Berry Chill

Before I went to Yoberri, my friend and I checked out Berry Chill, a new yogurt couture shop that opened up in Chicago six weeks ago. Berry Chill has a special formula so their frozen yogurt is lactose free (apparently there’s milk that is lactose-free – who knew?). They’re opening up six shops throughout Chicago/suburbs and by 2009, they’ll be in New York (hopefully people will still be eating frozen yogurt in 2009!). Another special aspect of Berry Chill is that they offer all types of toppings, especially lots of cookie options:

I noticed there were three different types of Girl Scout cookies (thin mints on your frozen yogurt?!), pie crumbs, and lots of different types of cereals. They had a lot of dry options as well as fruit toppings (although their mangoes weren’t ripe so I couldn’t order it as a topping). They had a typical assortment of fruit and their special fruits were papaya and starfruit (although I didn’t see any the day I went).

I ordered frozen yogurt with blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries:

The yogurt was thick and creamy and pretty delicious. I was not a fan of their cups (my fruit kept falling out of the shallow dish). Also, their strawberries tasted like they had gone bad already (or as if they had fermented).

John ordered frozen yogurt with strawberries, blackberries, and chocolate chips:

John actually liked the taste of the fermented strawberries (he said it reminded him of strawberries frozen in syrup). John definitely enjoyed the yogurt and said he would be back, even though he read that frozen yogurt isn’t good for you (who needs to be healthy all the time, right?!)

The hole in my frozen yogurt wasn’t too large:

Not too bad, especially compared to Yoberri’s!!

Berry Chill’s owner talked with me for a bit after we finished our frozen yogurt and said that business has been good – lots of repeat customers and familiar faces already. They’re very high tech – you can buy a frequent buyers card that keeps your past 6 orders so you can just swipe at the self-checkout and pick which yogurt you want (you can also put money on the card). If you buy the frequent buyers card, every purchase gives 3% to a charity of your choice. Pretty forward thinking, right?

The owner headed to New York today to check out the yogurt scene – he should definitely check out Flurt to taste his competition!