Froyo chains had been around for a very long time before I tried it. That is, the soft serve type you get from froyo chains and not the ice-cream type you get from supermarkets. In fact, my first experience happened in Auckland – not Sydney – in January this year. That time, I tried all the interesting flavours on offer, including kiwifruit, which I’m sure is a flavour largely specific to New Zealand.
Two weeks ago, I decided to take a break from all the gelaterias and try my palate with soft-serve froyo from Crave Froyo – my first experience in Sydney and second ever.
I had mango/passionfruit and watermelon/pomegranate with lychee pearls as toppings. The machine swirls the two flavours together so in the photo above, the bright pink is the watermelon, while the more salmon pink is the pomegranate. The watermelon froyo was identifiably watermelon – it had a hint of its distinct taste amidst the sweetness . I couldn’t taste the pomegranate at all.
The mango/passionfruit was a swirl of white and yellow, but I never figured out which was which, unfortunately. And that’s because I wasn’t able to distinguish the two. There was a hint of sourness, which I’d attribute to the passionfruit, but I couldn’t identify it as such. Together, however, they had a tropical flavour and the milky flavour was more subtle than in the watermelon/pomegranate.
The standout, though, was the lychee pearls! They’re little balls of lychee juice, so that when you bite into them – the sensation is comparable to biting into salmon roe – you get a burst of lychee. They’re ridiculously fun and addictive to pop in your mouth. From my memory of the toppings counter, these pearls also come in mango and strawberry.
Overall, though, I found the froyo particularly milky in flavour. I’m told that soft serve froyo doesn’t usually taste as milky as Crave froyo – this is reassuring, because I don’t like the taste of milk. I’m not sure I’d return to Crave, but I’d be willing to try other froyo options I think!
Crave Froyo is located at Central Park, Lower Ground Shop RB09, 28 Broadway, Chippendale NSW 2008