I get offers to review products quite often, and typically turn them down as they are of no interest to me or my family. But occasionally something comes along that is either relevant to my life or piques my curiosity.
In the case of the Yonanas Frozen Treat Maker (I will be calling it the FTM from hereon in because I don’t want to type Frozen Treat Maker any more than I have to), it was my kids that were interested. Once we had a closer look, my wife and I also wanted to give this thing a shot. Let me tell you why…
First of all, we have three kids (currently aged 11, 7 and 4). These kids really like snacks. They really, really like unhealthy snacks. And if the snacks are frozen, that’s even better – particularly in the summer. The Yonanas FTM is a very simple concept. You put frozen things in and a soft-serve type dessert comes out. What caught our attention was a two-fold selling point – 1) it makes ice-cream type dessert out of frozen fruit and 2) it’s very, very easy to use.
So… does it deliver? If you follow the instructions, it does. Basically you feed the machine frozen fruit – drop chunks of anything you want down the chute, push it down with the plunger and ribbons of good stuff come out. They include a recipe book, and most of them use bananas as a starting point and add something else. Bananas work really well, and we’ve also added other frozen fruit – things we’ve frozen, as well as fruit in the big bags from the grocery store’s frozen dessert section. Yonanas even suggests adding cookies and that sort of thing.
I’m going to be honest here – it appears so simple out of the box (there are only 4 parts!) that I just got going on it. We had frozen bananas, so I assembled it (in about 5 seconds flat) and I thought I’d be the hero. What came out of the machine was more like frozen banana dust, instead of an ice-cream-like dessert. Not cool! The kids were like “Um, dad…?” Anyway, I should have read the manual.
You need to let your frozen fruit thaw for 10-15 minutes – do that, and BOOM! The Yonanas FTM delivers on its promise. Not only is the dessert smooth with a nice, easy-to-eat, easy-to-scoop-into-bowls-or-cones texture, it’s tasty too and perhaps most important – it’s healthy! You won’t find any added sugars, saturated fats or cholesterol in this dessert – unless you put them in there. And if your family or circle of friends includes lactose-intolerant folks or perhaps you know weirdos that are vegans, you’re ready to make them happy!
Our kids love it, and have enjoyed every combination we’ve tried. We also add vanilla yogurt to our Yonanas desserts for a little more creaminess and a twist on the taste. And when you’re done, it is perhaps the simplest counter-top appliance to clean. Ever!
What’s not to love? Well, a couple of things – but they’re not deal-breakers. I find it too noisy when it’s operating. And we didn’t like how much frozen fruit gets “trapped” in the machine around the cutting disc. You’ll end up finding a lot of your frozen fruit in there once you’re done. But as I said, it’s dead simple to clean and it only takes a minute or two to do so.
Overall, it’s a great machine and it has provided our family and guests with delicious, healthy and unique frozen desserts on many hot summer nights so far.
Disclosure: Yonanas sent me their product for consideration – to review and to keep afterwards.
