Berry Wild Smooth and kinda icy:

Our second to last stop was Berry Wild, a place that Justin found one day after stumbling out of a bar in the neighborhood. Justin knows the area around Berry Wild very well; Tonic, the bar across the street from Berry Wild, is Justin’s second home. Berry Wild is special for two reasons (well, two that I know of): 1. they have a kosher-friendly frozen yogurt and 2. they have two ways of preparation - smooth and “kinda icy” (their phrase). Smooth is very similar to 40 carrots’ yogurt while kinda icy is like Pinkberry’s. We tried both (OBVIOUSLY). We’re evaluating both types of frozen yogurt here, but separately. Today will be a DOUBLE post. Berry Wild’s storefront:

1. Size of the hole:

I only took a picture for kinda icy’s hole, but the hole was *very* small for both frozen yogurts.

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Berry Wild’s kinda icy scored a tangy 2 and smooth scored a 4 (smooth was much more creamy).

3. Topping Variety:

Berry Wild had a creative raspberry truffle chocolate chip topping you could add to your yogurt. I think it would go well with the smooth frozen yogurt since it was creamy like ice cream.

4. Fruit quality: On a scale of one to five (one being over/under ripe and five being perfectly ripe), Berry Wild scored a perfect 5!! Their blueberries were large and plump and their mangoes were very ripe (just like Flurt’s fruit!)

5. Calories per ounce: Berry Wild only had nutritional information for their special flavor, Caribou coffee. It had 23g calories/ounce (but it wasn’t being served during our tour).

6. Price per ounce: Berry Wild clocked in at 63 cents/ounce (both types of frozen yogurt were the same price).

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: Berry Wild had cool looking chairs and tables all over the place. Also, they have a Purell hand-sanitizer dispenser by the front door so you can clean up after eating frozen yogurt (how thoughtful!).

8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Berry Wild’s kinda icy a 2; slightly more icy than smooth and Berry Wild’s smooth a 5 (VERY SMOOTH).

9. Number of flavors: Berry Wild only has plain and coffee (although coffee wasn’t working the day we went).

10. Resilience to heat:

(Kinda icy - left, smooth - right)

Kinda icy did better than smooth in the resilience to heat category, but both yogurts had some meltage.

11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:

Kinda icy (with mangoes):

Smooth (blueberries and raspberries):

Berry Wild was very generous with their toppings (look at how much fruit they gave us!). We were very happy with the results.

As you can see from the results, we had a mixed reaction with both frozen yogurts. Dan and Bethany preferred the smooth frozen yogurt (they also really enjoyed 40 carrot’s frogurt), but Chris preferred kinda icy (Chris and I have always liked the icy consistency of Pinkberry’s frozen yogurt). Smooth scored a 3.71/5.0 and kinda icy scored a 3.43/5.0. Even though Chris and I preferred the kinda icy consistency, the majority of our tour still leans toward the old-fashioned smooth and creamy style of frozen yogurt. Tomorrow, on our last day of the frozen yogurt tour, we will visit Crazy Bananas!!

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 remaining two locations (Berry Wild and Crazy Bananas) will be posted NEXT WEEK. I PROMISE. Here’s a puppy to show you how sad I am about postponing the fro-yolympics:

Here are some other reviews to look forward to:

Shopsins, Egg, Levain Bakery, Chow Bar, Ennju, Union Square Cafe, La Focaccia, and Bouley.

Have a wonderful week!

Grace

After our quick stop in the east village for Very Berry, we hopped on the subway and headed to Flurt, a small shop in midtown east. Flurt is a cute frozen yogurt store with lots of interesting seating (there’s cool wood panelling and fun - but wobbly - chairs). It’s pretty small (only four of five tables), but very chic:

1. Size of the hole:

There’s NO HOLE! WOW! Amazing!! We’re off to a good start…

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Flurt scored a 2.5, leaning more towards tangy.

3. Topping Variety:

Flurt had lots of basic toppings, including pomegranate seeds. Their fruit toppings were stored in metal containers and the dry toppings (including cereal and coconut shavings) were in colorful bowls.

4. Fruit quality:On a scale of one to five (one being over/under ripe and five being perfectly ripe), Flurt scored a PERFECT 5!! Their blueberries were large and plump and their mangoes were very ripe.

5. Calories per ounce: Flurt had 23g calories/ounce.

6. Price per ounce: Flurt clocked in at 72 cents/ounce.

7. Atmosphere/quality of service:Flurt had a really pleasant wheatgrass smell while we were visiting (similar to Jamba Juice’s, but BETTER). There was some upbeat music playing in the background and surprisingly, there were a lot of surveillance cameras watching us eat our frozen yogurt.

8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Flurt a 2; slightly more icy than smooth.

9. Number of flavors:Flurt only has one flavor: plain Greek strained yogurt.

10. Resilience to heat:

The yogurt was VERY resilient to heat and we saw very little melting.

11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:

The guys working at Flurt that night was very nice - he gave us lots of toppings. Frozen yogurt + lots of toppings = happy judges.

