It sounds like a typical Friday night in Taipei: my friends and I decide to meet at the bar after work. I arrive first, grab a medium cup and start swirling passion fruit-flavored frozen yogurt into it. Now a swirl of strawberry, and as my friend Lesley comes into the bar I call out to her, “hey look, they have kiwi today!”
I deliberate between kiwi and lychee and decide to add a dollop of both. Why not? It’s Friday!
At the counter I add Captain Crunch cereal, pass on the gummy bears and top the whole thing off with fresh mango, kiwi and berries. I plop it on the scale, and a smiling girl tells me that it comes to NT$90. Our friend Lisa arrives, choosing a small cup, and Lesley and I sit outside on white plastic chairs to wait for her. She comes out, hops onto the swing made from a surfboard, and we chat about our week between mouthfuls of the sweet, fresh, cold dessert.
Young entrepreneurs Alex Yen (顏健博), Jennifer Chou (周琬臻) and Sandy Hsieh (謝昀潔) noticed the trend while attending university in California and decided to try out a yogurt bar in Taipei. “I think Taiwanese, especially the young people are willing to try new stuff,” Yen says. “I have a lot of faith in our product. It’s really yummy.”
They are initially attracting hip young girls — who knew the resurgence of 1980s pop culture would include frozen yogurt and gummy bears? As with leggings, there have been definite improvements: more variety, better-quality materials and different sizes to choose from. Today’s frozen yogurt is smooth and tart, without the syrupy, chalky texture of yesteryears’.
It’s also quite low-calorie. Yen, who is the president of the National Taiwan University Foreign Student’s Association, studies biochemical science and technology here, so he took a sample down to the lab. He says the original-flavor yogurt is only 46 calories per 100g. He also detected probiotic cultures in the mix they use, which aids digestion of lactose, and are well known for their health benefits.
“Some old ladies have come,” says Yeh, giggling, “and they told me when you get old you get constipated, but the yogurt really helps!” He raises his eyebrows triumphantly. “Even muscle guys come here after they work out for a huge cup.”
Since I discovered the place after it opened on Aug. 11, I have been there six times. It is not in my neighborhood. I’ll be riding my bike home from work, and, like any addiction, it starts serenading me. The passion fruit, with its light sweet start and tart aftertaste, is my favorite flavor so far. They change the flavors frequently by adding different concentrated fruit juices to the original mix.
Toppings include cereal, graham crackers, chocolate covered raisins, gummy bears, Oreo cookies and chocolate chips. You can also add fresh fruit: mango, kiwi, frozen berries. And there are plans to add waffles to the menu in winter.
It’s delicious, low-calorie, low fat and, best of all, there’s no hangover.
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