Yo Chi, Sydney

I always eat a lot of frozen treats.  Ice cream or gelato at least once a day, although usually it is the pairing with a larger dessert, e.g. a scoop with a slice of pie, a warm fruit crisp or crumble, a donut a la mode, etc, etc.  I rarely have *just* a frozen treat, even in sundae form, unless I really go all out with toppings, or if it is a hot summer day and I really want a soft serve cone with sprinkles, or I'm really craving froyo.  I do love good froyo.

As someone who eats so much ice cream adjacent products, I am of course a bit of a snob in this area.  I find most froyo pretty mediocre - icy, watery, just never as good as soft serve ice cream (which I have such nostalgia for), often with flavors that are too fake tasting.  But Sydney is home to excellent froyo at Anita, where they mostly focus on great gelato, but they have extremely good soft serve froyo with unlimited toppings, the same toppings that they use for mix-ins for the gelato, all house made, and totally amazing.  Highly, highly recommend.  For years now, I've thought that Anita was the only froyo in Sydney worth getting.

"Yo-Chi was born from an idea to bring together delicious frozen yogurt with an infinite flow of good energy, in a space where people of all ages feel equally welcome.

The intention was to inspire creativity, encouraging customers to handcraft their own bespoke piece of unimaginable deliciousness."

And then I discovered Yo Chi. Yo Chi is a more traditional froyo shop - self serve, pay by weight, gulp at the final price.  They are a small Australian chain, started in Melbourne, with a few locations in New South Wales.  I visited only the Surry Hills location, but I saw they have one in Newtown now (opened May 2023), and one in Manly (opened December 2023) so I hope to visit one of those another time.  

Froyo Selections.

At the Surry Hills location, they offer 8 flavors at a time, mostly sweeter flavors, although they carry a signature tart flavor, and always one non-dairy flavor.  I'm not sure how frequently they change the flavors, but the same core flavors - vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, tart, and their signature salted butterscotch seem to be constants.  Each flavor has a description provided.

Only one size of bowl is available (along with large waffle cones), but you fill it as you please, and weight it at the end.  Staff are around to give a sample if you'd like.

Crunchy things: almonds, cornflake crunch,
and two kinds of granola ("crun-chi" or "house made").

And then it is time for toppings, which are extensive.  Starting with crunchy things.

The "house made" granola proclaimed it was exclusive to Yo-Chi, which you'd expect if it was truly house made.  They added it recently to the menu to pair with their new acai.  The other carried the "chi" part of their name, but made no such claims.

Candy / Cookie Toppings.

My visit was at Lunar New Year, so the candy/cookie section also had special fortune cookies.  I found out later they had golden tickets in a few, with cash winnings!

It also had a few other types of cookies (biscuit milk balls, Oreos) and chocolate candy (mini m&ms, flake, freckles).

Amazing Toppings!

Fruit selections came next, with fresh strawberries, figs, and dragon fruit, plus blueberry compote and lychee, and passionfruit sauce and bananas in caramel.  This area also had blueberry pearls, edible cookie dough, mochi, and huge hunks of halva.  They sometimes even have finger limes here!

Warm Toppings.

I appreciated that Yo-Chi even had a section for warm toppings.  Here you can find liege waffle or brownie hunks, big pots of alluring biscoff and nutella spreads, and warm dark and white chocolate sauces.  

I tried the biscoff spread, and it was delightful.  Sweet, slightly crunch, very decadent and enjoyable.  Its amazing that "cookie butter" or Biscoff spread wasn't very common until a few years ago, given how glorious it can be. ****.

Sprinkles, Sauces.

Two more sauces (not warm) rounded out the sauce lineup (milk chocolate, caramel), and basic rainbow and chocolate sprinkles were on offer.

I tried the milk chocolate sauce, and it was fine, but a bit thick to serve from the squeeze bottle.  I'm not sure why that one was room temp, and the dark and white warm.  ***+.

Toppings.

I wanted to really get to try the toppings on their own, so I packaged them separate (which the staff was totally willing to let me do).  Clockwise from top:

Crumble: "Treat yourself with crumbly goodness."  

