All across the United States there have been these “premium frozen yoghurt” (or ‘yogurt’) establishments opening. They started popping up in a fairly regular manner a couple years ago, but now it seems like you can’t go anywhere without seeing a different chain of them. The places–characterised by bright colours (usually neon greens and pinks) throughout–generally have self-serve machines with various flavours, and a toppings bar.
I don’t really have a problem with all of the venues opening, as I generally love frozen yoghurt, and especially this style. I’ve tried a few of them in this area, and recently I tried Menchie’s in Durham, NC. Remember the crazily bright colours that I mentioned earlier? Well even their logo features them:
Anyway, I have been there twice, and think that I can make a pretty decent assessment of the chain (check the link above for their locations near you). The first time that I went, I tried a combination of the cheesecake flavour and the carrot cake flavour. On top of that mix, I put mango boba (which if you’ve never had boba, you should try them; they’re fun), and granola for a little bit of a texture contrast. Speaking of the granola, that’s one of the things that I really enjoyed about Menchie’s–they had fat free granola, which is really uncommon at these joints. The second time that I went, I mixed snickerdoodle and vanilla flavours with only the fat-free granola.
As far as the flavours that I tried, they were good, but after a couple of minutes, they ran together and were fairly indistinguishable. The flavours were not strong enough, in my opinion. The texture was a little bit off, and sometimes had a slight grit to it, but not bad. They offered numerous toppings, ranging from fresh fruits, to candies, to cereals. All that variety, though, wasn’t enough to offset the somewhat bland yoghurt mixtures that they had. I did sample quite a few flavours before choosing the ones that I did, but I didn’t really find some that made me go “wow, that’s great!”
Overall, Menchie’s has some strong points, but I don’t think that they have any distinguishing factors that set them apart from the other chains out there. For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend them, especially when there are EXCELLENT choices in the area here (and likely better choices in your location as well).
Cheers,
Zach
