Welcome to the third day of our frozen yogurt tour. I hope you’ve enjoyed our posts - we have a lot more to come! After we finished our yogurt at Pinkberry, we headed across the street to Red Mango. To give you a little history, Red Mango was started by a bunch of investment bankers in Korea back in 2002. It’s the first yogurt store to get the approval from The National Yogurt Association to Use Their Live and Active Culture Seal, which is a great accomplishment since everyone claims to have active cultures, but Red Mango actually has proof. They’re known for being the “authentic frozen yogurt” shop; in every Red Mango, there are a bunch of signs noting the health benefits of consuming their yogurt. The FROYOLYMPICS committee decided to wait until Red Mango officially opened before starting our tour (otherwise, we wouldn’t be giving our readers a true comparison of all the yogurt shops in New York).

Red Mango’s storefront:

Yay! More people joined!

1. Size of the hole:

The hole at Red Mango was surprisingly small and there was good yogurt coverage. Go Red Mango!

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Red Mango scored a 1.5…more tangy than creamy (although I’ve been to Red Mango numerous times since the tour and I think it’s definitely become more creamy than tangy).

3. Topping Variety:

Red Mango had lots of toppings, including dark chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers. They don’t have pomegranate seeds like a lot of other places (which actually taste really good with frozen yogurt).

4. Fruit quality: The fruit was fresh but there wasn’t a lot of it (you can read more about my fruit complaint in section 11). We gave Red Mango 4 out of 5 for quality.

5. Calories per ounce: each ounce of Red Mango had 23 calories.

6. Price per ounce: Red Mango was approximately 62 cents/ounce.

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: techno music was playing in the background while we were in the store and the temperature was a little colder than the other stores we’d visited during our tour. However, there are nice chairs for lounging around and a nice outdoor seating area for the summertime. There was a promotion going on during the tour, but the employees didn’t know about it (buy a $25 gift card, get a free small frozen yogurt with 3 toppings). Also, I purchased a gift card that was never activated, so they charged me $25 and when I went back, it didn’t work but I no longer had my receipt. That gets MAJOR BOO POINTS.

8. Iciness vs. smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Red Mango a 2.5 - it was a bit on the smooth side and tasted more like actual yogurt.

9. Number of flavors: there are 2 flavors at Red Mango - original and green tea.

10. Resilience to heat:

There was not a lot of melting from Red Mango’s yogurt, but it was a lot colder there than the other yogurt shops.

11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:

There was a lot of frozen yogurt, but not a lot of fruit. Okay, I have a HUGE complaint with Red Mango’s customer service. We ordered blackberries with our frozen yogurt and we were only given FIVE blackberries. I asked for more (Oliver Twist style) and the server told me that he gives “five blackberries for a small, five for the medium, and five for the large,” meaning there was no way I was getting any more blackberries. BOO! WHO gives FIVE blackberries on a LARGE frozen yogurt? That is NOT nice. Also, I’d like to note that in this USA TODAY article, the server is giving WAY more than five blackberries.

We also ordered a Red Mango smoothie:

The Red Mango smoothie was WAY too sweet (it looked like they used a simple syrup to make the smoothie blendable). If Red Mango’s selling point is being the healthier alternative, they should use water or milk to blend the smoothie instead.

As you can see, we weren’t huge fans of Red Mango. Gloria met up with us at Red Mango and said that it tasted really powdery (Red Mango gets their yogurt mix from milk cartons that they pour into the yogurt dispenser). I didn’t appreciate the stinginess of the blackberry toppings and Chris thought the yogurt had an Asian grocery store aftertaste. If you’ve ever been to an Asian grocery store, you’ll know the smell. Personally, I think Asian grocery stores have an interesting freezer burn smell, but I’m not sure if Red Mango tasted like freezer burn. Overall, we were not impressed with Red Mango and gave them a 2.83/5.0. I was really disappointed with Red Mango’s score (especially since I’ve been a fan since day 1) but I think Red Mango was having a major off-day. Since then, I’ve been back a couple of times and the freezer burn taste is definitely gone, but the memory still haunts me. Tomorrow, we will explore Yolato!

Here are all of the entries in order (in case you wanted to jump around):

Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas

Our next stop on the frozen yogurt tour was Pinkberry. This is the place that I first encountered plain frozen yogurt; it’s the originator of the craze in the US (although Red Mango started the trend in Korea back in 2002). Pinkberry has had its fair share of controversy; last year, people claimed Pinkberry can’t actually be called “frozen yogurt” because their yogurt didn’t have enough live cultures. Also, who can forget all those mice running amok in the UES Pinkberry (all caught on film by a newscrew?) Even so, Chris and I spent all last summer going to Pinkberry every night because we love it so much. I never bothered trying other places because I thought Pinkberry was so great; I’ve had a very strong allegiance to Pinkberry (but we’ll see if that changes by the end of the tour!).

