Spotted...

on Newbury Street - the second Pinkberry location in MA:

Also spotted at this location - extremely high prices (It ws $7+ for a large with toppings, which I believe is a full $2 more than Hingham or any other location I've been at in NYC). But same good frozen yogurt. I think we'll stick with the Hingham location from here on out.

Spotted!

At the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham - the first Pinkberry to "swirl" its way into Massachusetts:

According to word on the street, it opens on Friday, August 20. I forsee even more frozen yogurt in my future, just in time for my birthday!

Red Mango

It'll come as no surprise for readers that I am a huge frozen yogurt fan. I've tried Chill in Cleveland Circle, BerryLine in Harvard Sqauare and in Kenmore, Berry Freeze in Coolidge Corner, Pinkberry in NYC, even Razzleberry in Japan and now can add Red Mango to the list.

While Andrew and I were out and about on Saturday, our errands took us to the Natick mall (I refuse to call it the Collection) and to our surprise, we saw Red Mango on the second level:

Which of course, was our cue to zip right in and order some frozen yogurt! Despite some intriguing flavor options, we stuck with our favorite, the original flavor. Plus, it gives us a good basis for comparison against the other chains.

While we sat down at the stools while we were waiting for our orders to be taken care of, we ended up eating the frozen yogurt at a seating area in another section of the mall since it was so crowded inside Red Mango:

Our assessment of Red Mango? I think Andrew's medium sized serving illustrates a couple of main points. Of all the frozen yogurt places we've tried, Red Mango was the skimpiest in terms of amount of frozen yogurt and toppings. We could actually see a manager instructing an employee on the proper way to swirl the frozen yogurt so it was tall and skinny. A charitable person would say that was to leave room for the toppings. However, based on what made it to the top of both of orders, I don't believe that was the case. When we've visited places like BerryLine and Chill, and even more recently, Pinkberry, they've all done their best to pile on the toppings so it's spilling off the sides:

As for the flavor? While it still had the tanginess that I enjoy, it was definitely more cream cheese in flavor than its competitors. Don't get me wrong, I love cream cheese, but for frozen yogurt, BerryLine and Pinkberry are still tops for flavor in my book.

So while I'd probably get Red Mango the next time we walk by it in the mall (I mean, it's still healthier than most of the food that you find in a mall), it's definitely not something that I would drive to in order to fulfill a craving.

On a sidenote, while we were eating the frozen yogurt in an open seating area, we realized that we had missed a special wedding event (WE's Wedding Mall Tour 2010) by a few hours:

I was a little disappointed when I thought all the people on the poster had been at the event, since I watch David Tutera on "My Fair Wedding" (one of the many wedding shows that I watch). However, Andrew was observant enough to read it was just Ron Ben-Israel that had visited Natick on the sign:

While he is a fellow baker, at this point, wedding cakes are one of the things I don't have to worry about!

RazzleBerry

Only in Japan would you find "beautiful" frozen yogurt.

While walking to Enoshima, I almost walked past this storefront until Andrew brought it to my attention. I stopped dead in my tracks and then insisted that we had to go in, to the amusement of my dad:

Inside, the decor was very girly - hot pink and black - complete with a pink and black chandelier. Even more amusing was how the menu was set up - the frozen yogurt portion of the menu was called the "Fitting Room" and the portion sizes came in cute, sexy and glamorous - take that Starbucks!

Toppings were called "Jewelery" and as you may be able to make out on the mirror-shaped menu below, each fruit was assigned a different jewel name - for example, I believe raspberries were called rubies:

Putting all the kitschy trappings aside, how was the frozen yogurt? Considering that we're in Japan, the portion and topping sizes were accordingly small. Andrew is still complaining about the fact that he only got three blueberries. The flavor was OK, a bit washed out compared to what we have access to in the states. Not that these two minded.

Berry Freeze

Some people may see another frozen yogurt place in the Boston area and think, "Oh no, not another store to jump on the frozen yogurt bandwagon." Not me! Amy was the one that actually spotted this place on Sunday when we were checking out Gap in Coolidge Corner but it wasn't until Monday night that Andrew and I were able to check it out.

From the banner on the outside, I felt like the place was going to be rather bootleg but I was pleasantly surprised:


The interior was freshly painted in bright colors and featured funky lighting and retro furniture. The interesting twist, compared to other froyo places, was that it was all self serve - you get to dispense the yogurt and pile on the toppings:

You can't really tell from this angle, but they had a wide variety of fruit and candy toppings, as well as the ubiquitous cereal. Andrew was a bit skeeved out by the fact that people would be handling the utensils and around the toppings but I wasn't phased, considering I eat from a salad bar for most lunches!

