Fashionable Fro-yo at Menchies

Menchie and Me

To be honest it was catching up with my friend Mary Luz Meija of Sizzling Communications that brought me out to the Grand Opening of the new Menchie’s location at 511 Bloor St W. in the annex.

Menchies 511 Bloor St W Store Front

When I arrived at the clean bright space I was very impressed by both the ambiance and the friendly owners and staff, and could see why my friend had been so excited about it. A fun and fashionable space to hang out with your girlfriends or bring your family.

The concept is self-serve, very smart from a marketing perspective as customers today are living in a world of companies bundling things up for them and almost assuming what they will like and not like. The clever slogan “What’s your mix” reinforces that their model is customer centric.

Menchie’s has a nice lay out where you choose your frozen yogurt from a number of rotating flavours. You can choose just one or try as many kinds as you like in your cup. With flavors like Tart Green Apple, Banana bread, Cake Batter, and Creamsicle there really is something for everyone. 90% of their yogurt selection is fat free and they also offer sugar free, low carb options for those of us who are seeking even more healthy choices. Best of all their yogurt is GMO-Free and is made from real Canadian milk with healthy active cultures.

Menchies 100 rotating flavors

Next you choose your toppings, it really feels like an endless selection and you can make healthy choices with nuts and fresh fruit or treat yourself with sweet candies, cheescake bits, and brownie bits. They do have some really unique toppings which set them apart two of my favorites were the Mochi balls which are made of Korean rice cakes and the spiced apples which were delicious red apples coated in cinnamon and nutmeg.

Menchies Toppings

More Menchies toppings

Finally you can choose to top your creation with a sauce. They have favorites like chocolate, strawberry, and caramel or you could choose a sugar free option like their sugar free chocolate sauce.

Prices are set by weight so you can choose as much or as little as you like.

The following weekend I was invited to a Blog-urt contest in which 15 food bloggers would compete for bragging rights and some nice prizes. Creations were judged on taste, creativity, attractive presentation, and marketing saavy of the creation’s name. The judges Adell Shneer senior food specialist at the Canadian Living test kitchen, Annabelle Waugh Food Director at Canadian Living Magazine, and Joanne Yolles the pastry chef who came up with Scaramouche’s coveted coconut cream pie. They had a tough job ahead of them with many very creative and tasty creations to taste.

I set out to make a caramel apple/apple tatin type creation using Tart Green Apple Fro-yo, skor bits, peanuts, spiced apple pieces, and caramel sauce. Struggling a little with the name I thought that I could change the tatin to tartin and add some fashionista flair by throwing the ista on the end. Tartin-ista was born.

Tartin-ista

I ended up placing third and winning a $50 Menchie’s card which I am looking forward to using by taking friends who were unable to attend the event to experience the joy of building your own frozen yogurt so they too can feel like a kid again.

Listed below are the winning entries. I have included links to the Menchie’s Facebook album so you can see their delicious creations, as well as to their blogs so you can follow their food musings and creativity.

First Place Tropical Thunder– Beverly Ann D’Cruz
Second Place Banofee Pie by Irene Ngo
Third place Tartin-ista My creation

The best part of the day from my perspective was meeting such talented and nice people I encourage you to check out their blogs and hope you will be as inspired by them as I am.

Jennifer Hamilton-http://www.domesticgoddess.ca/
Carrie Brunet-http://www.kitchenvixen.ca
Bonita Mok –http://www.boneats.ca
Joel Solish-http://communityfoodist.com/
Christine Cooper-http://coopspeakeats.blogspot.com/
Rebecca Tucker-http://arts.nationalpost.com/author/retuckernp/
Stella Yu-http://www.foodjunkiechronicles.com/
Diana Mancuso-http://www.torontoteachermom.com/
Neil Faba and Jenny Tryansky-http://communaltable.wordpress.com/
Julia Suppa-http://juliasuppa.blogspot.com/
Miranda Keyes-http://www.littlepiggy.ca/
Stacey Fowler and Mark Rodas-http://www.tastingtoronto.ca/

Highly recommend visiting Menchie’s because an experience focused on the customer is always fashionable.

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt
http://www.menchies.com
511 Bloor Street West
416-645-0222