Pinkberry’s storefront (with Ariel and Chris!):

1. Size of the hole:

We noticed that the hole was not as large as usual; HOWEVER, someone that works at the K-town Pinkberry told me that there shouldn’t even BE a hole! AT ALL! Obviously Pinkberry needs to standardize their frozen yogurt practices. Tsk, tsk.

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Pinkberry scored a 2 (which was expected; Pinkberry is known for being more tart and tangy than creamy).

3. Topping Variety:

Pinkberry has standard toppings (fruit and cereal) and for the winter, they bring out pomegranate seeds. One thing I don’t like about Pinkberry is that they hide their mochi - why don’t you just put it on your menu or in front with everything else?! They also have lychees every once in a while.

4. Fruit Quality: On a scale of one to five (one being over/under ripe and five being perfectly ripe), Pinkberry scored a very sad 2 out of 5! We were kind of upset that there was still skin on the mangoes (that is sloppy!!) and it was definitely CRUNCHY! That means it’s not ripe!

5. Calories per ounce: after a bunch of calculations, I figured out that Pinkberry is about 20 calories/ounce. Pinkberry’s nutritional information is very misleading and a little difficult to figure out in your head.

6. Price per ounce: Pinkberry cost about 66 cents/ounce.

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: Pinkberry had some corny reggae Christmas music (which none of us were fans of) and the manager yelled at me for taking pictures, even though EVERYONE takes pictures in there! Actually, the topping variety picture was taken after a frozen yogurt specialist asked me to stop taking pictures (I asked to speak to his manager and when he went to the backroom to find the head honcho, I snapped the picture). The manager came out and told us that we could take pictures OUTSIDE the store, but not inside. Thanks for giving us permission to take pictures on PUBLIC PROPERTY!

8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Pinkberry a 3; a perfect combination of iciness and smoothness!

9. Number of flavors: there are 3 flavors at Pinkberry - original, green tea, and coffee (which was introduced in the middle of January!

10. Resilience to heat:

There was some meltage, but overall, Pinkberry did well.

11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:

We were slightly disappointed with the presentation because there simply wasn’t enough fruit on our yogurt (especially after a trip to Oko, where they seriously put an entire mango on our frozen yogurt!). Also, they only gave us 3 blackberries, which is extremely stingy.

Pinkberry is known for having an icier consistency, but we all noticed that it was smoother than usual; Red Mango opened up a couple weeks ago across the street and maybe Pinkberry is starting to emulate the competition!! We weren’t impressed with Pinkberry’s frozen yogurt OR their service. We gave Pinkberry a final score of 3.5/5.0. Tomorrow, we will explore Red Mango and see if the grass is greener on the other side (of the street). Stay tuned!

Here are all of the posts in order (if you wanted to jump around):
Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas

Our first stop on the fro-yolympics was in Brooklyn. If you read my blog, you know that I’m not a fan of going to Brooklyn; why take a train for half an hour if you can get frozen yogurt right outside your door?! But, for the fro-yolympics, I’ll do basically anything. Most of the people that I invited told me they’d meet up with the tour some time during the day, but they weren’t trekking out to Brooklyn, not even if I enticed them with SUBSIDIZED frozen yogurt. The real frozen yogurt enthusiasts, however, took the train for 20 minutes to make it out to Oko for me (a special thank you to Justin and Ariel - sorry for being 30 minutes late and thank you for being so patient!). Oko, meaning “eco” in Hungarian, is the most environmentally friendly yogurt store I’ve ever visited. Almost everything in the store is made from some sort of renewable resource; their floors are made out of linseed oil (which is completely bio-degradable), their containers are made out of corn, their spoons are made out of potatoes, and their countertops are made out of pressed sunflower hulls! Oko also tries to get all of their products locally.

Oko’s lovely storefront:

1. Size of the hole:

The hole was EXTREMELY small because our yogurt specialist tapped the container on the table to maximize the amount of frozen yogurt we were served.

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Oko scored right in the middle with a solid 3.

3. Topping Variety:

All of the toppings were stored in air-tight containers. They also serve berries with chopsticks, which is a cute touch!

4. Fruit Quality:

On a scale of one to five (one being over/under ripe and five being perfectly ripe), Oko scored a perfect FIVE!