You get charged by weight, at a rate determined by what size cup you choose. I meant to hold onto my receipt but I'm pretty sure it was roughly $.85 per oz, and it came to around $8.50 total for me and Andrew. So it's definitely cheaper than BerryLine or Just Chill.

Andrew loved the little round tables, especially since you could revolve them like a lazy Susan, which meant it was easy for him to get his hands on my cup!


I got a little bit of coconut, a little bit of blueberry and a lot of the natural flavored yogurt, topped with strawberries, raspberries and almonds. I thought the blueberry flavor was awesome and the natural, my standard for judging frozen yogurt, was good but not as good as BerryLine or Just Chill. It was also more watery and grainy in texture than most frozen yogurts I've tried.

But overall, pretty good! Especially with the self serve factor and cheaper pricing.

Just Chill...

After zipping through an exhibit of Civil War drawings, Jen and I returned to our old stomping ground of Cleveland Circle to check out the newly renovated (at least to me) CitySide - I love how the windows open up now to the very scenic parking lot! :)

Jen knew I had gone through a couple of crap days and surprised me with the news that a froyo place had opened in Cleveland Circle called Chill - guess where we went for dessert?

In addition to froyo, they serve Christina's ice cream (yum!) and coffee but we were there for the star attraction - Jen ordered a play off of her favorite dessert (banana chocolate chip cake) by ordering the banana froyo with chocolate chips:

I tried a sample of the banana and it was quite tasty! But you know me, I went with the original flavor. With blueberries, strawberries and almonds - no need to mess with what I like! Plus, it allows for a scientific comparison between other frozen yogurt places:



I had send Andrew a photo text with a picture of my order, intending on taunting him since I didn't think the frozen yogurt would survive the trip home. However, the froyo held up well while I was eating it so I decided to risk the trip home with it.

Even with a side trip to drop Jen off, the froyo was near perfect when it arrived in Andrew's hands:

I've realized that:

1. Yes, Andrew is lucky to have a fiancee as nice as me to bring him home froyo, especially since I was the one that got him hooked on it.
2. I'm in serious trouble with a froyo place within a couple of miles of my place. Seriously, I could get in my car right now and be eating delicious frozen yogurt in ten minutes. Dangerous!
3. I thought Chill tasted just as good as BerryLine but Pinkberry remains my favorite.

Frozen Yogurt Showdown

As I mentioned earlier, Amanda was a great hostess and made sure we visited a ton of places and as you now realize, a bunch of delicious meals as well.

At the beginning of the weekend, she asked if there was anything in particular that I wanted to do or see. I told her honestly that I had just one simple goal in mind - to finally try Pinkberry frozen yogurt. Luckily, there is a Pinkberry within blocks of her place.

I do have to mention that we had an incredible meal at Uva that night - a charming Italian place known for its wine selection. Sitting in their back garden area, enjoying food recommendations from Amanda (who has lived in Italy) and wine recommendations from Javier (manager of a wine store), we had a simply incredible meal. Even the bread and olive oil tasted above the ordinary. I took it easy and skipped the photo taking, but you can salivate over the menu here.

For dessert, everyone was kind enough to skip the tempting choices at Uva to join me at Pinkberry!

Here's the front of store (this was taken the next morning when we were hoping to get another serving of Pinkberry before leaving New York. Unfortunately, it opened at 11 am and we were on the road at 10 am):


Amanda and Javier opted for a small serving of the coconut flavor with Captain Crunch and chocolate shavings.


I'd like to take credit for introducing Andrew to real frozen yogurt and to the fact that fresh fruit toppings taste the best - so here's Andrew with the natural flavor with strawberries, blueberries and almonds - the same thing I got! He claims it was his idea since he ordered first, conveniently forgetting that this is the combo I always get:


I could barely wait for the picture taking to dive into the frozen yogurt:


Closeup of the long-awaited treat:

I love it when people warn you that these frozen yogurt places serve really "tangy" yogurt, because that's what I really enjoy. And Pinkberry delivered - it was great and totally lived up to the hype. I tend to prefer natural as a flavor, but I wanted to point out that tasting the coconut and passionfruit flavors (I missed out on the pomegranate), each flavor tasted as delicious as the one before it.

