Cate's Frozen Yogurt
I've officially survived my first week of graduate school! However, since it was only the first week of classes, the professor for the course I'm TAing decided to cancel subsections and all of my three hour seminar classes did not go the full three hours. I had a lot more free time this week than I probably will ever have again in my academic life. So with all my free time, Sunday evening I decided to go get frozen yogurt from Cate's, a shop in North Iowa City.
If you haven't figured it out by now, I have a whole system of 8 questions with which I review frozen yogurt shops. Here they are if you have forgotten.
1) The variety of 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 froyo.
5) The variety of the toppings.
6) Quality of the toppings.
7) How well my toppings coordinated with my froyo flavors
8) Overall experience
1) A resounding nope on this question. There were 6 flavors available. One fruit sorbet, one fruit froyo, a vanilla, a cookies and cream, and the two I got.
2) This, on the other hand, is (obviously) a complete different question. The two flavors I got, Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel Pretzel, were delightful. Also, I find it quite hilarious that the two interesting flavors at this froyo shop, when combined, basically make the flavor of the frozen custard I reviewed yesterday. Can you say, dessert trends?
The dark chocolate was surprisingly dark for a froyo; I enjoyed it a lot. It got to this spot by the lots of cocoa powder route, which isn't my favorite, but I don't need demand quality quite so high from a froyo shop. The salted caramel pretzel tasted the most like salty pretzel, which was also surprising. No joke, it strongly tasted like a pretzel. The flavor had a light and sweet caramel undertone to it. Also, salted caramel fans, say whatever you want about the way I've acted in the past, but here is a confession, anyway. I don't dislike salted caramel. Not that I love it, but I do like it significantly more when it is mellower or paired with some other flavor. (But do note I have not yet directly said "I like salted caramel.")
3) As I mentioned before, I enjoy salted caramel more when it is paired with something else. So obviously I did a good job here.
4) This froyo was super smooth and creamy. No iciness. It wasn't super thick, and as it melted it was a bit watery, but overall I was quite impressed.
5) Note: I am bad at being aware of my surroundings. While I was getting my toppings, I would have told you the selection wasn't great. There was some fruit, some candies, only one of them being a gummy candy, and that's it. However, as I sat down, I saw they had a whole bunch of nuts and cereals in dispensers on the wall. Overall, I would say Aspen Leaf had a better toppings selection, but Cate's was decent.
6) The toppings I chose were chocolate caramel cups, cookie dough bits, mini dark chocolate chips, and a gummy frog. The caramel cups were standard, as were the dark chocolate chips, and the gummy frogs. Though I am going to say, they had a scoop out for the gummy frogs as opposed to little tongs, and it is difficult to get one gummy frog with a scoop. The cookie dough bits are the only topping I got that can vary from shop to shop. These ones were quite good. They had a pretty standard cookie dough texture. But, what was unique, and what was what I liked was the texture. These cookie dough bits were dense. Like someone took cookie dough and vacuumed out all the air.
7) Again, I am going to applaud myself for a job well done here. The cookie dough bits were a bit out of left field, but they weren't so strong in flavor to mess with the balance in any significant way. The caramel cups, not too surprisingly, had a stronger caramel flavor than the salted caramel pretzel froyo, so each cup was a little umph of caramel.
8) A win on this one. A unique flavor, high quality flavors and texture, and decent toppings. I'll definitely be going back!
If you haven't figured it out by now, I have a whole system of 8 questions with which I review frozen yogurt shops. Here they are if you have forgotten.
1) The variety of 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 froyo.
5) The variety of the toppings.
6) Quality of the toppings.
7) How well my toppings coordinated with my froyo flavors
8) Overall experience
1) A resounding nope on this question. There were 6 flavors available. One fruit sorbet, one fruit froyo, a vanilla, a cookies and cream, and the two I got.
2) This, on the other hand, is (obviously) a complete different question. The two flavors I got, Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel Pretzel, were delightful. Also, I find it quite hilarious that the two interesting flavors at this froyo shop, when combined, basically make the flavor of the frozen custard I reviewed yesterday. Can you say, dessert trends?
The dark chocolate was surprisingly dark for a froyo; I enjoyed it a lot. It got to this spot by the lots of cocoa powder route, which isn't my favorite, but I don't need demand quality quite so high from a froyo shop. The salted caramel pretzel tasted the most like salty pretzel, which was also surprising. No joke, it strongly tasted like a pretzel. The flavor had a light and sweet caramel undertone to it. Also, salted caramel fans, say whatever you want about the way I've acted in the past, but here is a confession, anyway. I don't dislike salted caramel. Not that I love it, but I do like it significantly more when it is mellower or paired with some other flavor. (But do note I have not yet directly said "I like salted caramel.")
3) As I mentioned before, I enjoy salted caramel more when it is paired with something else. So obviously I did a good job here.
4) This froyo was super smooth and creamy. No iciness. It wasn't super thick, and as it melted it was a bit watery, but overall I was quite impressed.
5) Note: I am bad at being aware of my surroundings. While I was getting my toppings, I would have told you the selection wasn't great. There was some fruit, some candies, only one of them being a gummy candy, and that's it. However, as I sat down, I saw they had a whole bunch of nuts and cereals in dispensers on the wall. Overall, I would say Aspen Leaf had a better toppings selection, but Cate's was decent.
6) The toppings I chose were chocolate caramel cups, cookie dough bits, mini dark chocolate chips, and a gummy frog. The caramel cups were standard, as were the dark chocolate chips, and the gummy frogs. Though I am going to say, they had a scoop out for the gummy frogs as opposed to little tongs, and it is difficult to get one gummy frog with a scoop. The cookie dough bits are the only topping I got that can vary from shop to shop. These ones were quite good. They had a pretty standard cookie dough texture. But, what was unique, and what was what I liked was the texture. These cookie dough bits were dense. Like someone took cookie dough and vacuumed out all the air.
7) Again, I am going to applaud myself for a job well done here. The cookie dough bits were a bit out of left field, but they weren't so strong in flavor to mess with the balance in any significant way. The caramel cups, not too surprisingly, had a stronger caramel flavor than the salted caramel pretzel froyo, so each cup was a little umph of caramel.
8) A win on this one. A unique flavor, high quality flavors and texture, and decent toppings. I'll definitely be going back!
Comments
Post a Comment