5. Calories per ounce: Oko has 30g calories/ounce and 5g of sugar/ounce (their online menu includes all of this helpful information).

6. Price per ounce: Oko clocked in at a healthy 62 cents/ounce.

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: You can tell Oko really cares about the environment; their walls have a wood panelling that is made out of bamboo, their drywall is made out of recycled content, and a lot of other things that add up to a very eco-friendly store. They played top 40 hits and the atmosphere was friendly (although our frozen yogurt server was a little suspicious of us taking so many pictures).

8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Oko a 3; a perfect combination of iciness and smoothness!)

9. Number of flavors: there are 4 flavors at Oko - original, blueberry, orange creamsicle, and chocolate. The flavors change daily so you never know what you’ll get!

10. Resilience to heat:

Well, this case is special; they only give samples on small spoons so our sample looks a little beat up. On our frozen yogurt order, the melting wasn’t too bad (probably because we demolished it).

11. Presentation:

Very beautifully presented with LOTS of toppings. I don’t think I’ve EVER had that many toppings on a frozen yogurt! Brooklyn knows how to serve it up!

Only four people went to Oko (Justin, Ariel, me, and Chris), but we all enjoyed it. The rest of the frozen yogurt followers met up with us in Manhattan.

Final notes: We liked that Oko was environmentally friendly and that they have a buy 10 get 1 free card (Chris can testify to how much I love frequent buyer cards…I stuff them into my huge wallet!). Also, the solid texture really made the yogurt delicious and I personally love it when the fruit is slightly frozen by the yogurt (the yogurt is SO cold that when it touches fruit, it becomes crunchy). Also, we think it’s great that Oko’s owners found a Greek family (locally) to make their yogurt mixture. They offer other items like fairly traded coffees and teas, which is a nice alternative for people that aren’t interested in frozen yogurt. The only thing we disliked about Oko was the distance (since we all live in Manhattan), but in Brooklyn, Oko is the authority on frozen yogurt. We gave Oko a 4.0/5.0. Tomorrow, we head into Manhattan and explore Pinkberry!

Here are all of the entries in order (in case you wanted to jump around):

Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas

The first annual fro-yolympics took place on December 9, 2007 in New York, New York. On that bone-chilling day, seven wonderful friends (and one baby!) joined me for my wonderful tour around New York (there was even a facebook invite! We contemplated making shirts!). We thought of the fro-yolympics a while ago; Pinkberry started the frozen yogurt trend in LA/NYC (although Red Mango started this whole craze back in Korea) and after trying it and getting hooked, I researched what else was out there and wanted to do an across the board comparison. There are lots of interesting articles about the fro-yo obsession that is sweeping the nation; here’s an interesting article about how crazy it’s gotten in LA). All frozen yogurt consumed during the tour was purchased by Fro-Yolympics judges, so you should read and trust that our reviews are unbiased. To give you an idea of the diverse group of qualified judges that attended, here are helpful bios:

1. Grace, gracenotesnyc.com (aka GNN) founder and all around cool person.

Last summer, Grace discovered plain frozen yogurt and her life will never be the same. She is considered a Pinkberry Groupie (an accomplishment you can only achieve by signing up for their e-mail list). She is known at her local Pinkberry for getting 4 toppings for the price of 3, being offered free Pinkberry on her birthday and greeting every server by name. As much as she owes her interest to Pinkberry, she is keeping an open mind (and mouth) for this tour. She hopes to someday open her own frozen yogurt shop called GRACEBERRY!

2. Chris, boyfriend and frozen yogurt enabler:

What happens when Chris finishes the last bite of Grace’s frozen yogurt.

Chris shares Grace’s passion for frozen yogurt and encourages Grace to try different recipes on her ice cream maker. When asked how he felt about frozen yogurt, Chris responded, “yogurt yogurt.” Chris would like to thank his half-white genes for not being lactose intolerant.

3. David, Grace’s brother and e-waste management Interweb entrepreneur:

David, feeling a certain…emptiness before frozen yogurt entered his belly.

David is the eco-friendly transplant from the west coast. Since moving to New York, David has slowly joined the frozen yogurt bandwagon, but wishes more places used biodegradable containers. David has a weak spot for berry and mango toppings and cute yogurt servers. He’d like to thank everyone for recycling - save the earth!

4. Justin, gracenotesnyc.com sole fan club member and co-founder of the fro-yolympics:

Justin, with two girls he lured back to his apartment after a frozen yogurt run.

