The Lite Choice was one of the many companies from the tri-state area who attended the Electro Freeze Frozen Dessert Expo on February 13th, 2010. The show displayed different types of soft serve machines and offered educational product exhibits.
The attendees were very impressed with how delicious and creamy our soft serve was.
The Lite Choice was very happy to be a part of the event.
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 certified organic, 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
organic banana, organic 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
On Saturday, January 30th, 8 food bloggers met up for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Forest Hills, New York called 5 Burro Cafe!
At the meetup:
Monique from Food Snob, Missy from Missy Maintains, Julie from Julie GoLean, Dawn from Dawn Dishes It Out, Jen from Pieces of Me, Joanne from Eats Well With Others, Mari from Namaste Mari, and Sarah from Mom on the Run.
When we heard about the meetup, we invited the bloggers to The Lite Choice location in Queens which is right around the corner from the restaurant they went to. We kept the store open an extra hour for them so that they could come after dinner and enjoy the soft serve of their choice.
Missy said, “The girl working behind the counter (Stephanie) was really great! We thanked her million times for working late for us! She was a sweetheart and very helpful!”
The girls were able to choose from any of the flavors!!
Missy went with her favorite, Oreos N’ Cream!!
She said, “It was extra good last night! There were big chunks of Oreos! I love that Stephanie asked if I wanted extra vanilla on top. Yum!”
This was Julie’s first time at TLC and was impressed with her Chocolate Mint!
Mo loved her cup of Snickers! She said, “It tasted just like I was eating a Snickers candy bar!” Mo brought her boyfriend back an O’Henry since his name is Henry!
Mari and Joanne got Dulce de Leche. Joanne described her soft serve as, “a cup of heaven.” Sarah loved her Milky Way and was very excited to bring her husband back a cup of White Mint!
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The girls had a great time and plan to have many more meetups at The Lite Choice.
Yesterday, Mari and I were given an amazing opportunity to tour The Lite Choice. Claudia, The Director of Operations over at The Lite Choice extended an invitation to tour the facility and learn about how their soft serve is made. In my excitement at the offer, I called Mari who also had an oppportunity. We figured it would be great if we did our tour together.
When we arrived, we were a bit early but we made our selves comfy and looked around.
I love the decor in the store- mainly because i love soft colors. They are so calming. When we sat down we began the unofficial tasting.
I was feeling a bit adventurous and decided to play a Wild Card when she offered which flavors I wanted to try. She chose for me the Peanut butter, hazelnut fudge, coconut and french vanilla.
So awesome! The cup was a small and it was filled to the brim with sampling goodness!
Mari got the Peanut Butter, French Vanilla and Coconut… she approves with a big thumbs up.
I started to mix mine up… it was delish. Looking back, i wish I would have combed my hair a bit. 
the joys of hat hair
Looking around we saw the calorie ranges of the sizes on the menu board. You are all probably thinking “Oh No, Mo cheated” but i assure you, I didnt break the diet in the slightest way (of course, i did eat enough ice cream to miss dinner)
The Lite Choice is an all natural, low calorie, lower fat, low carb soft serve which are made with OVER 50 USDA Organic Flavors! There are no artificial ingredients or corn syrups. Most locations are certified Kosher too!
There were 6 featured soft serves of the day but what I love about The Lite Choice is that you can order any flavor on the menu at no additional charge! My favorite is the peanut butter soft serve and on days when its not being offered in the big machine, you can order a freshly made one! yuuuuum! and they even have an almond butter machine! sweet! Fresh nut butter is amazing!
Mari wanted to try the pina colada.
Start with Original soft serve,
add some coconut and some pineapple,
mix it all up…
and eat! I enjoyed this one… but Mari LOVED it… mostly due to the fact that she LOVES anything pina colada!
We also got to taste the fresh peanut butter, almond butter, banana, and the remaining pina colada. All we could do was say YUM! i fell in love with the almond. the texture was heavenly as well as the flavor!
PHOTO OP! Mari and I wore green…and we didn’t even plan that! great minds think alike!
Just when i thought I was blown away with the soft serve, they brought out the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. Coffee Freeze. I should just state that I am a coffee fiend as it is… and this was perfection. The perfect strength of coffee with the perfect sweetness as well as a creamy texture. this might be my go-to iced coffee fix this summer!
but in the mean time i will warm up with their hot-choco-lite! An all natural lower calorie hot chocolate. Its rich and decadent. Its made with all natural ingredients and is super cheap! 99cents! cant beat that!
You’ve got something for everyone at The Lite Choice!
