In the golden afternoon (Fro-yo Series, Part IV: Qoola)

I have always thought that the flowers from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland were such a**holes. And that was before it was confirmed that I was incurably allergic to flowers. This golden afternoon I found myself at Qoola, researching the qualities of YYC yogurt in order to produce an accurate guide for you and your mom.

Source: Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, 1951, Film

My rankings of Qoola are presented for your review:

Qoola: 3625 Shaganappi Trail NW, T3A 5C4

Variety of yogurt flavors 0.5/1 points

Yogurt consistency and taste 0.5/2 points

Availability/variety of the toppings 1/2 points

Seating availability  .5/1 points

Décor 0.5/1 points 

Cleanliness 0/1 points

Customer Service 1/1 points

Rewards program 1/1 points

Total Ranking: 5/10 points

I had a chance to try Qoola inside Market Mall during their soft opening this past March. Not too much has changed other than the fact that they now charge for reusable discount containers. Perhaps it was a cyclical coincidence, but the exact same flavors available during the soft opening were the same during my most recent visit. According to their website, Qoola is Canadian owned and operated; their fresh waffles are from the Victoria based Wannawafel. There are ten flavors to choose from at this Qoola location and just as many toppings as you’d get from Menchie’s. Additional to fro-yo, Qoola sets itself apart from the pack by offering sandwiches/lunch items, smoothies, juices and coffee. There is only one sized cup (re-usable or disposable options); Qoola is also self-serve and the price is determined by weight ($0.55 per ounce). Be warned that you must ask an attendant for a sample cup in order to taste the flavors (as opposed to most other self-serve places that have an abundance of Dixie cups lying around for your convenience).

To be honest, I did not like the tart or any of the flavors at Qoola. I found that there was an acidic tang to each yogurt that I tasted and I did not appreciate the overwhelming amount of sourness in each bite. I can see the appeal (Canadian “fresh and natural”)—the diehard tree hugger in me really wanted to like this place, but something was just off. Perhaps my taste buds are opposed to the aspartame-y/artificial aftertaste? Qoola advertises as only using natural ingredients so I’m not sure if I’m way off base here—but judging by the heavy emphasis on being “sugar free,” something’s got to give, right? It seems ironic that Qoola’s products taste fake to me, especially because their claim to fame lies in being au naturale. While it’s awesome that Qoola exists to fill the niche market for those who need or want kosher, extra probiotic cultures, GMO-free, gluten-free, fat-free and sugar-free—I just don’t think that it’s for me. I have to note the pleasing smoothness of their fro-yo though. The texture of Qoola fro-yo’s are light, soft and smooth (and also thinner/less heavy). Eight flavours of fro-yo are available at one time; notably, these flavours are less creative than the ones offered at competing fro-yo establishments, although this may be due to the heavy emphasis on “naturalness” (candy flavours probably do not exist in “nature”). I don’t imagine that anyone out there is actually using fro-yo as a meal supplement/replacement; if so most people are indulging in fro-yo as a sweet treat anyways, the “freshness” of the yogurt isn’t that much of a factor (especially if you’re just going to load it up with candy as I intend to).

Qoola has a considerably lesser variety of toppings. The toppings are limited to various chopped up fruits (fresh, canned and other), flavoured popping pearls/boba, a small selection of candy (i.e.: sprinkles, M&M’s, Oreo crumbs, ect.) and mochi bits. While I’ll give Qoola some points for having the widest range of mochi flavours out of all the fro-yo joints I’ve visited (unfortunately, they were assorted in one container –it was tempting to hold up the line and pick out the best flavours/discard the gross blue ones), points had to be taken away for the lack of Skor pieces. Quelle horreur!! NO Skor pieces??! That is, and will always be, unacceptable.

A poster on the wall suggests that the yogurts are flavored via using a fruit puree—but how the heck would that work for non-fruit flavors like pistachio or macadamia? I demanded answers but the poster couldn’t tell me (neither could the staff). This fro-yo establishment has a loyalty rewards program and an additional discount is given when their reusable Qoola container is brought back—where Qoola gained points was in the uniqueness of the reusable cup discount (to the best of my knowledge, they are the only store with this heavy an emphasis on green products and allows the option for meaningfully recycling old cups). While I doubt that very many people will remember to bring their cup with them (it’s quite wide and bulky/comprised of flimsy plastic that will bend if stuffed into a bag/purse), this reusable cup idea has it’s merits and is a clever marketing plan.

Qoola is brightly lit and clean. Although the store front is well maintained, it is rather cramped and the seating is lacking. I’m sure that Qoola relies on their customers to exit the store and find their own seating within the mall, however customers from the adjacent Cookies by George and Teavana are also competing for the same seats/tables. Qoola is actually so small that it is difficult to have more than four to five customers at a time attempting to fill their fro-yo cups/select their toppings. The experience is rather uncomfortable as the mall location draws in the children (i.e.: stroller mom crowd). If you can imagine three to four mothers/fathers attempting to wrangle toddlers of various ages (some in strollers, some without strollers), then you can imagine that the poor feet of innocent childless individuals being carelessly run over and stepped on.

In my opinion due to the unpleasant taste of Qoola’s fro-yo and terrible store layout, this is not the fro-yo shop for me and I cannot see myself returning anytime soon. As taste is a very objective matter and I generally avoid the parents-with-young children crowds however, these factors may only be a deterrent to me/people of my age group/people who resent being run-over by strollers.