Los Angeles Fruit Kingdom, a Fruit Boutique with Handcrafted Yogurt

Fro-yo girl here. Los Angeles (LA) Fruit Kingdom was founded in 2023 and currently has three branches in Southern California. The shops sell premium quality fruit, including imported and rare varieties.

I visited the shop in San Gabriel. The shop does smell like fresh fruit. I spotted mangos, cherries, grapes, oranges, etc. They can put together a fresh fruit gift basket or box for you. The handwritten signs were mostly in Chinese.

It looks like they added Chinese-style handcrafted yogurt in 2024. They start with milk and then cold brew (strain) the Greek yogurt for 72 hours, resulting in a very thick yogurt that is sold in pots or as filling in fruit sandwiches. You can also get fruit bowls, yogurt bowls, and yogurt smoothies. The fruit is freshly sliced.

Pomelo yogurt drink, $7.99: The yogurt was somewhat grainy/pasty. I find it hard to believe that it didn’t contain sugar or some type of sweetener, because it tasted lightly sweetened. The pomelo pulp was plentiful but dry and sweet without any tang. I’ve had juicier pomelo from shops in the same area. Also, putting the fruit pulp on the bottom vs. blending it in made it difficult to drink since most of the pomelo stayed on the bottom of the cup.

Original yogurt, $7.27, I was told it was no sugar added, but it tasted lightly sweetened again. It was very thick and creamy but still had a pasty quality.

Lingyun Milk Fun has better-tasting Chinese yogurt.

Fruit Kingdom Locations

• 26 1/2 E Duarte Rd Arcadia
• 18238 Gale Ave, City of Industry
• 529 E Valley Blvd #148A, San Gabriel

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.

New Handmade Chinese Yogurt Shop Opens in Alhambra

Strained pull yogurt

Dry swallowing yogurt

Milk skin yogurt

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve been seeing more Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley offering handmade yogurt on their menus. Recently, a new Chinese yogurt shop opened in Alhambra, CA.

Lingyun Milk Fun makes a variety of types of yogurt (stretchy, milk-infused, strained, dry), fruit yogurt smoothies, yogurt purple rice drinks, fruit stuffed with yogurt, yogurt bricks, yogurt bowls, etc. I haven’t seen another yogurt shop that offers that many types of yogurt.

Naipizi yogurt (milk-infused yogurt, $3.99): milk skin yogurt features a rich layer on top like cream and a creamy, velvety, lightly sweetened yogurt underneath. It’s a pleasant sweet treat. This was my favorite item. It’s like a milk custard.

Dry swallowing yogurt ($6.99, called plain dry yogurt on the menu): crazy thick due to straining. It was almost too dry. I’m sure it’s sweetened. The taste was almost cheesy. It wasn’t sour but had a little tang. I would spread this on toast and top it with fruit and nuts.

Strained pull yogurt ($4.50): bottled and not as thick as the dry yogurt, it’s like the yogurt you’d expect in a drink. It’s thick, sticky, and lightly sweetened. I think strained pull yogurt is like sticky or stretchy yogurt.

The plain yogurt is lightly sweetened. It also has live and active cultures. Of the forms that I tried, the Naipizi milk skin yogurt was my favorite.

The shop is sparse with no seating, so it’s set up for takeout.

* Lingyun Milk Fun, 1308 Garfield Ave, Alhambra, CA 91801

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.

Chinese Froyo at AiPaPa Kitchen

 

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve noticed that a few Northern Chinese restaurants offer homemade yogurt. Ai Papa Kitchen in Rowland Heights not only makes yogurt but freezes it. The froyo is $5.99. It’s served in a plastic cup. The restaurant specializes in the cuisine of Northwest China.

Handmade Frozen Yogurt: The yogurt is made daily with (cow’s) milk that is fermented. It’s topped with goji berries, osmanthus flowers, and honey. I was also told that it contained fermented rice. They put the yogurt in the freezer but not in a soft serve machine. The yogurt was not frozen solid but was just a bit colder than regular refrigerated yogurt. The texture was not smooth but seemed to have bits of something else (rice?). It wasn’t frozen enough for me. My friend thought it was icy and too sweet. It tasted like regular yogurt but a bit worse because of the texture. There was no milk skin on top.