I want to thank Claudia, the Director of Operations, and Ron, the President and CEO of THE LITE CHOICE for their generosity and all the wonderful treats they provided. They not only showered us with samples but have allowed for us to end our blogger meet up at one of their queens locations! They really do know the true meaning of customer service and i KNOW they will be very very successful in all their future endeavors. I am happy to spread the word of such an awesome company. Thanks Guys! i will be back!!!
Heres what I love about The Lite Choice:
- a Small is true to size. You will always get the right amount each time. Perfect for calorie counters (ahem, like me!)
- You can satisfy a sweet tooth without destroying your diet! As much as I ate last night i still woke up with a huge loss on the scale (down 5lbs!)
- The flavor is all there without the aftertaste of artificial flavors and sweeteners
- ANY FLAVOR at ANY time! You will never be disappointed!
- ice cream cakes! made with their lower calorie soft serve!
- ice cream bars! also made with their lower calorie soft serve!
- they are awesome!
There seem to be locations everywhere! See if there is one by you.
Claudia and Ron… thank you thank you sooooo much! I cant wait to bring my friends and fam!!!!
Oh and please follow them on twitter or become a fan on facebook!
Posted by Mo Diva
The Lite Choice (TLC) is a soft-serve made from the finest (100 %) all-natural and USDA organic flavors and farm-fresh dairy. .
Our soft serve is low fat, low carb, lower calorie. There’s NO corn syrup, artificial additives, or preservatives. Our original or chocolate soft serve is blended with all natural and certified organic flavors to create any flavor anytime! We’ve created flavor groupings from 80-120 calories per serving, since some flavors may change the nutritional facts slightly.
What sets TLC apart from all other frozen desserts?
There’s NO corn syrup, artificial additives, or preservatives. The Lite Choice takes it a step further and offers customers more than 50 Certified Organic flavors- setting TLC apart from all other brands of soft-serve frozen dessert. The Lite Choice leaves no stone unturned and insures freshness and a healthier product. Each TLC store grinds its own fresh peanut butter and almond butter daily in our nut grinding mills. We use all-natural peanuts and almonds which are then blended into the mix to create three of our most popular flavors – Almond Butter, Peanut Butter and Peanut Butter Fudge.
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We got there a little early and Claudia was in a meeting so they offered us some Soft-Serve while we waited. I tried Coconut, French Vanilla, and Peanut Butter first….
These were all amazing! I especially loved the French Vanilla and the Coconut Flavors! We obviously enjoyed these very much! Thumbs up!
After we were done stuffing our faces enjoying the different flavors, Claudia and Ron Greenstein whom is the President and CEO gave us a tour… the first thing that caught my eye was this!!!!! I am so proud of you Missy!
They offer cakes for various occasions…
You can surf the net while you enjoy your soft serve either with free Wi-fi or you can use their computers for a very low fee…as a blogger this is a pretty big deal for me! lol
Every day they rotate the soft-serves that are offered BUT you can ALWAYS request your favorite flavor and they will make it for you!
Any Flavor, Anytime!
Choose from any of our 100% All Natural, Certified USDA Organic or
All Time Favorite flavors and we will make it for you in 60 seconds.
Available in any cup size.
They have so many flavors to choose from.
and yummy toppings to make a Sundae!!!!
Ya’ll know how much I love love love Nut Butter and I was so impressed that they make their on nut butter right there on the spot for their ice creams! I wanted to take these machines home lol
You also have the option to have your soft-serve to-go
PINTS & QUARTS TO GO
Any flavor anytime!
SANDWICH COOKIES
Chocolate, Vanilla
TLC BARS
Banana, Lemon Meringue, Cookies and Cream, Oreos n Cream, Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Strawberry, Strawberry Shortcake, Vanilla Chocolate
READY MADE TLC CAKES
Regular, Large, & Heart Shape
My favorite part of the tour was when we got to try various flavors…I of course requested to try Piña Colada…First they put the French Vanilla soft serve in a cup.
And then add the various flavors…
Mix it all up…
This tasted AMAZING! Mari was a very VERY happy girl!
We also tried, Banana (double yums) and Almond Butter (GASP)
Just when we thought things could not get any better, Ron told them to bring in the Coffee Freeze…this was so delish that I didn’t even need my Splenda and you guys know how dependent I am on that lol.
I was hopped up on coffee and wanted to try out the machines! don’t worry I was just pretending lol
Did I also mention that they make Health Shakes?!?! Because they do!
And they are Kosher!
The Lite Choice is Kosher. Our milk is certified OU, and our flavors are Parve Mark. Our seven corporate owned stores are Certified Kosher. See Certificate. Our dry toppings are certified by a variety of supervising organizations
It is pretty cold in NY so they let us warm up with some Hot Choco-Lite before we left…
AND they let us take some soft-serve home! I felt like I was in the Willy Wonka Factory!!!!!
Thank you so much Claudia and Ron! I had such a great time meeting you both and I am sure I will come back for more!
