Design-Your Yogurt

Getting Over My Yogurt Aversion

When I was a kid I ate nothing but 100% pure ice cream (well I am sure it was not pure, but it was definitely 100% ice cream).  Frozen Yogurt was this strange concoction that could be found at TCBY or your local ice cream parlor (though usually only in two or three flavors).  Given its somewhat healthy reputation I was not all that interested in it as a kid.  Not to mention, as previously stated, the flavor options were few and far between.  Though frozen yogurt gained in popularity during the 1980s, for me there was nothing better than a scoop of Breyers Strawberry Ice Cream.  I studiously avoided the healthy alternative to ice cream until I moved within walking distance to a J.P. Licks.  For those of you not in the know, J.P. Licks is the ice cream mecca of Boston, the first store located in Jamaica Plain, MA - a convenient 4 blocks away from my home.  J.P. Licks was my first introduction to "designer" yogurt.  J.P. Licks brought homey favorites such as Oatmeal Cookie and Peanut Butter Chip to the yogurt world.  This was not your mom and dad's tart vanilla yogurt.  This was new frontier yogurt and from that point on I was hooked.  But the best was yet to come.  It was only when I moved out to the west coast that I made the greatest yogurt discovery since chocolate chip cookie dough flavor.

It was a typical Sunday afternoon in Southern California.  After hitting the beach for a few hours, we needed a snack.  It is, after all, very hard work laying out on a towel and watching the ocean sweep in and out while simultaneously keeping an eye on the various surfers riding the swells.  After stowing our gear we set off to find a munchie.  Our first choice was a juice bar, oh us healthy Californians, but it was closed.  Dejected we started our trek back to the car, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a small store front - Yummy Yogurt.  Sounds good to me I thought, so we went in.  I was immediately confused.  There was no counter top to place my order.  There was only a friendly employee standing behind her cash register and 5 self-serve yogurt machines.  Not wanting to look like a yogurt novice I quietly whispered to my husband "what do we do?  Do we just grab a cup and have at it or do we need to let her know what yogurt we are getting and how much?"  The fear of looking silly in this chic yogurt shop was paralyzing.  But then I spied the friendly how-to guide for self-serve yogurt:

1. Grab cup - Simple enough
2. Choose your flavor(s) - Ohh a mix and match option, I like it
1. You can either choose one flavor on its own or by using the middle lever get a combination of both flavors that are in that particular dispenser.
3. Pull down lever and dispense as much yogurt as you like
4. Choose your toppings - Over 50 options - mind-boggling
5. Bring you cup to the register for weighing
6. Pay and Consume

And so we commenced our self-serve yogurt journey.  It was awesome, the ability to choose as many or as few flavors and toppings as you like was great.  You could get a shot of mint chocolate chip, a shot of oreo cookie dough and a shot of chocolate, all topped with sprinkles, graham cracker crumbs and melted caramel.  It was yogurt, done completely your way.  Once my eyes were opened at Yummy Yogurt I started to notice many self-serve yogurt shops all around San Diego, the most prevalent being Yogurtland.

Yogurtland is a Yummy Yogurt gone made.  With no less than 30 flavors to choose from, if you can't find what you want here, it probably doesn't exist.  Our local Yogurtland is bright and colorful with huge floor to ceiling windows and neon green seats.  Choosing your flavors here is no easy decision but they do help you out by providing taster cups which, with proper dispensing, can turn into a second helping of yogurt goodness.  My favorites, in no particular order, are Nilla Wafer, Red Velvet, Devil's Food Cupcake Batter and Birthday Cake but their Dulce de Leche is also not to be ignored.  As for toppings, they range from fruit to crumbed girl scout cookies but my usual must haves are the brownie bites, cookie dough bites, some crumbed oreo cookie all held together with a squirt of hot fudge, caramel, and white chocolate.  To make the atmosphere even more festive - as if a serve yourself yogurt place with flavors like New York Cheesecake was not festive enough, their spoons are bright pink and bright green and hard plastic, so you can take them home with you (I do - don't judge, they are great for brown bag lunches).

During my latest visit I had Fresh Strawberry, Double Cookies and Cream, Birthday Cake, and a combination of Peanut Peanut Butter and New York Cheesecake.  Now, lest you think me a total glutton, I only take small samplings of each.  I topped my yogurt with my customary choices: brownie bites, cookie dough bites, crumbled oreos, fudge, caramel, and white chocolate.  I got the pink spoon.  Because I like to get the variety pack of yogurt flavors the trick is always to get a taste of each before they melt together and you lose track of what you are eating.  It is important to keep this in mind when choosing your flavors because inevitably they will end up jumbled together, so you will want to choose complimentary yogurt tastes.  Typically though it works out fine even if you choose randomly - it is yogurt after all.  As you can tell from the above list I took the random route this visit.

The strawberry yogurt was sweet and a bit tart, just like any good strawberry yogurt should be, though I must confess that I do miss the chunks of frozen strawberry that came in my Breyer's ice cream.  The Double Cookies N' Cream is like a double stuff oreo blended to perfection in your food processor.  Strawberries and chocolate, so far so good on the melting together front.  The Birthday Cake flavor is a personal choice; I like it but some people only want to taste birthday cake in cake form.  But that is not me, I will take cake flavor in any form.  Plus, strawberry, chocolate and cake - this just keeps getting better and better.  Now the wild card, a combination of Peanut Peanut butter and New York Cheesecake.  I must admit that this was a last minute decision.  My usual go to flavor of Red Velvet had been retired and I was at a loss for my forth flavor and on a whim chose this one.  The Peanut Peanut Butter flavor definitely overwhelmed the New York Cheesecake and was definitely the dominate flavor in my yogurt bowl.  While I do love peanut butter I think next time I will opt for something a bit less potent - like Nilla Wafer and leave the peanut butter in the jar.

The best thing about self-serve yogurt is the ability to make it your own.  There are no judgments with self serve yogurt.  You don't need to explain to anyone why you want caramel syrup on your strawberry yogurt and you are not limited by the number of scoops that you want to consume.  If you want to try all 16 flavors you can and you won't end up with a tower of yogurt taller than you.  Self serve yogurt gives you the freedom to have a new yogurt experience every time you visit, even if all you do is switch up your toppings.  So go ahead and create your own personal yogurt paradise and don't forget the graham cracker crumbs for the top!  Eat on my Fro Yo friends!