Ariel’s results are missing because he had to go back to work, but everyone else thought Flurt really hit the spot. Flurt’s final score was a high4.21/5.0. I was pleasantly surprised with Flurt’s frozen yogurt and I’m waiting for them to open more stores around the city. Tomorrow, we will visit Berry Wild, where we’ll have TWO reviews!

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

After being in the Soho/Greenwich village area for the majority of the afternoon, we took the subway to Astor place to visit Very Berry. I’d never even heard of Very Berry before (and neither had anyone on the tour), but we were excited to try their frozen yogurt (even though I’d read less than stellar reviews about the place). Very Berry is relatively new (it opened on Saint Mark’s place on Halloween 2007):

I’m still amazed that everyone was such a trooper on the tour - we spent an ENTIRE day eating frozen yogurt for this tour (No bathroom breaks! No stops for solid food!)

1. Size of the hole:

VERY BIG HOLE!!! We were SHOCKED! I mean, DO YOU SEE HOW BIG IT IS?! You could hide things in that freaking hole!

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Very Berry scored a 2, leaning more towards creamy.

3. Topping Variety:

All of the toppings were stored in air-tight containers, similar to Oko. They had berries, cereals, and basic toppings the other frozen yogurt stores carried, but they also carry interesting toppings like jelly beans.

4. Fruit quality:

On a scale of one to five (one being over/under ripe and five being perfectly ripe), Very Berry scored a very respectable 4!

5. Calories per ounce: Very Berry did not have their nutritional information available yet, but we ordered a 12 ounce container. The frozen yogurt server told me that the information would be out soon, but I haven’t been back since.

6. Price per ounce: Very Berry clocked in at 72 cents/ounce.

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: There were cute paintings of cherries and other fruits on Very Berry’s walls. Top 40 hits were playing in the background and the place was pretty empty. There were two people working the night we went both neither were very helpful (especially when I asked about nutritional information).

8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Very Berry a 1.5; VERRRRY icy!

9. Number of flavors: there are 3 flavors at Verry Berry - original, blueberry, and green tea. We sampled the blueberry and it had a medicinal flavor - it wasn’t natural at all.

10. Resilience to heat:

The yogurt was surprisingly resilient to heat and we didn’t see much meltage.

11. Presentation:

We all liked the presentation at Very Berry; they distributed the toppings evenly throughout the frozen yogurt and each bite was a tasty combination of mango, mochi, and raspberry.

We were pretty happy with the yogurt, as you can see from the results. We weren’t happy that there was no nutritional information available and we kind of thought the mango tasted like it came out of a can (it was either out of a can or a day old because it tasted gummy). We gave Very Berry a final score of 3.19/5.0. Tomorrow, on our 7th day of the fro-yolympics, we’ll head to Murray Hill, where we’ll sample Flurt’s frozen yogurt!

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

40 Carrots, on the second floor of the Soho Bloomingdales, is a great treat after a long day of shopping in Soho. I live closer to the 59th Street Bloomingdales, so I end up going to that one more often (although, they moved from the basement so now it’s inconvenient to get to it!). Nevertheless, the Soho location was more convenient for our tour and we ended up going there after Yolato.

40 Carrots Results
1. Size of the hole:

There was absolutely NO HOLE in our frozen yogurt! That’s why I LOVE 40 carrots.

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), 40 Carrots a creamy 5.

3. Topping Variety: One thing I don’t like about 40 Carrots is their lack of toppings - they have things like wheat germ, but unless you go to the sit down restaurant, you won’t get any fruit (and if you get their fruit, they give you melon…wtf?!)

4. Topping quality:No fruit to rate!

5. Calories per ounce: 40 Carrots had approximately 25 calories/ounce.

6. Price per ounce: 40 Carrots was 41 cents/ounce (approximately).

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: One downside of 40 Carrots is that there is absolutely NO seating in the Soho location. No, actually, there are a couple of seats, but it’s difficult to navigate because there isn’t too much space between tables.

8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated 40 Carrots a 5 - VERY smooth.

9. Number of flavors: there are a bunch of flavors at 40 Carrots (the 59th street location) but at the Soho location, there’s usually plain and dutch chocolate. I’ve had lemon, blueberry, coffee, strawberry, and peach at the 59th street location (yeah, I’m a big fan!).

10. Resilience to heat:

Okay, not so good. There was a bunch of melting, but I think it’s because no one had ordered the chocolate in a while and so when we asked for a sample, we got the melted mix that wasn’t completely frozen to begin with.

11. Presentation:

I think frozen yogurt is so beautiful, don’t you? I love how they stuff the cup to the brim…a large is enough for a group of EIGHT!

Final results:

We were all fans of the creamy, milky goodness. We thought it tasted a little bit like cream cheese and I thought it tasted more like Tasti-D than a plain yogurt frozen yogurt, but I love the stuff so much. Overall, 40 carrots received a 3.75/5.0. Sorry for the gap in postings; I flew to Chicago and accidentally left my notes at home (how restaurantgirl of me!). We’ll have two more posts (Very Berry and Flurt) and I’ll finish the posts over the weekend. I’ll post Berry Wild and Crazy Bananas next Monday and Tuesday with final results next Wednesday. Thanks for your patience!

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