The first time Justin tried frozen yogurt, he was in the middle of K-town with his girlfriend (Justin is quite the ladies man). Since then, they have broken up; his girlfriend made him choose between her and frozen yogurt (no-brainer). Since breaking up with his girlfriend, Justin has continued troll K-town on the hunt for some beautiful and enticing….frozen yogurt. Go Justin!

5. Ariel, gracenotesnyc.com enthusiast, friend of Grace:

Me and Ariel dancing during a barcrawl (yeah, it was for being an accounting tutor, but who cares?!)

Ariel recently moved to New York to begin an illustrious career in finance. He’s known for doing long division in his head, calculating the cost of frozen yogurt by the ounce, and predicting the stock market in relation to frozen yogurt dispensers and plastic yogurt containers. Ariel doesn’t buy gold to hedge against inflation. Gold buys Ariel to hedge against inflation. Based on the results of this tour, Ariel presented his MD with the frozen yogurt shop he’d like to IPO.

6. Gloria, gracenotesnyc.com aficionado, Patent attorney:

No, this is not Gloria.

Gloria flew in from Los Angeles for this frozen yogurt tour and brought samples from the west coast. Surprisingly, frozen yogurt does not travel well. Gloria braved the harsh conditions of a New York winter to spend the day eating frozen yogurt. She later announced that she would leave early because she is lactose intolerant. What a trooper and a friend!

7. Dan, Chief Yogurt Yahoo:

Dan and Faire SCREAM for frozen yogurt.

Dan is a fitness and health fanatic and is known to bike and rollerblade all over the tri-state area. He joined us for the yogurt tour and vowed to not let the sugar get to his hips by running a marathon after it was over. Dan believes frozen yogurt makes the world a better place.

8. Bethany, gracenotesnyc.com reader, scholar:

Bethany and Faire, discussing frozen yogurt. Bethany talking, Faire mostly listening.

Bethany is a graduate student studying the effects frozen yogurt has on people’s happiness (preliminary lab results: it makes people REALLY happy). She is a new follower of GNN and thinks the grace face’s added to the site are better than sliced bread.

9. Faire, youngest gracenotesnyc.com reader, baby:

Faire, the cutest GNN reader.

Faire, Dan and Bethany’s economically-named baby, enjoyed being carried around on the tour. Although she is too young to partake in eating the delicious frozen yogurt, she appreciated the fact that she did not have to judge the yogurt - it’s a tough job! She outlasted Ariel and Gloria, an accomplishment she will speak about when she applies for nursery schools on the Upper East Side.

There you have it! Each of our judges brings something unique to the table.

Over the course of the day, the fro-yolympics committee visited nine different yogurt shops and sampled ten different frozen yogurts (and a smoothie!). We sampled different flavors, putting the frozen yogurt to all different types of tests, which are explained below:

FRO-YOLYMPICS RATING SYSTEM
Listen, this tour was no joke. Justin and I spent countless hours developing a series of questions we had for each yogurt shop. After coming up with questionnaires, I PRINTED THEM OUT (do you understand?!) We made it even more official by adding barcodes for each shop (this is no easy task, TRUST ME. It involves going through every font in MS Word and finding the coolest one that resembles barcodes). Then, to make it even MORE official, I put everything together on a CLIPBOARD. Here are the questions we asked:

1. Approximate size of hole. Have you ever noticed that every time you go to a frozen yogurt shop, you’re somewhat disappointed in the amount of frozen yogurt you get? I mean, when you get to the middle of the tangy dessert, you’re shocked to see a gaping HOLE. We investigated and have picture proof of every frozen yogurt’s “hole size.”

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess. This category drew its fair share of controversy. How can you put these in the same category, right? Some people believe that tanginess should be opposed to milkyness and creaminess should be opposed to iciness. Well, when Justin and I came up with our metrics, we determined that frozen yogurt can be tangy and tart or creamy and smooth. If you don’t like it, then OKAY.

3. Topping variety. Most frozen yogurt places have the same assortment of toppings (which usually includes fresh fruit, cereals, chocolate), but special recognition will be paid to those that have something different and/or interesting.

4. Fruit quality. There’s no point in having a lot of toppings if they’re not going to be fresh, right? We’re applying this category strictly to the fruit.

5. Calories per ounce. An important metric for every frozen yogurt eater, please reference Seinfeld episode 71: “The Non-Fat Yogurt” if you need more details. Everyone’s counting calories these days and yogurt is no exception.

