultive (San Francisco)
• Fro-Yo Shoppe (Mountain View)
• Froyo Delight (San Jose)
• Gaga Yogurt (San Jose)
• Good Bellies (Oakland)
• Icebee (San Francisco & San Jose)
• Next Door Sweets (San Francisco)
• Tuttimelon Chestnut St. & Irving St. (San Francisco)
• Tutti Frutti Oak Grove & Palos Verdes Mall (Walnut Creek)
• Tutti Frutti (Milpitas)
• Tutti Frutti Silver Creek (San Jose)
• Yogen Fruz (San Francisco)
• Yogurt Delite (Blossom Valley & Meridian, San Jose)
• Yogurt Village (San Jose)
• Yogurt Walk (Dublin)
• Yotopia (San Francisco)

More froyo shops are on the way in 2015.

Future Openings

• Easy Breezy Castro (San Francisco)
• Yogurtland (Mountain View)

For a comprehensive review of froyo events in 2014, check out IFYA's post on key events in the froyo industry in 2014 post.

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.

Best Swirl of 2014

Fro-yo girl here. I'm about to swirl my last cup of froyo for the year, so it's a good time to look back at all my cups of froyo consumed in 2014.

You can see all my 2014 froyo cups consumed on my Pinterest board, Froyo Consumed by Me in 2014.

After looking at all my cups of froyo that I swirled this year, I picked out the nicest cup of froyo that I personally swirled.

And the winner is...a cup of Flan and Black Currant Berry Tart froyo with praline macadamia nuts, chocolate covered almonds, mochi, strawberries and graham cracker crumbs swirled on March 31 at Yogurtland San Francisco during the 2nd Annual Yogurtland Flavor Quest. I couldn't get enough of the flan flavor and I loved black currant berry tart as well.

It's more challenging to swirl two separate flavors side by side than one flavor. In my best swirled cup, I've achieved two swirls of equal height and diameter, with well defined swirls that point in the same direction. Not easy.

It was interesting to look back at all my cups of froyo to see which flavors and toppings I selected. I found out the following:

* 21% of my cups weren't swirled by me (I went to a full serve froyo shop)
* 18% of my cups contained pumpkin froyo, since it's generally available for 2-3 months, that's a lot of pumpkin froyo
* Over 130 cups of froyo consumed, or more than a cup of froyo every 3 days

Want to make your swirl look nicer? Read IFYA's Froyo Swirling Tips and get plenty of practice.

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.

Spotted at Yogurtland Santa Barbara

Fro-yo girl here. Over the weekend I was in Santa Barbara to do a bit of Christmas shopping on State Street. Yogurtland was so busy that all the tables were taken and people were sitting outside on the sidewalk eating frozen yogurt. I was surprised to see a sign for Premium Hot Chocolate (the beverage) in the window and inside since I’ve never seen any Yogurtland sell a non-frozen yogurt food or beverage item. They had a Mexican Hot Chocolate flavor before but that was frozen yogurt.

I didn’t try the hot chocolate…I’d rather have frozen yogurt.

* YOGURTLAND: 621 State St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101

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.

Yogurt Candy Review: Meiji Yogurt Soft Candy, Senjaku Happy Nikukyu Gummy Candy, Nobel Sours Gummy

Fro-yo girl here. The candymakers in Japan have been busy and yogurt flavored candies are still popular. I found several new yogurt candies on a recent trip to Mitsuwa Market.

Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt Soft Candy Strawberry

Meiji, the maker of Chelsea Yogurt Scotch and Yoglet, now makes Bulgaria Yogurt Soft Candy. Nijiya had one flavor, strawberry. A 33g reseable pouch of Yogurt Soft Candy is $1.89. This was the best tasting candy of the three that I tried. It looks and tastes like a longer, thinner cousin of Mentos. The outer shell of pink strawberry shellac surrounds a firm, chewy interior. It's very chewy and has a slight tartness. It also tastes a bit like bubblegum. The flavor isn't unpleasant but it's not that natural and Mentos tastes better. The candy contains yogurt powder.

Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, vegetable oil, gelatin, yogurt powder, sweetened condensed milk, dried strawberry, soy lecithin, sorbitol, acidulant, guar gum, artificial flavor, shellac, vegetable coloring.

4 out of 5 stars.

Senjaku Happy Nikukyu Gummy Candy: Apple Yogurt

These were very cute. The gummy candy is shaped like a kitten's paw. The bottom layer is white and the top layer is a clear pale peach that sparkles. It's firm and chewy like a gummy candy. The flavor seems sweet and bland at first but it becomes more flavorful and has a slight tartness and milky flavor. The apple flavor does not taste natural.  

Each pouch has one flavor of candy. Flavors include peach, cassis, pineapple and apple. A 40g pouch is $1.59.

Ingredients: Corn syrup, sugar, gelatin, milk calcium, powdered oblart (soy), concentrated apple juice, sorbitol, citric acid, artificial flavor, carnauba wax, anthocyanin, carotenoid color.

3 out of 5 stars.

Nobel Sours Gummy: Strawberry Yogurt

Nobel Sours comes in many flavors. I tried their plain gummy yogurt sours in the past and wasn't a fan. The strawberry yogurt flavor is even worse. I don't like the texture because it's too hard. It's more like a hard gelatin than a gummy. The pink rectangles are coated in a powder. The taste is slightly rotten, slightly like berries, and tangy. 

One 45g pouch is $1.79.

Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, agar agar, corn oil, strawberry juice, oblaat, acidulant, polishing agent, no animal based artificial flavor, emulsifier, anthocyandin, powdered milk.

2 out of 5 stars.

* MITSUWA MARKETPLACE: 515 W Las Tunas Dr., San Gabriel, CA 91776

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.

Icebee Closes San Francisco Location

Fro-yo girl here. Icebee opened its first location in February 2008 at 829 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103. It was self-serve, the first self-serve froyo shop in SF. The location was convenient for mall shoppers. It survived over 6 years which isn’t too shabby because the yogurt wasn’t that good. I always found their frozen yogurt to be icy so I probably went there two or three times total. Icebee closed in late November 2014.

Yogen Fruz San Francisco, which also opened in 2008, also closed this year. The Embarcadero location was the first Yogen Fruz location in the Bay Area. Tuttimelon closed its Chestnut St. Marina location this year and also the relocated Irving St. shop (Irving St. was their first location), both locations opened in 2008.

2008 was the beginning of the froyo boom in the Bay Area.

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.