Ada from NYCOLLEGEATS gives a recap of her tour at The Lite Choice!

Hello everyone! A few weeks ago I was contacted by The Lite Choice and offered a tour of one of their stores along with samples of their various products. I’m not gunna lie, I jumped around my apartment upon receiving this email because you all have witnessed my infatuation with the frozen dessert. Before the founding of The Lite Choice (in 2008) I was addicted to Tasti D-Lite and would get one EVERY single day before swim practice. While I still occasionally enjoy Tasti, I feel The Lite Choice far surpasses them in terms of quality and taste.

I got to meet the lovely Claudia, pictured below, who explained the technical and business aspects of the chain. I found this highly fascinating, since I prefer to understand a company’s values before whole-heartedly supporting them.

She shared some interesting info about the company’s founding and the product’s nutrition. All these years I have erroneously deemed it “fro-yo” when technically it is a “frozen dessert” since it does not contain enough fat to be considered ice cream and does not contain the probiotics of yogurt.

A serving of their yogurt contains 80 calories per cup (some flavors slightly more), is certified kosher, low fat and gluten free. They also do not utilize any artificial ingredients or preservatives. I was quite impressed by how many of their flavors were made using USDA certified organic flavors, which you can distinguish by the green labelling.

Claudia was so generous and offered to concoct a bunch of products for me to sample. An interesting part of The Lite Choice is that they can instantly create ANY flavor of your selection in addition to the flavors they offer that day. This was a dangerous piece of info for me to learn, since now I might get one every day! Out of the selection of flavors, I selected hazelnut, and coconut. I also got to sample the flavors of the day, which included banana pudding, dark chocolate truffle, vanilla, fluffernutter, and caramel. Holy. Yum. All of these flavors were amazing, but my favorites were definitely the hazelnut and caramel. Might I say these tasted better then Haagen-Daz?

To concoct the flavor Claudia simply filled a cup with vanilla soft serve

Added a couple pumps of flavoring

Placed it in the stirrer

And voila! Easy as pie (or as hazelnut soft serve, I should say):)

She also asked me if I had a favorite product of theirs, and I immediately responded with “coffee freeze” which is essentially a coffee milkshake. I may not have mentioned this before, but I am a milkshake fanatic. When I was younger I drank one every single day and never got sick of them. My favorite milkshake flavor is definitely coffee, and this was a fabulous version of one. As I was drinking I wished the cup would never end since it was SO tasty:)

She also whipped up a banana protein shake, which contained the whey form of protein. The shake included vanilla soft serve

banana, skim milk, and whey protein.

Off into the vitamix it goes!

Holy yum! The below picture is terribly blurry, but trust me. This bad boy was amazing. I could see it being a great post-run snack between the milk’s calcium, the banana’s potassium, and the whey protein.

The Lite Choice also sells freshly ground peanut butter and almond butter which contain nothing but the nuts.

I got to sample a cup of both and, man, were these tasty. I wanted to add some to my soft serve.

but I didn’t have to since it was already incorporated into one of the flavors. . . fluffernutter! I loved that this flavor did not taste artificial, but like actual freshly ground peanut butter.

They also offer an array of great toppings, with my favorites being the cereal, almonds, and m&ms( for a special treat).

In addition to their famous soft serve, they sell a plethora of bars which come in such interesting flavors as “cookies and cream” and “coffee espresso”. Claudia gave me a huge array to take home, so I look forward to sampling some tonight.

For the colder months they offer hot chocolate, which at 99 cents is such a steal. It tastes like thick, chocolaty goodness rather than the watered-down variety sold at many corner stores. At 130 calories per cup, it also makes for a healthy choice!

Look how cute this cake was! I might have to get one for Valentine’s Day. . .

I love that you can buy individual slices of the cake. since sometimes you don’t want to purchase an entire one.

Mmm more bars and sandwiches

After speaking with Claudia I also learned that the company strives to aid the community by offering special promotions and handing out samples in local schools and gyms. They also plan to work with a diabetes foundation, which will be really great. They extend their generosity even further by providing gift cards and deals through their Twitter and Facebook pages. I highly recommend that you follow them on Twitter and Facebook so that you can score some awesome deals!

Now that I’ve had a tour and learned about the company’s values, I feel great fueling my soft serve addiction with their product. Not only does The Lite Choice possess a superior taste, but the company promotes great values in aiding the environment and local communities. Man, writing this post made me seriously crave some more, I’m going to dip into my freezer supply now;)

Thank you so much, Claudia, for giving me such a great tour! I seriously felt like yesterday was my birthday haha.