I wasn't sure what to expect from the "crumble", but hoped it would be buttery and sweet.  I was a bit let down, as it was fairly cinnamon flavored, sorta like graham crackers.  Kinda gritty.  Not one I'd get again. **+.

Chocolate soil: "Dark chocolate cacao nibs, lightly sweetened (V & GF)."

The chocolate soil was fine.  Good gritty texture, decent chocolate flavor.  Great for mixing into froyo.  ***+.

Bananas in Caramel / Blueberry Fruit Pearls (not normally mixed, I mixed these in one container):

"Sliced bananas smothered in caramel sauce (GF)."

These were, well, sliced bananas.  Fresh, not browned nor mushy.  Some light caramel sauce for sweetness.  Would be better warmed up.  ***.

"Pop them in your mouth for a full flavour explosion (V & GF)."

The blueberry fruit pearls were I think just blueberry popping boba, by another name.  Sweet, juicy, fruity.  Tasty.  ***+.

Vegan edible cookie dough: "Choc chip edible cookie dough. (V)"

I was sooo excited for this.  I love edible cookie dough.  This really let me down though.  It didn't have a very sweet and buttery flavor, which is what I want from a blonde base cookie dough.  Great larger size quality chocolate chips, but, just kinda plain base.  More sugar,  more butter, please!  ***.

Mango Mochi: "A sweet Japanese rice treat bursting with mango delight (V)."

Very standard soft mochi.  Light mango flavor.  Nicely soft and pliable, not dried out, quite fresh.  ***+.

White Chocolate Sauce: "Turn your Yo-Chi into a white shell with our ready-set-yo magic sauce."

Good sweetness level.  Not cloying.  Real white chocolate vibes.  ****.

Cornflake Crunch: "Freshly popped cornflakes, almonds and sea salt."

This was basically frosted flakes and lightly candied slivered almonds mixed together.  I didn't taste any salt component, which is too bad.  But it was sweet and crunchy, and would make for an awesome breakfast cereal, if you wanted it that way.  A decent topping, but not one I'd pick again to use in that way.  ***.

Toppings: Housemade Granola, Crun-Chi Granola, Freckles, Milk Balls.

House Made Granola: "The perfect toasted blend of oats, coconut, almonds, and  pumpkin seeds."

A baked offering, lightly toasted, good crunch, but not particularly special.  Just granola.  They recently added to the menu to go with their new acai offerings. ***.

Crun-Chi Granola:  No description was given for this one, besides "Token healthy toppings.".  It was lighter colored.  It was fairly average granola.  Nothing notable about it.  ***.

Crunchy Milk Balls: "Crunchy and creamy milk biscuit balls."

I tried the biscuit milk balls, and found them a bit boring.  Sorta like Japanese koala snacks, but without the filling.  **+.

Freckles: "A childhood classic."

I loaded up on freckles, as I love them, smooth creamy chocolate, crispy nonpareils.  They describe these as "childhood classic" - I wish *I* had these in childhood!  An *adult* classic for me, lol.  ****.

Salted Butterscotch / Vanilla / Mango.

And now, the actual frozen yogurt.

After sampling several, I went for a trio.  I put minimal toppings on my froyo, just strawberries, coconut flakes, a few m&ms, and a bit of the biscoff and chocolate sauces, since I had the others separate to add as I pleased.

The salted butterscotch I've sampled before.  It is quite sweet, but, enjoyable.  I don't taste salt, but it is still good.  Very creamy, great consistency, eats like ice cream not yogurt.  ***+.

Vanilla was also good, another sweet and creamy flavor, mostly tasted like ice cream as well.  Good to balance others, or load with toppings.  ***+.

Mango was very fruity.  Sweet, creamy, a touch more yogurt-like.  Not a fully tart flavor, but a bit more tart.  Still good, but I need to be in the mood for the fruitiness.  ***.

I also sampled the non-dairy chocolate.  It was very chocolately, so not really my thing.  ***.

My previous visit (no photos) I had the lychee (which was replaced with mango), taro (now the chocolate), and salted butterscotch.  I adored the taro, very creamy, strong taro flavor. ****.

All the best self-serve froyo I've had in Sydney, no question.