Also, If you will be attending the Blog Meet Up on Saturday, they have arranged for us to go to their Forest Hills location for dessert! These people are truly amazing!
I had a blast!!!! (nope we did not plan to have matching shirts on lol)
Me, Mo, and Claudia
If you are in the NYC Area Today… Be the first to arrive after 6pm at the TLC store located at 8th & 21st & you’ll win a $40 gift certificate!!!!
Here is a list of all of their locations, make sure you check them out, I promise that you won’t be disappointed!
Also follow them on Twitter or Facebook so that you can hear about all their great promotions!
Namaste…
The Lite Choice was featured on Missy Maintains.com. Check out Missy’s behind the scenes look at TLC!
The Lite Choice and try out tons of flavors plus learn everything there is to know about the company! They saw that I am a huge fan of their soft serve from reading my blog. They sent me a message on Twitter inviting me to come in to get a look on how their low-calorie soft serve gets made! Of course I was beyond excited!
I just got back from my dream tour! I got to go to
I met Claudia Giraldo, the Director of Operations and the “Twitter Girl!”
I also met Ron Greenstein, President and CEO! They were both extremely nice and friendly!
I will start off by giving you a little background information on The Lite Choice (from the website):
The Lite Choice (TLC) is a soft-serve made from the finest all-natural ingredients and farm-fresh dairy. Our soft serve is low fat, lower calorie, low carb, and low cholesterol. There’s NO corn syrup, artificial additives, or preservatives. We use 100% all-natural and USDA certified Organic flavors.
How did The Lite Choice start?
Ron and his partner, Ed Newmark started over 20 years ago as Tasti D-Lite and owned 7 stores. In 2007, Tasti was bought by a private equity firm but Ed and Ron decided not to franchise. 30 other Tasti D-Lite stores also decided not to continue. Ron and Ed created their own brand called The Lite Choice and converted 7 stores. Other stores followed. Now The Lite Choice has 30 locations and is still expanding. They are planning on opening other locations in Canada, Israel, and more!
The actual soft serve at Tasti is also different from that at The Lite Choice. I told Ron and Claudia that I noticed the size of a small at Tasti is the size of a medium at The Lite Choice. The Lite Choice decided to make their cups bigger since it is better for adding toppings. The soft serve at Tasti also seems more bland and watery. The Lite Choice is almost all organic so the flavors are rich and creamy with no aftertaste. All of the flavors at The Lite Choice are gluten-free except for just 5!
Frozen Yogurt vs. Soft Serve
I learned that The Lite Choice is not frozen yogurt! I felt bad for calling it fro-yo all this time! Places like Pinkberry and Red Mango are frozen yogurt. Frozen yogurt contains bacteria which The Lite Choice does not have. It is also not considered ice cream since it contains less than 3% fat. From now on, I will call it a soft serve frozen dessert!
Any Flavor Any Time
The Lite Choice has over 50 unique flavors with more than 40 certified organic flavors. I learned today that you are allowed to order ANY of these flavors when you visit any location!! I always thought you could only order the 4 or 5 flavors that are labeled on the machines!! I can’t believe I had no idea! They also grind their own peanut butter and almond butter daily using all-natural peanuts and almonds!! I requested to try an almond butter soft serve!
First they fill the cup with vanilla.
Then they add fresh almond butter to the cup. They use their special mixer to blend them together.
A delicious almond butter soft serve was created in just 1 minute! It tasted incredibly fresh and creamy! I will definitely get that flavor more often!
They asked me what my favorite flavor was. I said Cookies N’ Cream!
I learned that they use organic cookies from Whole Foods to make their Cookies N’ Cream soft serve!
They once again mixed the vanilla with the cookies.
Yum! I wish I knew I could get this all along! This baby is just 108 calories!
Here are some of the other options to get as flavors!
Next they let me sample their hot chocolate! It is all natural and contains only 130 calories for a 6 ounce and is just 99 cents! It was incredibly rich and delicious! Perfect to get in the winter time.
Next I got to try the Coconut and Banana!
The banana tasted just like the banana soft serve that all the bloggers have been making! That’s because they use real bananas and organic soft serve! I am not usually a fan of coconut but I loved this flavor!! It tasted like I was eating a real coconut and had a wonderful strong flavor.
They also make shakes, protein drinks using whey protein, and coffee freezes. All of the shakes are made with organic soft serve and blended with skim milk. All 3 of us decided to enjoy a Coffee Freeze while chatting in the office. They are made with international coffee and organic soft serve. It was delicious and just what I needed to wake me up a little!
I was in slight heaven……
The Lite Choice also makes frozen bars and cakes!
