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!