New York City, Manhattan especially, sports hundreds of boring, and in some cases terrible frozen yogurt and no-fat dairylike concoction places. What if there were a similar concept, but a completely different taste and texture, to choose instead?
Recently Yvo and I represented The Feisty Foodie on the Upper East Side at The Soft Serve Fruit Co., (probably) New York’s first soft-serve fresh fruit location. It’s laid out like virtually every frozen yogurt place, but of course with a huge difference: it’s all fruit puree, organic cane sugar, and a bit of water.
As such, it’s fairly low in calories, and besides being fat-free, it’s also gluten-free. So the growing number of lactose-intolerant, celiac, and most other allergic-to-something people all get a fair shake here.
Being super-important food blogger types, we were served up a sample of the four flavors currently offered: clockwise from the front, mango, strawberry, banana, and pear. There are no colorings added, so you get the actual color of the puree.
All four very nicely reflected their respective fruits, but I think I preferred the strawberry: without so much added sugar the natural strawberry is subtle yet very tasty. The mango is delicious, but rather strong; the sample amount was enough. The banana I could see ordering over and over, as real banana is far, far more tolerable than the banana flavor in a lot of things. The pear, I thought was a bit too subtle; I know it’s not a rich, strong flavor in an actual pear, but I wished there were more to it.
As one might expect, takeout is available, and you’d have to really, really want a wide variety all at once not to pick it up by the quart.
Being a press event means, of course, alcohol, but at least here it isn’t out of place: while The Soft Serve Fruit Co. doesn’t serve liquor, it does sell its wares to restaurants and bars for mixed drinks, and the bartender on hand made these for us to try: the Happy Fields, using strawberry soft serve fruit, with citron vodka, St. Germain, lime juice and a splash of soda; and the Sweet Ambition, which adds Canton ginger liquor, lime juice, simple syrup and rhubarb bitters to mango soft serve fruit.
As expected, I enjoyed these both, taking on drinking duties for the team. The Happy Fields showcased the strawberry well, and the citrus gave it a little sourness that I liked. The Sweet Ambition was also good, but pretty much carbonated mango with a little ginger burn — I didn’t pick up the rhubarb at all, but I wasn’t disappointed.
Naturally, if you want to dress up your fruit, there are many, many options. Here we see the not-so-gluten-free options: cereals, marshmallows, various dry goods. Nuts are simply not an option here, as people with that allergy are pretty much screwed being anywhere near nuts.
If you like adding fruit to fruit, well hey, that’s allowed too! Each topping is 50-75 cents on top of the $3.50-$5.00 base price for the various sizes of soft-serve fruit, so it isn’t breaking the bank. There are also hot sauces, like fudge and peanut butter (which I guess is stored separately).
And if you like, you can cone it up — no ordinary cones these, I think I’d really enjoy my soft serve fruit in a pretzel cone (for another $1.75). Had I the room for more tasty fruit treats, yes, this is my next order from the good people there.
I’m not a big fan of the frozen yogurt market, but soft serve fruit, in my neighborhood, reasonably priced? I’ll find myself stopping in here. It’s a pleasant little treat right on Third Avenue, and if the evening of this visit is any indication, it seems that the locals have found the place and enjoy it. They’re serving in the Hamptons for the summer, as well, but I’ll make do with the Soft Serve Fruit Co. a mere two blocks from my subway stop this summer.
Please note that the event was courtesy of The Soft Serve Fruit Co. and their PR. I received no monetary compensation for this review, nor was I obliged in any way to post about the event, positively or otherwise. This is my own opinion and I feel it was unbiased; you are free to take from this what you will.
T.C. says
Pretzel cone? Nice.
$8 a pint is a bit of a splurge but sounds good that this place uses fruit puree and organic cane sugar!!
Me want some pineapple fro-yo.
BeerBoor says
That’s why you have to upgrade to a quart! $3 for the second pint.
T.C. says
…and finish it all in one sitting. 😛
BeerBoor says
Who sits at the store and eats a pint in a chair? You bring the quart home and cry into it after your boyfriend breaks up with you.
Feisty Foodie says
Speaking from personal experience?
I’ve never cried into ice cream, and I’ve been dumped.
Hungry says
Hmmm, this sounds good! Pureed fruit…kind of like a smoothie but thicker.
CT says
That looks pretty great! And right around the corner from by bff and favorite taqueria!
Do they let you combine flavors? Half strawberry, half mango perhaps?
Feisty Foodie says
Wasn’t your super cool, super pretty, super awesome boss with you when you went? Why wasn’t her opinion solicited?
BeerBoor says
Setting aside that my super-everything boss was there but barely picked at her fruit, and drank not a drop of the alcoholic beverages, she also saw this post in the queue for the past week and had ample time to comment as she saw fit….
alifein5years says
they do know there is already a word for this: sorbet, right?
Dee says
Sorbet is 30 to 40 percent surgar. Soft Serve fruit only has a small amount of sugar.
CT says
Did you see this: http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/04/simply_peeled_is_reborn_as_the.html
It’s closer for me to try – yay!
Ali - YumVeggieBurger says
Interesting! I’ve made banana soft serve at home (very easy – just frozen bananas in a blender, voila!) since I stopped eating dairy.
I wonder why they need to add sugar though… fruit is pretty sweet as it is!