The cakes are made with a vanilla and chocolate base and then you can choose any flavor you want for the rest of the cake! You can also add a picture. I will be requesting one of these for my next birthday They also sell individual slices of the cake.
I got to try 3 of the bars: Almond Butter, Strawberry Shortcake, and Cookies & Cream.
They were all delicious but my favorite was the Cookies N’ Cream of course! We were talking about how we like Skinny Cow ice cream but they are so small so we end up eating 2! The bars at The Lite Choice are twice the size for not too many more calories. They range from 140 to 170 calories and are all organic.
Another great thing about the company is that they are starting to go green!
They currently use wowgreen cleaner which is non-toxic and uses recycled materials to make their bottles.
They are also planning on using biodegradable plastic bags.
The 3 of us sat around chatting and talking about my blog and ideas on how we both could improve our websites. Ron and I also both went to Israel in the last few years so we chatted about the camels and Jerusalem for a while! We discussed future giveaways as well so stay tuned for that! It was an amazing experience and I have an increased respect for the company. Thanks Ron and Claudia!!
I was planning on going to the gym after but they sent me home with tons of goodies!!! I went right home and stuck them in the freezer!
I got Dark Chocolate Truffle, Banana, Cookies N’ Cream, carob chips, sprinkles, and cookie crunches! I also got every type of frozen bar! I am a happy girl!
You can learned more about The Lite Choice here and follow them on Twitter here! They announce special discount codes on Twitter every day so be sure to check it out!
Wowgreen International manufactures safe, effective, all-natural cleaning products for commercial use. Their mission is to free the world of toxic chemicals. In an effort to fulfill TLC’s “green promise,” and to help make the world a healthier place to live, The Lite Choice has incorporated Wowgreen’s all natural cleaning products into our daily routine.
Stay tuned for more “Go Green” initiatives at The Lite Choice!
The Lite Choice was featured on the Scoop On Cones: “the guide to the great ice cream in New York City.” Check out the article below!
The Lite Choice Soft serve that makes you go “Tasti-who?”
Perhaps you have noticed your neighborhood low-cal frozen dessert store undergo an overnight conversion. It started last September, when the owners of seven Tasti-D-Lites on Manhattan’s west side broke off and started their own chain, The Lite Choice.
They use the same machines, but a different recipe that has no corn syrup. The flavors are all natural and many are USDA organic. Why are the calories so low (about 88 calories per half cup)? Each serving is 75 percent calorie-free air. In a blind taste test by the official scooponcones tasting panel, The Lite Choice came out the clear winner over Tasti-D-Lite. Sure it’s not artisanal ice cream, but it also had an authentic flavor and no nasty aftertaste like its competitor. In a far less objective tasting, the TLC ice cream bars were a huge hit at our office, with one person even saying they tasted like homemade ice cream. We especially like the peanut butter, which is made with freshly ground peanuts (you can also buy real peanut butter and almond butter ground to order) and the espresso, which is has real espresso powder for a bold flavor. The coconut was also delightful. Several Tasti-D-Lite stores have converted to The Lite Choice, and so far there are about 30 TLCs in the tri-state region, including 16 in Manhattan and one in Queens.
Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily
Price: $3.50 for small cup
Special Diets: Low fat, low carb, kosher, USDA organic flavors, all but five flavors are suitable for those with celiac disease
Phone: (212) 316-4242
Website: thelitechoice.com
You can find the full article here: http://www.scooponcones.com/scoops/TheLiteChoice.html
The Lite Choice (TLC) was feautured at the “International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show” at the Javits center in New York City. The show ran from November 7-10,2009.
The International Hotel/Motel Restaurant show at the Javits Center is host to many leading conventions, trade shows, consumer shows and special events. There was no better world stage than the Javits Center to display our low fat, lower calorie soft-serve! There were 1,422 exhibitor booths scattered across 250,000 square feet of exhibit space. Over 35,000 people attended the New York show, including college and technical students, dealers, distributors, etc. People from all over the world came to the show, including those from Japan, Korea, England, Italy, Jamaica, Bahamas, and more. The Javits Center show draws some of the most influential buyers from hotels, restaurants, purchasing companies, owner groups, design firms, catering and specialty food service establishments, dealerships, casinos, & resorts.
At the show, we featured 2 of The Lite Choice’s (TLC’s) most popular flavors – French Vanilla and Dark Chocolate Truffle. Both of these flavors are USDA Certified Organic. TLC was one of the biggest hits at the show.
The show was a great success as it was a fantastic opportunity for us to introduce our low fat, lower calorie soft-serve.
The New York Jets Cheerleaders were instructing a class at New York Sports Club of their work-out and dancing routine.
They tried our low fat, lower calorie soft-serve on two locations and loved it. They were very impressed by The Lite Choice creaminess and taste.