* Ai Papa Kitchen, 18495 Colima Rd Ste 8 Rowland Heights, CA 91748

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.

Noodle St Housemade Yogurt

 

Fro-yo girl here. Noodle St. started in Monrovia, CA in 2017 and currently has four locations. They specialize in handmade noodles. You can even watch someone making the noodles in the kitchen. Their Chinese beef noodle soup is high quality, refined, and delicious They also make their own yogurt! The first time I dined there and saw yogurt on the menu, it wasn’t available.

Recently, I walked by the Westfield Santa Anita location in Arcadia and noticed they had a sign for homemade yogurt. According to the menu, they have original, blueberry, and mixed nuts yogurt. However, when I asked, they only had original yogurt. A small jar of original yogurt is $4.

Original yogurt: It reminded me of Vietnamese yogurt, which is made with whole (dairy) milk and condensed milk, but not as sweet while still flavorful. The yogurt had a smooth, custardy texture, a little firmer than usual because it’s pot set (cultured and set in individual glass jars). I’m pretty sure that it’s made with more than just whole milk but I’m not sure if they use buttermilk or condensed milk. Anyway, it’s surprisingly sour and really tasty. I’m hoping to try other flavors.

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.

Fermented Milk (aka, Yogurt) in China

Fro-yo girl here. During a recent layover at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, I spotted some local Chinese yogurt products. I noticed that they call yogurt fermented milk on the packaging. Some of the yogurt products looked like drinks and others were served in cups.

The fermented milk at Starbucks seemed like a safe choice and I could read the packaging.

* Granola & flavored fermented milk mixed strawberry flavor (20 yuan, approximately $3.15 US dollars): The packaging looked nice. The granola was packaged separately and stored in a clear compartment above the cup of yogurt. The yogurt didn’t look pink/strawberry flavored but there were strawberry chunks in the white yogurt. The texture was creamy but not as thick as Greek yogurt. It must not have been strained? The yogurt was tangy but not very tangy. The strawberry flavor wasn’t strong since there only some strawberry pieces. It was different than what we have in the US but still pretty good. It seems to have live and active cultures.

Milk was very expensive and rationed in China before the 1980s. Therefore, milk consumption was very low. Soy milk was consumed instead.

However, dairy milk consumption is on the rise in China and China is now the third largest producer of milk in the world. The Chinese Nutrition Society recommends that Chinese increase their dairy consumption, so there is growing interesting in cheese, milk, and yogurt. Yogurt sales recently overtook milk sales in the country. Prices of milk and dairy products are still high but milk and dairy products are perceived as healthy.

Ethnic minorities in Mongolia and the surrounding areas have been fermenting milk since ancient times. The dairy milk was obtained from mares, sheep, yaks, camels, and goats. Beijing yogurt is a traditional fermented milk drink made by heating milk and adding sugar to it. I’ve had Beijing yogurt in the US, where you can find more than one brand in Chinese supermarkets. 

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 Goes International

Fro-yo girl here. Yogurt’s popularity continues to grow, as these international examples of fro-yo/yogurt show.

Last week, SF World Journal (a leading daily Chinese newspaper published in North America) featured an article about the benefits of yogurt consumption which included a recipe for making yogurt at home. The recipe involves using a simple rice cooker to heat the milk or soy milk. I had it translated but the instructions weren’t precise enough to share.


My local Middle Eastern market carries Russian fro-yo, Beloved brand. I only saw one flavor, peach. I’ll have to check out some Russian markets to look for more fro-yo.


A trip to the Mexican supermarket, Mi Pueblo (locations throughout the Bay Area) revealed that they sell fresh yogurt (not frozen). They had four flavors: mango, walnut, strawberry and peach. The mango yogurt wasn’t as thick as Greek yogurt. I found it way too sweet but it did had bits of mango in it. I might pour the yogurt in my fro-yo maker and dilute it with plain yogurt.

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