Ayelada Frozen Yogurt – Niskayuna, NY

There’s a unique frozen yogurt place near my house. I say it’s unique because they don’t just leave a stack of cups out and have you out on your own. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not above visiting a TCBY or more likely Sweet Frog to satisfy my compulsion for pouring my own dessert and dumping a whole bunch of candy and crap on top. But a change of pace is good.

Another feature that separates Ayelada is their dedication to local sourcing. Not only is the milk they use to make the yogurt sourced from within a few dozen miles, some of their toppings are local as well.

I’ve been to Ayelada and sampled their yogurt on a few different occasions. On the first, they had a peanut butter flavor that was completely unimpressive. Tasted along with their classic plain, I couldn’t say I could taste any peanut butter. Now, that could be because they’re not using artificial flavorings (they use Peanut Principle peanut butter), but I don’t know how artificial peanut butter can get in the first place. My guess is there just wasn’t enough peanut butter in it to make a difference.

Another time, I attended a yoga event at Power Yoga NY, and Ayelada was there sampling their lavender honey flavor, made with local Lloyd Spear honey. The flavor was great, but, honestly, I wouldn’t be able to eat an entire cup of it, let alone add the candies and other toppings they offer.

On my most recent visit, they had a Cadbury Chocolate flavor. The young lady at the counter let me taste it. As I assumed, it barely tasted like chocolate, so that frustratingly led me to ignore any other flavors and get their original (plain) flavor and rely on the toppings to take me where I wanted to go.

You can kind of see where I was going with this: Reeses Pieces and mini peanut butter cups with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. I would have loved some actual peanut butter, too, and I did ask, but the young lady said it wasn’t offered. That’s kind of my MO at these places: peanut butter and chocolate; I’m pretty predictable.

I really like the consistency of their yogurt. It’s thicker that soft serve ice cream. The original has a decent amount of tartness that plays well with all of the sweet things they offer on the toppings bar. I think the large with 2 toppings was 4 or 5 bucks, definitely comparable price-wise with the do it yourself places. Ok, maybe a little more. There is a scale near the yogurt dispenser, but the last few times they didn’t use it (maybe it’s there for training purposes? I mean, if they put too much, what are they gonna do, take it out?).

On the counter, they have a board with a nutrition breakdown. Looking at macros, the yogurt at Ayelada is on par with the low fat options at other FroYo establishments, so that doesn’t make it more healthy. However, the fact that they dose the portion for you and that their stuff is made from fresh ingredients means this can be a well-contained, not-unhealthy treat. Of course, you can throw that out the window by ordering more and dumping on complimentary toppings, but you get the idea.