Black [teeth] Friday: The Marcel’s Way

Black Friday is not something you would typically associate with a frozen yoghurt brand.

But when has Marcel’s every been one to follow the trends? [as demonstrated recently with their unicorn-flavoured frozen yoghurt]

This time, however, they decided to get super creative and really sink their teeth [and ours] into this risky yet intriguing flavour – black charcoal-infused, chocolate-flavoured frozen yoghurt.

Call in the troops

We called up good friends Ashley and Helene who live close enough to Blue Route Mall to jump into their car and join us for this tastebud adventure and being the good sports they are they were quickly on the way.

In terms of look the promised black frozen yoghurt was leaning more towards a dapper grey but it definitely had the standout quality of a new flavour that you would be unlikely to confuse with anything else. While charcoal may seem frightening to some, it does seem to be a bit of a current trend having used it previously for stomach settling in a medicinal vein and also sampled the black breadrolls with charcoal [less of a fan!] that recently hit the shelves. So it didn’t feel too daunting a thing until the moment it is sitting in front of you…

Ashley and Helene decided to go old school and sampled the frozen yoghurt straight, while my wife Val [fudge] and myself [fudge and chocolate fudge sauce] decided to give it some visual and taste enhancement.

Black Friday Verdict

With a panel of four specialist frozen yoghurt experts we were ready to dive in.  The results were fairly consistent.

The marketing was great. The poster adverts and special [2 tubs or cones for R50] were really impressive and it certainly had appeal as a bit of an edgy taste experience.

In terms of the actual taste, the chocolate was fairly subtle and so not too sweet or overwhelming. There is the slightest hint of a taste of the charcoal in terms of an awareness of it being there and the hint of the grit in the aftertaste but it certainly didn’t detract and was not a negative experience in any way. Most of us felt the chocolate could have been a little stronger. Val and i definitely backed our decision to enhance our tubs and the fudge combo with the black friday Marcel’s yoghurt seemed to work better than having it by itself.

We all agreed that as a once-off it was definitely worth a try and so the cleverness of associating a flavour with Black Friday was a definite win. But it was not necessarily a flavour we would choose again as a repeat [the English Toffee and chocolate and other flavours we as a group normally would choose are just such strong flavours and get our votes!] And very much a unanimous suggestion that Marcel’s Black Friday charcoal-infused yoghurt is not great first date material as it leaves a hint of a reminder on your teeth that it was there.

So as a once-off experience it gets our vote. But probably better as a once-a-year accompaniment to a store-wide Black Friday activity than a regular flavour.

Thank you once again to Marcel’s for being on the edge of experiment and risk-taking and giving us another fun visit for the memory banks…

If you haven’t tried it yet, you had better hurry to your closest Marcel’s while stocks last and see if you are in agreement…

…but maybe not on a first-time dating encounter…

To find your closest Marcel’s store, click here.