FRO-YOLYMPICS DAY 3: Red Mango
Welcome to the third day of our frozen yogurt tour. I hope you’ve enjoyed our posts – we have a lot more to come! After we finished our yogurt at Pinkberry, we headed across the street to Red Mango. To give you a little history, Red Mango was started by a bunch of investment bankers in Korea back in 2002. It’s the first yogurt store to get the approval from The National Yogurt Association to Use Their Live and Active Culture Seal, which is a great accomplishment since everyone claims to have active cultures, but Red Mango actually has proof. They’re known for being the “authentic frozen yogurt” shop; in every Red Mango, there are a bunch of signs noting the health benefits of consuming their yogurt. The FROYOLYMPICS committee decided to wait until Red Mango officially opened before starting our tour (otherwise, we wouldn’t be giving our readers a true comparison of all the yogurt shops in New York).
Red Mango’s storefront:
Yay! More people joined!
1. Size of the hole:
The hole at Red Mango was surprisingly small and there was good yogurt coverage. Go Red Mango!
2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Red Mango scored a 1.5…more tangy than creamy (although I’ve been to Red Mango numerous times since the tour and I think it’s definitely become more creamy than tangy).
3. Topping Variety:
Red Mango had lots of toppings, including dark chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers. They don’t have pomegranate seeds like a lot of other places (which actually taste really good with frozen yogurt).
4. Fruit quality: The fruit was fresh but there wasn’t a lot of it (you can read more about my fruit complaint in section 11). We gave Red Mango 4 out of 5 for quality.
5. Calories per ounce: each ounce of Red Mango had 23 calories.
6. Price per ounce: Red Mango was approximately 62 cents/ounce.
7. Atmosphere/quality of service: techno music was playing in the background while we were in the store and the temperature was a little colder than the other stores we’d visited during our tour. However, there are nice chairs for lounging around and a nice outdoor seating area for the summertime. There was a promotion going on during the tour, but the employees didn’t know about it (buy a $25 gift card, get a free small frozen yogurt with 3 toppings). Also, I purchased a gift card that was never activated, so they charged me $25 and when I went back, it didn’t work but I no longer had my receipt. That gets MAJOR BOO POINTS.
8. Iciness vs. smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Red Mango a 2.5 – it was a bit on the smooth side and tasted more like actual yogurt.
9. Number of flavors: there are 2 flavors at Red Mango – original and green tea.
10. Resilience to heat:
There was not a lot of melting from Red Mango’s yogurt, but it was a lot colder there than the other yogurt shops.
11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:
There was a lot of frozen yogurt, but not a lot of fruit. Okay, I have a HUGE complaint with Red Mango’s customer service. We ordered blackberries with our frozen yogurt and we were only given FIVE blackberries. I asked for more (Oliver Twist style) and the server told me that he gives “five blackberries for a small, five for the medium, and five for the large,” meaning there was no way I was getting any more blackberries. BOO! WHO gives FIVE blackberries on a LARGE frozen yogurt? That is NOT nice. Also, I’d like to note that in this USA TODAY article, the server is giving WAY more than five blackberries.
We also ordered a Red Mango smoothie:
The Red Mango smoothie was WAY too sweet (it looked like they used a simple syrup to make the smoothie blendable). If Red Mango’s selling point is being the healthier alternative, they should use water or milk to blend the smoothie instead.
As you can see, we weren’t huge fans of Red Mango. Gloria met up with us at Red Mango and said that it tasted really powdery (Red Mango gets their yogurt mix from milk cartons that they pour into the yogurt dispenser). I didn’t appreciate the stinginess of the blackberry toppings and Chris thought the yogurt had an Asian grocery store aftertaste. If you’ve ever been to an Asian grocery store, you’ll know the smell. Personally, I think Asian grocery stores have an interesting freezer burn smell, but I’m not sure if Red Mango tasted like freezer burn. Overall, we were not impressed with Red Mango and gave them a 2.83/5.0. I was really disappointed with Red Mango’s score (especially since I’ve been a fan since day 1) but I think Red Mango was having a major off-day. Since then, I’ve been back a couple of times and the freezer burn taste is definitely gone, but the memory still haunts me. Tomorrow, we will explore Yolato!
Here are all of the entries in order (in case you wanted to jump around):
Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas
Reader Comments
You did side note this, but I think it’s worth re-enforcing: The Red Mango I get from Bleeker is definitely not that tangy. If Pinkberry rates a 2 in the tangy, then Red Mango is probably a 4. The rest I think you’re right on about, including the final score. Pinkberry is to me better tasting, which is not to say Red Mango isn’t in the rotation (primarily, and perhaps sadly, cause it’s a healthier product)
I think without a doubt Red Mango’s creaminess has started to affect Pinkberry. Pinkberry at first was really icy but has started moving more towards TCBYness consistency.
Let the yogurt wars continue.
I don’t know about you guys, but Red Mango definately has the tart and creaminess, more so than the other yogurt places i’ve tried, like pinkberry, yolato and even the knockoffs. Red Mango is healthier and maybe that’s the reason why it might not taste as good to some people, but I think so far it’s the best one out there. And where do you get the idea that it tastes more powder-y? maybe cuz it’s creamier? and asian grocery smell? wth do you people smell when you go there? Red Mango might taste very asian, but it’s definately what yogurt should taste like. To me Pinkberry tastes like some sort of weird frozen sprite and definately not yogurt. And why complain about 5 blackberries? I’ve been to a Pinkberry where they gave me 5 raspberries and 4 blackberries.
I love Red Mango and go all the time but the size of the hole in the medium is unacceptable. I never ask them to fill it because as much as I love their yogurt, the people who work there are mentally slow.
simply the BEST!!!! My favorite is plain.
I love it. It seems healthier. I cannot eat the other chemical smelly yogurt.
It seems a bit expensive but I think it is worth it.
i’ve never been to the bleecker location but i do know that the chelsea location on 14th and 6th is wayyyy more generous with the toppings. i like how there’s also a large seating area in that location, too.
anyways, i LOVE red mango! i like to order the ‘swirl’ 😀
you said “The Red Mango smoothie was WAY too sweet (it looked like they used a simple syrup to make the smoothie blendable). If Red Mango’s selling point is being the healthier alternative, they should use water or milk to blend the smoothie instead.”
no they use yogurt to blend the smoothie.. they use the yogurt that they pour into the machine, the non frozen yogurt. they add nothing but yogurt and the toppings, no sweeteners no anything. i work there i know
forget about all this places ,try out Arbuz frozen yogurt in Brooklyn,NY.Arbuz has the best frozen yogurt +the smoothies are made from milk and tastes like heaven.
Hello,
I am a manager at a new Red Mango in South Florida. In terms of tangy vs. creamy Red Mango created a new line of “Classic Yogurt” which doesn’t have that tart yogurt base the way our “Original” does. Originals go great with fruit and is really refreshing, while Classics cater to your more favorite ice cream flavors.