6. Price per ounce. The importance of this should be obvious; how much yogurt are you getting for your money?

7. Atmosphere/quality of service. There’s nothing more frustrating than eating great food with crappy service. We investigate which frozen yogurt shops have great customer service and which shops fall short.

8. Iciness vs. smoothness. An icier sample of frozen yogurt is one where you can taste the tiny granules of ice whereas a smoother frozen yogurt is more like the one produced by McDonald’s; no icy taste!

9. Flavors. No one could live off of one flavor of frozen yogurt for the rest of their lives - we need variety!! We didn’t judge yogurt shop’s based off their flavors because different places have different flavors (and it would’ve been impossible to compare all of them), but the one flavor every place shared was plain. However, we noted how many flavors each yogurt shop carried.

10. Resilience to heat. This category is especially important to me; I thought of it after having a terrible experience at a Pinkberry on the Upper East Side. Basically, the place was packed, so they were dispensing the frozen yogurt and letting it sit on the production line while other orders were filled. By the time my frozen yogurt was put together, it had the consistency of a soupy mess. From that day, I vowed to eat the frozen yogurt before it started melting. To test the resilience to heat, we asked for a sample of frozen yogurt and set it on the table for exactly five minutes. After exactly five minutes (we had a timer), I took a picture of the evidence.

11. Topping quantity/Presentation. Another important category because we eat with our eyes before we eat with our mouths. Who wants to eat some hot mess?! We have picture proof of each frozen yogurt, which will be documented in each post.

Over the next 10 days, I will be sharing our reviews - you might be surprised! Follow me and my friends as we navigate our way through New York in search of their best frozen yogurt. We start in Brooklyn, then head to Soho, Greenwich Village, Murray Hill, and finish in Koreatown, where the New York frozen yogurt craze started. Everyday will reveal a new frozen yogurt post with lots of interesting details, grace faces, and gracenotesnyc coins, and the final results will be posted on the last day. I hope you enjoy the photographs, comments, and revelations in the coming days!

*****EDIT: Here are the posts in order*****
Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas

David, my awesome brother (and roommate), tagged me on his blog, davidyang.net for this 8 Random Things About Me post. Here are the rules (reposted from David’s site, which was taken from his friend’s site):

These are the rules of this particular meme:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So let’s get started…

8 Random Facts:

1. I love to bake sweets, but I don’t like eating them. I used to bake cupcakes, brownies, cakes, and other sweets all the time, but I rarely ever eat them myself. Here are some of my creations:

Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and blueberries:

Cream cheese cookies with sprinkles (I made them for my class on my 10th birthday, too):

2. I used to be obsessed with Bill Gates (see entry). Yeah, he has tons of money, but he’s also witty and has that nerdy look I USED to be into. Now I love Conan O’Brien.

3. During my senior year of college, my brother mentioned this blogging contest for an international programming competition, TopCoder. I entered on a whim by listing the top 5 reasons they should pick me and ended up WINNING a trip to Las Vegas and blogging about the entire competition here. None of the competitors wanted to be my friend (I tell myself that they were too focused on the competition) but I had a lot of fun exploring the strip.

4. I used to tell everyone my goal was to someday travel to all seven continents. I only have Antarctica and Australia left. (Although I hate flying so I’m not sure either are ever going to happen). Even though I tell people I want to go to all seven continents, I really hate being away from home. A couple of pictures from my travels:

The Berlin Zoo:

The Pergamon:

5. I have a fear of swimming in in/outdoor pools by myself. I used to be on the swim team in middle school (I was pretty good, too), but I refuse to swim in a pool by myself because I’m afraid that I’ll be attacked by a shark/killer whale/dolphin/crocodile. Yes, I realize that it’s completely ridiculous, but I can’t help it.

6. I like doing certain house chores - washing dishes, vacuuming, cooking, and doing laundry. On the other hand, dusting, mopping floors, wiping tables, or cleaning toilet bowls are things I refuse to do.

7. I have certain idiosyncrasies that I think are interesting; 1. every time I wet one hand, I have to wet the other (no matter what), 2. I have to organize my polos by color and brand.

8. I love Tina Fey/30 Rock so much that I want to take her behind the middle school and get her pregnant!! My other favorite shows are Arrested Development, The Office, and Flight of the Conchords. For Halloween, I dressed up as Jemaine (AKA the hip-hop-popotamus):

From the music video “The humans are dead”:

Binary solo 001001010110101

Okay, I don’t have that many friends with blogs, but I’ll tag Josh, Talida, Audrey, Charles, Ariel, Darren, Justin, and Chris. (if you don’t have a blog, just write the 8 random facts in my comments!)