Yogu-La!

The frozen yogurt phenomena surged from California and hit the shores of Shanghai, receding and leaving a few shops behind. Yogu-la is a new frozen yogurt shop in the affluent Xintiandi boasting Italian roots and fresh fruit toppings reminiscent of those you would find at Pinkberry minus the Captain Crunch cereal. Why not? Xintiandi is an ideal place to wander around browsing shops and sitting outside during warm days. It has proved itself a location that several love to photograph. The walk through the re-created Shanghainese architecture would only be heightened with the accompaniment of a refreshing, sweet treat. Yogu-la is a word that the Chinese would use for the yogurt, ending it with "-la" because it sounds all so cute and endearing. Chinese love using "la" at the end of statements. It just makes everything sound a lot better.

There are six yogurt machines that were serving different flavors of yogurt: original, chocolate, passion fruit, mango, blueberry. The menu rotates depending on what batch is being made that day, but the full menu of the flavors are above the yogurt dispensers so if you miss something there is a sign that reminds you what you have to come back to. I still must try the pistachio, which is hopefully not too sweet. The blueberry was the best out of the flavored yogurts. The passion fruit flavor could have been stronger and not as tart, but it was promising. The original was also really nice, a bit on the tart side and not too sugary. The fruit toppings were all very fresh and not under-ripe adding a fresh texture to the creamy yogurt. There was kiwi, dragon fruit, mango, watermelon, cantaloupe, and papaya to choose from. At the time of tasting, the manager was present and readily welcomed all constructive criticisms to make the Italian-style frozen yogurt all the better. The prices are completely reasonable for the large serving of frozen yogurt you get - 25RMB for a regular cup and 45RMB for the big cup. The fall opening of Yogu-La baffled me as winters come too quickly in Shanghai offering less incentive to seek out frozen yogurt.


Yogu-La. Xintiandi, Shanghai, People's Republic of China