Aspen Leaf Frozen Yogurt
Today, I took Brett back to the airport after a week long visit from him. Visits from Brett mean two things. Lots of ice cream eating and not a lot of blog post writing. Our first ice cream adventure was actually a froyo adventure. It was his first day in Iowa, we had both worked out earlier in the day and we were hungry. After grabbing dinner, we decided to explore the downtown Iowa City pedestrian mall area which actually means we got froyo. I wanted to go to Yotopia, because it is Iowa City's "original" frozen yogurt or something. But Brett thought he might also want to get some chocolate for later so we chose Aspen Leaf instead, because it is attached to a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
It has been a while since I've reviewed a frozen yogurt shop, so I will refresh your memory on my eight step evaluation process.
1) The variety of the flavors: is there a good selection?
2) The flavor of my choices
3) The quality of the combination of my choices
4) The texture of the froyo (or sorbet)
5) The variety of the toppings
6) Quality of the toppings
7) How well my toppings coordinate with my froyo flavors
8) Overall experience
1) At first glance the flavor selection at Aspen Leaf wasn't huge, but it was super unique! There were flavors like Cookies and Milk and Caramel Donut! However, as I looked further, I realized the flavor selection wasn't actually unique. Most froyo shops have two flavors next to each other and an option to swirl them in the middle. What Aspen Leaf was doing was naming their swirls. So Caramel Donut was actually a swirl between Cake Batter and Dulche de Leche and Cookies and Milk was a swirl between Vanilla and Cookies and Cream. Taking this into account, the flavor selection was pretty standard; a handful of fruity flavors and a handful of dessert flavors.
2) The flavor of my choices. I chose the Cookies and Cream and the Dulche de Leche. I decided to do a caramel and chocolate theme for this froyo. First, the Cookies and Cream was way too sweet. It was cloying and not chocolatey enough. The Dulche de Leche, however, was sweet, but not too sweet and a light flavored caramel. Pretty much exactly what you would expect from a froyo shop.
3) Can you go wrong with chocolate and caramel? Nope. However, the overly sweetness from the Cookies and Cream did at time threaten to even over power the Dulche de Leche.
4) The texture of this froyo was slightly more watery than I have had at other shops.
5) This is where Aspen Leaf takes the cake. Which is not surprising, since Aspen Leaf (and other U-Swirl froyo shops) are owned by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. If you can think of a gummy candy, they had it and more. They had gummy worms, sweet and sour, gummy bears, jelly beans, Mike n Ikes, Skittles, and giant gummy frogs. They had more flavors of boba than I've seen at one froyo shop. They had every chocolate candy and every nut and sauce and granola and muddy buddies and cookies and EVERYTHING. I have never been at a froyo shop with better variety of toppings.
6) The toppings I chose were crushed Oreos, caramel chips, chocolate caramel cups, a mystery topping, and one giant gummy frog. The Oreo chunks were medium to small in size, the caramel chips were standard, as were the chocolate caramel cups. The gummy frog was delicious, tart and sweet. The mystery topping wasn't actually a mystery, I only didn't see the label when I put it in my froyo. It was s'mores bark. Although it didn't fit with the theme I was going for, this was by far the best topping. It tasted mostly like graham cracker, with marshmallow and chocolate. It was crunchy and fun and unique. I haven't seen this candy in other places, and it was so good I would say it would be worth going to Aspen Leaf and getting some s'mores bark to take home.
7) Yes I realize this category is basically how much do I suck at making froyo creations. Because I stuck to a pretty strict theme, I did well. My one comment would be, the flavor of the s'mores bark was much stronger than the other flavors, so it kind of messed with the theme. But it was so tasty, I didn't care.
8) Flavor selection and quality could have been better, but it was more than made up for by topping selection and quality!
It has been a while since I've reviewed a frozen yogurt shop, so I will refresh your memory on my eight step evaluation process.
1) The variety of the flavors: is there a good selection?
2) The flavor of my choices
3) The quality of the combination of my choices
4) The texture of the froyo (or sorbet)
5) The variety of the toppings
6) Quality of the toppings
7) How well my toppings coordinate with my froyo flavors
8) Overall experience
1) At first glance the flavor selection at Aspen Leaf wasn't huge, but it was super unique! There were flavors like Cookies and Milk and Caramel Donut! However, as I looked further, I realized the flavor selection wasn't actually unique. Most froyo shops have two flavors next to each other and an option to swirl them in the middle. What Aspen Leaf was doing was naming their swirls. So Caramel Donut was actually a swirl between Cake Batter and Dulche de Leche and Cookies and Milk was a swirl between Vanilla and Cookies and Cream. Taking this into account, the flavor selection was pretty standard; a handful of fruity flavors and a handful of dessert flavors.
2) The flavor of my choices. I chose the Cookies and Cream and the Dulche de Leche. I decided to do a caramel and chocolate theme for this froyo. First, the Cookies and Cream was way too sweet. It was cloying and not chocolatey enough. The Dulche de Leche, however, was sweet, but not too sweet and a light flavored caramel. Pretty much exactly what you would expect from a froyo shop.
3) Can you go wrong with chocolate and caramel? Nope. However, the overly sweetness from the Cookies and Cream did at time threaten to even over power the Dulche de Leche.
4) The texture of this froyo was slightly more watery than I have had at other shops.
5) This is where Aspen Leaf takes the cake. Which is not surprising, since Aspen Leaf (and other U-Swirl froyo shops) are owned by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. If you can think of a gummy candy, they had it and more. They had gummy worms, sweet and sour, gummy bears, jelly beans, Mike n Ikes, Skittles, and giant gummy frogs. They had more flavors of boba than I've seen at one froyo shop. They had every chocolate candy and every nut and sauce and granola and muddy buddies and cookies and EVERYTHING. I have never been at a froyo shop with better variety of toppings.
6) The toppings I chose were crushed Oreos, caramel chips, chocolate caramel cups, a mystery topping, and one giant gummy frog. The Oreo chunks were medium to small in size, the caramel chips were standard, as were the chocolate caramel cups. The gummy frog was delicious, tart and sweet. The mystery topping wasn't actually a mystery, I only didn't see the label when I put it in my froyo. It was s'mores bark. Although it didn't fit with the theme I was going for, this was by far the best topping. It tasted mostly like graham cracker, with marshmallow and chocolate. It was crunchy and fun and unique. I haven't seen this candy in other places, and it was so good I would say it would be worth going to Aspen Leaf and getting some s'mores bark to take home.
7) Yes I realize this category is basically how much do I suck at making froyo creations. Because I stuck to a pretty strict theme, I did well. My one comment would be, the flavor of the s'mores bark was much stronger than the other flavors, so it kind of messed with the theme. But it was so tasty, I didn't care.
8) Flavor selection and quality could have been better, but it was more than made up for by topping selection and quality!
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