Posted by Ada

“Next best thing…”

As many of you know, my favorite dessert is and has always been ice cream. Unfortunately, the only love I get back from ice cream is around my hips and stomach – great if I was a bear trying to hibernate for the winter, but bad if I’m trying to get in shape for swimsuit season. Luckily, for those days when I’m hankering for something sweet but have already indulged, I can turn to my lower calorie friend – the soft serve.

Soft serve is a frozen dessert very similar to but much lighter than ice cream, since it’s lower in milk fat and contains up to 60% air by volume. I had always enjoyed McDonald’s original vanilla soft serve in high school (sweet, cheap, and only 150 calories a cone!), but soon abandoned that in favor of Tasti D-Lite when I moved to NYC (a bit pricier but loads more flavors!). Although I liked the wide variety of flavors, I always thought Tasti D-Lite tasted a bit artificial and well…obviously “lite”.

Enter The Lite Choice.

The Lite Choice (TLC) is a chain of soft serve shops in New York and New Jersey that is similar in concept to Tasti D-Lite (the owners were former Tasti D’Lite licensees) but unlike Tasti D- all flavors are natural, kosher, and USDA organic. After meeting TLC’s team at the International Restaurant Show, I, along with Team Finance Foodie’s photographer Jen “Q” Chen, stopped by The Lite Choice store on Broadway and 96th for a taste tour of all their products.

The first item up for sampling was TLC’s all natural peanut butter and almond butter- which is actually made on site in their nut grinding machines. The peanut and almond butter are then added to plain vanilla soft serve to create…you got it – peanut butter and almond butter flavored soft serve! I especially liked the almond butter flavor, as you could actually taste bits of the almond crunchies in the soft serve.

We then got to make our own flavor soft serve using the wide variety of different syrups lined up against the wall (which are all USDA certified organic flavors, natch). In addition to the 4-5 pre-made flavors, customers can create their own custom blend with over 70 flavor combinations to choose from (I recommend the coconut!)

Here I am sampling the cookies n’ cream, which was one of the pre made flavors of the day. NOM NOM!

TLC also makes a variety of desserts using soft serve, including:

Special occasion cakes

Soft serve bars

And my favorite item during the tour – the soft serve fudge sundae (can you believe that this is only 300 calories?!?)

All and all, I was incredibly impressed with The Lite Choice – healthy, all natural, and tasty. Now I won’t ever abandon my beloved full fat ice cream (don’t worry Ben and Jerry’s – you guys still have my heart and sales dollars), but The Lite Choice is definitely the next best thing! 

“Next best thing…”

As many of you know, my favorite dessert is and has always been ice cream. Unfortunately, the only love I get back from ice cream is around my hips and stomach – great if I was a bear trying to hibernate for the winter, but bad if I’m trying to get in shape for swimsuit season. Luckily, for those days when I’m hankering for something sweet but have already indulged, I can turn to my lower calorie friend – the soft serve.

Soft serve is a frozen dessert very similar to but much lighter than ice cream, since it’s lower in milk fat and contains up to 60% air by volume. I had always enjoyed McDonald’s original vanilla soft serve in high school (sweet, cheap, and only 150 calories a cone!), but soon abandoned that in favor of Tasti D-Lite when I moved to NYC (a bit pricier but loads more flavors!). Although I liked the wide variety of flavors, I always thought Tasti D-Lite tasted a bit artificial and well…obviously “lite”.

Enter The Lite Choice.

The Lite Choice (TLC) is a chain of soft serve shops in New York and New Jersey that is similar in concept to Tasti D-Lite (the owners were former Tasti D’Lite licensees) but unlike Tasti D- all flavors are natural, kosher, and USDA organic. After meeting TLC’s team at the International Restaurant Show, I, along with Team Finance Foodie’s photographer Jen “Q” Chen, stopped by The Lite Choice store on Broadway and 96th for a taste tour of all their products.

The first item up for sampling was TLC’s all natural peanut butter and almond butter- which is actually made on site in their nut grinding machines. The peanut and almond butter are then added to plain vanilla soft serve to create…you got it – peanut butter and almond butter flavored soft serve! I especially liked the almond butter flavor, as you could actually taste bits of the almond crunchies in the soft serve.

We then got to make our own flavor soft serve using the wide variety of different syrups lined up against the wall (which are all USDA certified organic flavors, natch). In addition to the 4-5 pre-made flavors, customers can create their own custom blend with over 70 flavor combinations to choose from (I recommend the coconut!)

Here I am sampling the cookies n’ cream, which was one of the pre made flavors of the day. NOM NOM!

TLC also makes a variety of desserts using soft serve, including:

Special occasion cakes

Soft serve bars

And my favorite item during the tour – the soft serve fudge sundae (can you believe that this is only 300 calories?!?)

