Eat Drink KL: Le Pen Frozen Yogurt, Kota Damansara

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Le Pen Frozen Yogurt, Kota Damansara

Kota Damansara's distinctive new dessert parlour puts a playful spin on frozen yogurt, transforming its wide-ranging flavours into colourful barks and slices, crowned with fruits and fun toppings. This is a cheerful venue that lives up to its twist on a Mandarin-language name, the promise of 'happy friends' savouring a selection of sweet temptations together.

Founded by a young team, all in their twenties, Le Pen is a homegrown Malaysian brand that relies on Greek yogurt, rich in calcium and good for digestion, for a tangy taste that lingers on the palate.

Watch as the yogurt is turned into barks on a fried ice cream machine that freezes and hardens the yogurt within five minutes, so it becomes a blocky-textured treat that can be broken into smaller pieces, smooth and solid. Each serving is prepared to order, so rest assured of fresh-tasting froyo.

These barks are becoming trendy in East Asia, particularly popular in spring and summer. It's the ideal chilled refreshment to enjoy in a setting that shimmers with youthful, carefree vibes. College kids come during the day to study and use the WiFi, while couples flock in at night for after-dinner excursions.

The frozen yogurt is available in Regular portions of 150 grams and Large of 200 grams.

Le Pen's Teatime Series comprises Crowd Favourites (Regular RM13.60, Large RM15.60) with a choice of up to two toppings. The toppings include sweet red beans, crushed peanuts, raisins, choco chips, mini choco crunch, coconut flakes, crushed matcha cookies, crushed Oreos and chocolate syrup (add RM1 per extra topping).

We went with Le Pen's recommendations for combinations - its base of Coffee Yogurt is mingled with white coffee from Ipoh, lending the sharp edge of Malaysian coffee to the the liveliness of Greek yogurt, best sprinkled with crushed peanuts and coconut flakes for a tropical-tasting treat that coffee enthusiasts will relish.

The Matcha Oreo is one of the flagship offerings - yogurt mixed with matcha powder, topped with crushed matcha cookies, its delectable dynamics of soothing green tea going naturally well with the classic coupling of red beans.

The Fruit Series (Regular RM14.60, Large RM16.60) is self-explanatory, also with a choice of two toppings, focusing on fresh, nourishing fruits. Check out the strawberry-laced yogurt topped with strawberries and ideal with crushed peanuts, as well as the grape-tinged yogurt also topped with ripe, juicy grapes, imaginatively paired with Oreo and raisins for a multi-textured experience.

Le Pen's final series is the Fruit Puree Series (Regular size only, RM14.60), which are also dense and creamy but closer to traditional froyo and more easy-melting. For these, the yogurt is hardened only slightly before the fruit is mashed into it. The servings are topped purely with fresh fruits by default.

We liked the Dragonfruit Soft Puree, with original plain Greek yogurt smashed simply with dragonfruit, shining through with the clearest, most pronounced tang, and the Mango Passion Soft Puree, with the vivid vibrancy of mango and passion fruit.

All in all, Le Pen Frozen Yogurt makes for a relatively lower-guilt indulgence that can be relished at any time of the day, delightful for countering heat and humidity. It's also an intriguing change from the conventional style of serving frozen yogurt, making for dessert with a memorable identity.

Many thanks to Le Pen Frozen Yogurt for this reviving afternoon.