YOFORIA YOGURT STUDIO - BANDUNG
Sunday, January 15, 2017
So I literally just arrived back from Bandung, couldn't sleep and in the mood to write something, I slept the whole time on the way and now feeling so refreshed, especially after taking a bath, thought I just share you my experience visiting this very happening pop-up Yogurt studio located in Paris Van Java Bandung: Yoforia!
First things first, what's yogurt to you? A necessity, a running trend or a lifestyle? Well a little bit of everything for me but most likely something that I like and doesn't have to explain why, aside from being delicious, it's not a secret anymore that yogurt contains mainly vitamin & calcium and famously known as one of the "white magic" meal to help human lose weight. When it comes to me I never treat yogurt for the latter reason mentioned, it's a delicious sweet dessert that would perfectly end my meal, or simply something that I love munching on anytime.
Yoforia is a name inspired from the word "yogurt" & "euphoria" and it's their aim to make and spread the yogurt euphoria! It's located at Bandung's most well known shopping mall Paris Van Java (the 'walk' area Resort Level) and will be around for three months (as this post written they're on their second week), on the day of my visit, it was rather packed and I have a reason for that (keep on reading).
Yoforia from outside, should be eye-catching enough for you guys to notice.
Aside from the Japanese calligraphy, something about the overall logo design that gave me this Japanese vibe, maybe its simplicity.
The outlet also occupies outdoor seating area dedicated mainly for smoking guests (or simply those who need more natural air lol), simple wooden furnitures beautifully decorated the area.
The pop-up store wasn't entirely made for Yoforia alone, but they share it together with some other local brands like Sanoesa, Gammara and Morning Whistle. Sanoesa is the wooden furniture producers and seriously teasing me with their amazing crafts but I chose to shop online because I didn't want to carry heavy ass hand-carry, bought so many Kartika Sari cakes and pastries already barely have any space on my hands. Leather items enthusiasts can also pamper their eyes on Gammara's beautiful leather item selections (had my eye on the simple and posh laptop bag) and of course Morning Whistle, I own like 6 of their simple t-shirts and always my go to casual wear or simple tees that I can combine with good looking outer wear.
Sanoesa items
A little piece of handdrawn art made by talented urban artist/sketcher: Thufeil, you can see more of his great sketches on his Instagram @thufeil
Coffee here, what for?
Yogurt is definitely the main item sold here and creatively twisted to various yogurt drinks that you can choose here (more below), but aside from that, you can also find some light bites selections (they don't serve heavy meals here) such as potato wedges, chicken wings, Gomabo, salmon salad, pannacotta and yogurt smoothie bowl with price ranges from IDR 25-40k.
Price for their yogurt drinks creations is IDR 35k (regular) & IDR 45k (large)
Most of the creations here are made by the ideas and hands of my friend Chef Martin Natadipraja, my visit here was sorta like a mini catch up. One thing that I love about their yogurt base was that it's not overly sour, mainly sweet without completely leaving the essential sour factor, even though just a hint, making it perfect to be processed and combined with various further creations like the yogurt drink, sauces for the food here or direct consumption as well!
All my friends who've previously been here before heavily emphasized their favorites to the fruit based mix, but when it comes to me I have my own favorite, a little anti-mainstream but you'll love it: it's the Yofoccino, yes basically yogurt with shots of espresso and the answer to the coffee beans picture above.
Yofoccino - IDR 35k
Plain yogurt + espresso + caramel
Plain yogurt, espresso and caramel shaken together
The fact that the plain yogurt base wasn't exactly sour made a good match to the espresso mix, coffee can be very acidic (sour too) and when you mixed it to the lighter and sour yogurt I don't think it can create a drink with such a delicate taste like this one. I tried their initial serving with one shot of espresso and I found the thicker and bolder yogurt to overshadowed the flavor so I asked them to make me one with double espresso shot and THAT WAS MY KIND! The coffee finally had more role to this drink, still without overpowering the yogurt. I don't know if they can customize you with the double shot, but paying extra would be worth it, or else you'll have a very light coffee flavor, your choice.
Fresh caramelized strawberries
Mother of Dragon (left), A-Yo Strawberry (right)
A-Yo Strawberry - IDR 35k (regular), IDR 45k (large)
From their yogurt and fruit based drink selections, surpisingly their A-Yo Strawberry was my favorite for all the easy reasons: I am a huge strawberry fan and they managed to make a very good blended yogurt drink with very easy ingredients too, but again, their plain yogurt holds the main key! Overall I love this drink (especially when it's served cold) as it's very refreshing, perfectly sweet, fruity (with lychee fruit mix too) and natural, you can definitely taste the real strawberry flavor and I saw with my very own eyes too that they didn't use artificial ingredient.
Berry Smooth - IDR 35k (regular), IDR 45k (large)
Mother of Dragon - IDR 35k (regular), IDR 45k (large)
This could easily be everyone's favorite due to the lovely blend of mainly banana and dragon fruit, the blueberry contributed in giving a hint of sour flavor in the right amount. Refreshing is probably the rightest word to describe their fruit drink creations, that's why it's super important that you have the drinks right off the kitchen to enjoy them on its best state.
Y.O.L.O - IDR 40k
GLAD THAT THEY HAVE THIS ON THE MENU! I have heard praises about this from my friends and after trying it myself I understand the rave, it was indeed very good. Prolly my first time having yogurt with chocolate and peanut butter, or yogurt as a smoothie bowl base. The flavor had such interesting blend of little sour + strong peanut butter flavor (PB always rule when you put it on the mix) and crunhy toppings to add texture and fun. Seriously highly recommended.
Salmon Salad with Dill Yogurt Dressing - IDR 40k
The dill yogurt sauce was homemade and made from the same yogurt base only with some tweaks done to make it salad dressing worthy. The smoked salmon was given pretty generously (as you can see from the picture) and paired with fresh lettuce + lemon to make it even more refreshing.
Chicken Nachos with Thai Sauce - IDR 35k
The chicken breasts were coated with yogurt mix to hold the nachos and flour together before beautifully deep fried. I could pass the sauce, not that it's bad but the chicken itself was already nicely marinated, something about the spicy seasoning that was tasty, spicy and fragrant in the same time, almost like this red-pepper kind of seasoning.
Yogurt Coffee Pannacotta - IDR 25k
Was kinda skeptical about this for its plain look but this simple dessert turned out to be one of those impressive pannacotta creations, it's been awhile since the last time I had pannacotta and it was a delightful comeback LOL. The pannacotta was velvety-creamy and paired with nice and sweet caramel sauce, they claimed to have coffee infused but I couldn't seem to a catch a note, anyway still delicious though.
Now special thanks to my talented buddy Martin Natadipraja, be sure to follow this good looking chef on his Instagram @MartinNatadipraja, very glad to be able to sample your delightful creations, seriously bruh they're SO GOOD.
From the last update, I heard that the studio will be around until March 17th 2017 so I suggest hurry up and explore their menu! Good creations sold for a very reasonable price tag, if you're on a healthy diet and are watching your weight, I suggest going for their smoothie bowl and their fruit yogurt blend drink to take away right after.
Thank you and best of luck Yoforia!
Yoforia Yogurt Studio
Paris Van Java - Resort Level G-B61
Jalan Sukajadi No. 131-139
Sukajadi, Bandung 40162
Opening hours: 11 AM-10 PM
Average spending for two: IDR 100k
Dresscode: none
Map for Paris Van Java