All and all, I was incredibly impressed with The Lite Choice – healthy, all natural, and tasty. Now I won’t ever abandon my beloved full fat ice cream (don’t worry Ben and Jerry’s – you guys still have my heart and sales dollars), but The Lite Choice is definitely the next best thing!

photos: Jen “Q” Chen

All you have to do is click on the link below and create a KTU rewards account:   KTU Rewards

Take the short KTU survey and you will automatically be entered for a chance to win the gift certificate!  Hurry- the giveaway ends on April 28th!

Good Luck!

The Lite Choice is the Right Choice!

The Lite Choice participated at the International food show at the Javits Center from March 1 to 3. We had a booth there along with the Electro Freeze company. We served over 3,000 free small servings of Dark Chocolate Truffle and French Vanilla!

This morning I had the pleasure of taking a two hour tour of The Lite Choice at their 95th and Broadway location.

When Claudia, the Director of Operations at The Lite Choice, contacted me about taking a “taste the difference” tour of their store, I jumped at the chance.  As you probably know, I’m a huge fan of The Lite Choice, and have gone there on many, many occasions in the past six months!  On one of the coldest days this winter, my dad even trekked out into the cold to pick up a cup for me.

As soon as I arrived. I was greeted by Claudia who handed me a cup of hot chocolate to warm up.  Their hot chocolate is only 130 calories, low fat, and made without preservatives, additives or corn syrup.  The best part? It only costs 99 cents!

Guess who I spotted on the wall?  Looks like Missy has been here!

Once Dori (whom I met a couple weeks ago after the NYRR 4M GridIron race) arrived, Claudia began the tour by explaining a little about the company.  Many of The Lite Choice stores in New York are former Tasti D Lites.  The president and CEO, Ron Greenstein, wanted to create a healthier alternative to other soft-serve companies that rely on artificial ingredients to keep their calories down.  There are currently 30 locations, 16 of which in New York.  They’re even opening a shop in Montreal!

They frequently participate in auctions and benefits, donating coupons and soft serve to raise money for the community.   All of the corporate-owned stores use green cleaning products, and they’re hoping to incorporate biodegradable spoons and plastic bags into their business soon. Their goal? To become the “Greenest and Cleanest” company in New York.

It is also certified Kosher.

Each TLC store has 4-6 flavors readily available.

Most of the flavors have a Chocolate or French Vanilla base; see the nutritional information.

You can also have any flavor you want, any time!  There are 70 readily available flavors, 51 of which are made using USDA-certified organic flavors.  64 flavors are gluten-free, and they’re working on improving those last 6 flavors.  The soft serve is sweetened with beet and cane sugars; no extra sugar is added.  (You can find the nutritional information for each flavor online.)

First, you start with a soft-serve base.

Add your all-natural flavoring, which has pre-calibrated portions so you don’t get more than you bargained for.

Then it gets mixed up…

… and voila!  Your flavor of choice, right at your finger tips. One of the flavors Dori and I tried was Chocolate-Covered Strawberry, created for Valentine’s Day.  Hazelnut Fudge was also a big hit… almost like Nutella!

And unlike some “other” soft serve companies, The Lite Choice’s flavors actually taste like what you ordered, because it’s made up of those ingredients.  Almond butter soft serve? Made from real almond butter!  Chocolate-hazelnut fudge? Made from real (fat free!) fudge!

(The almond and peanut butters are for sale; the chocolate sauce is so addicting that there are customers who come in and order containers of it straight!)

You can order protein shakes made with whey protein powder.

I sampled a strawberry banana shake (my favorite flavor of smoothie)… so good!  I wish I knew about these earlier.

Dori tried Cookies ‘n Cream, and couldn’t stop raving about it.

They also make B Vitamin shakes and Coffee Freezes.  Claudia was pretty excited about the Coffee Freeze- she was sipping one when I arrived- and made one for us to try.  It’s made with Kosher Colombian coffee, and tasted much better than a Frappuccino.

We also tried a hot fudge sundae with roasted peanuts and almonds.  Yes, it was as good as it looks.  Move over, Dairy Queen!

There are all kinds of toppings you can add to your treat, including Cinnamon Puffins! (This is delicious with the Almond Butter flavor.)

The Lite Choice sells a variety of snacks to go, including 10 flavors of soft serve bars.

They also make single-serving slices of cake (which I may have just eaten for dessert!), soft serve sandwiches, and gorgeous full-size cakes.  I want to get one of these for my next birthday!

Become a fan on Facebook and follow The Lite Choice on Twitter for daily promo codes (free toppings, free bottles of water, upgrade a size, buy-one-get-one-free, etc.) and giveaways.

Thanks to Claudia and Ron for their generosity!  I can’t wait to get back to The Lite Choice for another hit

Have you been to The Lite Choice? What is your favorite flavor? Mine is Almond Butter!