Ifyou’ve been to Los Angeles in the past five years, you’ll probably have come across Pinkberry and the frozen yogurt wars. The fro-yo phenomenon began when Pinkberry, now a frozen dessert chain, opened its first store in Los Angeles in 2005 and rapidly built up a following that nicknamed the store’s brand of sweet frozen yogurt sprinkled with healthful toppings “crackberry.”
Last year, a number of bright-colored frozen yogurt places started springing up in Taipei’s East District (東區), Gongguan (公館) and Shida (師大) neighborhoods, prompting food bloggers to declare that the fro-yo wave has officially hit Taiwan’s capital.
Among the frosty dessert shops, Hielo is a relatively latecomer that hawks a similar melange of tart and sweet yogurt at its inviting location close to the intersection of Zhongxiao East (忠孝東) and Dunhua South (敦化南) roads.
From the outside, Hielo, which means ice in Spanish, doesn’t look like a purveyor of frozen desserts. This probably explains why I passed the storefront several times before noticing it is a fro-yo store. But once you walk through the door, it all becomes clear when you see the huge pink sign on the wall that explains how things work here. First choose a cup size — four ounces, seven ounces, or 11 ounces — then select a flavor — tart plain, strawberry, and Uji matcha (which means green tea) — and cover your yogurt with toppings including fresh fruit, cereal, almond, Oreo cookies, brownies or bite-sized mochi balls.
Each topping costs NT$15, except for imported fruits such as raspberry, blueberry and cherry that set you back NT$40 each per serving. Waffle bowls are available for an additional NT$20.
Hielo has its own yogurt creations with names like mochi matcha and cookie crumble — NT$105 for four ounces, NT$145 for seven ounces, and NT$185 for 11 ounces — for those who don’t want to spend 10 minutes in front of the toppings counter concocting their own.
The menu also includes smoothies (NT$125 for 14 ounces, NT$155 for 20 ounces) that come in berry, mango, kiwi and banana and strawberry flavors as well as selection of salads (NTS145) that should probably be avoided if the yogurt fruit salad I recently tried is any indication. Its yogurt dressing had a refreshing zest with a dash of sea salt and black pepper, but the fruit was past its best.
Compared to other yogurt places, Hielo is considerably more spacious, with friendly service and cutesy decor painted in white, pink and baby blue hues. But when it comes to the frosty options, Hielo offers significantly fewer choices of flavors and toppings than Yogurt Art (www.yogurtart.com.tw) or YoFroyo (www.yofroyo.com). Since its opening last year, YoFroyo has quickly expanded to three locations in the city and is a lot cheaper than Hielo and Yogurt Art.
As the weather warms up, it should be interesting to see if more competitors join the Taipei frozen yogurt wars this year and how long the local fro-yo craze will last.
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