You asked, we answered. We sent members of the Gothamist team to the top frozen yogurt outposts in the city and even made our own. Here's a breakdown of what we discovered:
Yolato has four locations in Manhattan now: The West Village, Upper West Side, Chelsea and Midtown. Hailing from across the Hudson, Yolato offers a number of low calorie gelatos and sorbets -- let's talk frozen soft serve yogurt. Dubbed "Yoggi," it's made from real yogurt and has an almost citrusy sour tangy taste, somewhat similar to Pinkberry. It's refreshing, but it can get pricey - a regular plain Yoggi is $3.65 (grande is $4.60) and a regular Yoggi with three toppings (fresh fruit and grains are offered) is $5.50 (or toppings are $0.95 each). The price is not too much of a barrier: During the nice recent weekend when the weekends have been beautiful, lines have formed outside the teeny UWS store.
And a side note: We're not a fan of the gelatos, but the sorbets are incredible and our favorite is the pineapple.
We visited Pinkberry a while back when the first NYC location on 32nd Street opened with a bang. Since October, two more Pinkberry stores have sprouted up -- one in Chelsea on 8th Avenue between 17th and 18th Streets and another on the Upper East Side, on 2nd Avenue between 81st and 82nd. This addictive, LA based frozen treat comes in two flavors, plain and green tea, but it's still somewhat hard on the wallet. A small (5 ounces) with a topping of raspberries put us out $4.23. Despite our sticker shock, we found the yogurt itself to be slightly icy and distinctly sour, with a very appealing subtle sweetness. Word is that Pinkberry will be opening a Nolita location in the not-too-distant future.
There is some serious hype surrounding the yogurt at 40 Carrots, which is located in the bottom floor of Bloomingdale's. The small, which comes at Bloomingdale's prices (over $3), is huge -- frankly, too big for us to even try to finish. Although they advertise it as their "exclusive" yogurt, the brand that we spotted on the machine, Frogurt, has been spotted by Chowhounds at Lord & Taylor, Sedutto, and Cafe Lalo (and by us in our own office cafeteria); the plain is the flavor to look for. We'll admit, the plain yogurt has a great "real yogurt" tang with just a hint of sweetness which was quite appealing, and it was nice and creamy, but the size of it, at least at Bloomies, was a bit out of hand. Spending that kind of money on a yogurt we can't even finish, even if it is pretty tasty, is something we likely won't do again.
Finally, we followed a reader's recipe for making our own frozen yogurt out of Fage strained Greek yogurt:
1. Take a container of FAGE or other Greek-style yogurt (we used 0%) and place in freezer until frozen.
2. Take out of freezer and defrost a wee bit until it is still frozen but not a complete rock.
3. Put in food processor with a little dash of soy or cow milk (we used cow of the skim variety) until smooth.
4. Garnish w/whatever you'd like (we opted for some homemade granola and a drizzle of honey).
We found our homemade concoction to have the same great tang as the other "real" yogurt varieties, but it was a bit heavy on the ice crystals instead of having a more creamy texture. Experimentation with 2% yogurt and/or lowfat or whole milk may be in order. Our yogurt cost about $1.25 at Whole Foods, making this by far the cheapest option (excluding the price of the food processor).
So which was our favorite? Hard to say -- none of them have made us crazy enough to make a special trip outside of the neighborhood. We'd suggest hitting up whichever one is closest to you. It also depends on your budget -- if you want to splurge, head to Pinkberry; if you want so save a few bucks, make your own. We've certainly decided that a tangy, "real yogurt" taste is worth the travel time and money to avoid the chemical-laden "fro yo" found at many other frozen yogurt establishments throughout the city.
co-authored by Jen Chung and Youngna Park
