Tried and tasted: Tart & tangy

Frozen yogurt – topped with whatever your heart desires – is a sweet, creamy, lower-fat alternative to ice cream in the hot summer months.

By AMY SPIRO
frozen yogurt 521 (photo credit: AMY SPIRO)
frozen yogurt 521
(photo credit: AMY SPIRO)
If you go out looking for frozen yogurt in Israel, you might come back a little confused. There’s quite a few things that Israeli ice cream and yogurt shops call “frozen yogurt”: actual frozen yogurt, soft-serve ice cream, and ice cream blended with fruit and other toppings.
For the purposes of this column (and since I did an ice-cream tasting for In Jerusalem last summer), I focused solely on (what I hope was) real, honest-to-goodness frozen yogurt.
There aren’t a whole lot of places around the city that focus just on the real stuff, but a lot of ice-cream stores also sell it alongside their more traditional offerings.
I didn’t find any frozen yogurt that wasn’t tasty, there were just versions that were good and versions that were excellent. A couple of places sell goat’s milk yogurt alongside their regular offerings, which may sound a bit exotic, but I found it to be a really interesting, tasty alternative.
Frozen yogurt places have swept in as the trend across the US over the past few years, and Tel Aviv has also caught on, with more than a dozen sites selling the tart dessert. Jerusalem lags slightly behind, with only a handful of places selling yogurt, and only one I found that offers solely frozen yogurt, without selling ice cream as well.
Just a few places offer frozen yogurt in different flavors, but everywhere I visited offers a myriad of toppings to adorn your swirls of yogurt, generally including fruit, nuts, chocolate, cookie pieces, candy and sauces.
All tested establishments are kosher.
Dov’s Corner: A This little shop is tucked inside a street in Nahlaot, the type of place you hear about by word of mouth more than by passing by. Devoted to yogurt and only yogurt, it offers four varieties daily: plain, goat’s milk (which is more expensive) and two seasonal flavors, which can include strawberry, wildberry, peanut butter, sugar-free and banana, among others. The berry variety is very creamy and smooth with a slight tang, not overly sweet, but it didn’t have a particularly pronounced berry flavor. The goat’s milk yogurt is tangy with a nice complex flavor, and also very smooth. The yogurt is weighed and priced after all the toppings have been added, and seemed comparatively the most expensive place I visited.
NIS 8 per 100 gr./NIS 10 per 100 gr. for goat’s milk yogurt 18 Nissim Bechar Street
Yo Yo Yogurt Land: AOn prime real estate in downtown Jerusalem sits Yo Yo Yogurt Land, which, while named for yogurt, also offers a range of ice cream. But back to the yogurt – the store offers two types daily, natural and a fruit flavor, which the day I visited was strawberry.
The plain variety had a clear and smooth flavor, with a tart/ sweet taste. The strawberry was very mildly flavored, but lost some of its tartness, and they both had a slight icy bite to them which was not unpleasant. The prices for small, medium and large portions include unlimited sauces and toppings.
NIS 17/23/27 31 Jaffa Road
Aldo: AAldo, a chain known for its rich, indulgent ice creams, also offers a natural-flavored frozen yogurt that has a great texture and a clean, tart flavor. It is very smooth and creamy, and the portions are more than generous. Since it is a franchise with independent shops, some stores may not sell frozen yogurt.
NIS 21/25 Five locations in Jerusalem
Rebar: ARebar isn’t quite a yogurt shop, as its major focus is on smoothies and drinks made with yogurt, but it also sells the creamy stuff straight in a bowl, topped with whatever your heart desires.
It offers plain, goat’s milk and sugar-free yogurt, and a range of toppings and sauces. The yogurt – listed as 2% fat – is tangy and soft, almost not quite as frozen as at other places, with a pure yogurt flavor.
NIS 16/19 or NIS 21/24 with toppings; NIS 19/22 or NIS 24/27 for goat’s milk yogurt Six locations in Jerusalem
Noya: B+ Noya bills itself as a gelato and yogurt shop, though it sells about a dozen varieties of gelato and just one of yogurt: plain.
It had a nice tang but was a bit too sweet, and didn’t have a strong yogurt flavor.
It did, however, have a nicely balanced texture between creamy and icy, and was listed as containing 1.9% fat. Prices include unlimited toppings and sauces.
NIS 21/26/31 18 Ben-Yehuda Street Katzefet: B+ The popular haunt for Americans in the center of town is known to most people by its former name – “FroYo,” short for frozen yogurt. The natural yogurt had a very strong tangy flavor, bordering on a little too tart, and a smooth creamy texture, listed as having 1.5% fat content. It also sells a variety of flavored yogurts, which I was assured do contain real yogurt, like peanut butter, wildberry and nougat walnut. The flavors are nice and strong but the tang from the yogurt is masked, and it tastes basically like ice cream (though it is low fat!).
NIS 14/18/22/28 2 Ben-Yehuda Street and 19 Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Street
Next month I’ll be sampling mejadra at restaurants around the city – email triedandtastedjpost@gmail.com with any suggestions, or any other foods you want to see me cover.