On my actual birthday, when we were back in Boston, we headed to BerryLine for dessert - I got the same order of natural yogurt, blueberries, strawberries and almonds as I had gotten at Pinkberry the day before:

The conclusion? Pinkberry wins by a slight margin on the basis of taste. But I'm not going to lie, I'd be happy eating both every day for the rest of my life. And I have to give credit to BerryLine for offering mochi as a topping when we were in Monday.

Berry Delicious

The long gaps between my races on Sunday meant we not only had time to explore the Dragon Boat Festival’s food booths and dance demonstrations along Memorial Drive, but we could make the short walk into Harvard Square

Other than watching Matt’s band play last winter, I haven’t really walked around Harvard Square in years. It’s got a fun mix of eclectic shops and restaurants, but is a pain in the butt to park at if you’re driving and is always crammed with tourists.

Our main motivation for venturing into Harvard Square – other than grabbing “Dunkin’ Doogles” for Amy, Phu and Pete – was to find BerryLine, a purveyor of “real” frozen yogurt that had opened up in early 2008. As my readers know, I’m a strong advocate for frozen yogurt that tastes like yogurt, rather than soft serve ice cream.

After initially walking by BerryLine, as it’s tucked away in a tiny shop on the corner of Arrow Street and Mount Auburn Street, I could tell from its colorful exterior that it was a fun place with a focus on fruit.


Photo courtesy of the BerryLine Facebook page

Alas, it was only 11 am and it didn’t open until Noon, so we trudged back to my company’s tent empty-handed.

After lunch, Amy, Pete, and Jen (who had arrived around Noon just in time to see my team in its second race), went back over the Weeks Footbridge to try again at BerryLine. I was sorely tempted to go, but knew that our next race was only forty minutes away and we were due to line up in twenty minutes. I had just enough time to see the three of them come back with empty containers and smiles on their faces before I was off for my final race.

At around 4 pm, we were sunburned, tired and finally done for the day. But I made Andrew, Jen, and Phu walk back to BerryLine with me to get my much-anticipated cup of frozen yogurt.

The line was out the door but moved quickly, so in ten minutes, I had a medium sized cup (I believe it came in 5 oz, 8 oz, 18 oz and pint sizes) of their natural flavor yogurt with blueberries, strawberries and almonds as my topping. BerryLine offered three frozen yogurt choices when we were there – Natural, Orange and Raspberry – as well as roughly two dozen fruit, nut and candy choices.

It was all that I hoped for, the fruit was very fresh (in fact, we saw one of the employees bringing in a box full of fresh pints of raspberries) and the yogurt was wonderfully tangy. And if I remember correctly, at 25 calories per ounce, the frozen yogurt is a relatively guilt-free treat.

Jen has become one of my resident frozen yogurt experts and so I was pleased when she told me BerryLine is opening a new store in the Fenway area soon which would make it much easier for me to indulge in my frozen yogurt fix.

As this was one of the rare times I didn’t have my camera on me, I didn’t get to grab a picture of my order. So, I'll have to go back soon and order it again!

Real Frozen Yogurt

Anyone that knows Amy and I well is aware of our disdain for what is called frozen yogurt here. Sure, it tastes good but it's more like soft serve ice cream than true frozen yogurt. The frozen yogurt that Amy and I grew up eating in Hawaii is more tangy in flavor and tastes more like, well, yogurt and less like vanilla ice cream. That's why Amy told me first thing when she discovered UBerry, U Food Grill's frozen yogurt in the Landmark center - it was the closest thing she found resembling the Yami yogurt we used to enjoy in Ala Moana. Since then, we've also discovered YoTango frozen yogurt at JP Licks. Exciting stuff but what was even cooler was when I walked into Shaw's today and noticed this in the freezer section:

Haagen-Dazs Frozen Yogurt, Tart Natural Flavor

I was running a quick errand and resisted the temptation to grab it, but it's nice to know that I'll be able to run to the supermarket the next time I have a froyo craving.

Plus, I heard there's another new place called Yo! Berry (obviously jumping on the Pinkberry craze) in the Allston/Brighton area, so I'll have to check that out as well.

Update: I haven't been able to find the calorie information for JP Lick's new YoTango frozen yogurt but I did find out that it is kosher, non-fat, it contains millions of probiotic bacteria, has less sugar, no cholesterol and is easily digested by the lactose intolerant. It is a great source of calcium and contains live and active cultures which include lactobacillus bulgaricus, and lactobacillus acidophilus.