Orange Leaf
 Columbus, Ohio        Date of Visit  07/14/12             http://orangeleafyogurt.com/

One of the most awesome places we found in Columbus is the ice cream chop Jeni’s. Wacky flavors, redonkulous combinations; not one of them making sense until you taste it and then snap…your taste buds cause your neurons to realign. That’s a dining experience. This time Jen wanted to take us to a new location in the city that is focused on frozen yogurt. Orange Leaf is certainly a franchise but it is our first experience with a place like this so we’ll add it in here. I did have a laugh checking their website to see how many there were…they talk a lot about offering a healthy alternative…wait til you see the pictures.
 

Flavors Galore
 

The place is modern Wonka with bright colors and odd furniture. One wall is dominated with a bank of churning dispensers all facing out. You get a cup, fill it up, set it on the scale and then settle up by weight. It does have a sense of fun to it, although healthy alternative is quite a stretch. Each machine offers two flavors which can be drawn separately or twisted together. The flavors are more distinctive than you might find on the corner but don’t push near as far as Jeni’s. I settled on some chocolate raspberry, white chocolate strawberry, wedding cake and banana. Here is where the good for you train really starts shaking the rickety bridge to the point of collapse. There is an entire buffet of toppings you can use to douse your frozen treat. Apparently I had an unconscious desire to return to Saturday morning breakfasts when I was five years old. In addition to blue berries, butter finger chunks, I had captain crunch, fruity pebbles, cocoa pebbles, etc. There is also a receiving line of squeeze bottles from which I added a little more healthiness with root beer syrup, marshmallow cream, and butterscotch.
 

Fiber
 

Vitamins
 

Produce
 

The owner(?) behind the counter was exceptionally cordial and talked up all of the local businesses in the area in very polite conversation and let us take our time and weigh in minutes apart and still tally our cups together. All that and I barely scuffed the surface of the fruit/chocolate/cereal/candy/flavored tapioca pearls/etc. parade. I was glad we had a couple of tasting cups to try the yogurts without the toppings as I find it difficult to not overload the cup into a mish mash of random flavors. The froyo is pretty tasty and is rather intensely flavored as described. I like the do-it-yourself model and the wide variety of options. It won’t ever be Jeni’s no matter how you mix them together but it makes for a fun stop on another scorching day in Ohio.