Yonanas – Frozen Dessert Maker
Nice-Cream? YO gonna LOVE this.
It's finally summer time, and if you're like us here in Florida, it's warmer than it should be for this time of year and the only thing you look forward to is running into any place with air-conditioning before your soles of your feet melt on the pavement.
But not only that, the neighborhood kids are all home from school for the summer...which includes my daughter. We have a pool that they could utilize, but more often than not, they prefer running around outside playing with whatever they can find in the garage in much the same we did as children. Which is why I am a proud supporter of Yonanas! With the summer heat setting in and still wanting to be the “cool” parent, Yonanas is a great way for me to get some well needed nutrition and hydration into everybody while still getting the praise because they get “nice-cream”.
How easy is it?
Step 1 – Peel over-rip bananas (and/or any other ingredients you want to use) and freeze them for 24 hours. Bananans should be “leopard spotted” at most as we found less than that lacked the banana flavor and more than that made our “nice-cream” have a brown tint. When you are ready for a treat, remove them from the freezer and let them soften for 5-10 minutes.
Step 2 – Plug in and turn on the Yonanas maker.
Step 3 – Insert the ingredients into the chute (usually staring with ½ of a banana) and push down using the plunger.
Step 4 – Repeat with other frozen fruit, chocolate, champagne, or other items required by any of the recipes from the included recipe book or your custom choice.
Step 5 – Make sure you have a bowl below the shut to collect the wonderful frozen yumminess. If it doesn't look like soft-serve ice-cream, let the fruit thaw another minute or two.
Step 6 – Once you have YO'ed everything, remove the chute and disassemble the cone. Scrape out any extra Yonanas from the blade area and wash by hand with soapy water or use the top shelf in the dishwasher. Enjoy!
What We Thought
For this review we made “Champagne and Strawberries”. The list of ingredients was the same for the “Strawberry”; 2 frozen bananas and 1 cup frozen strawberries, which meant that we could make some for the kids and then repeat the process with 2 frozen cubes of champagne for the adults.
When it was said and done, we found that it was a bit runny for our preference. To rectify the situation we simply spooned the puree into a freezer safe container and returned to the freezer. After an hour or so, it was ready to be enjoyed as if it were soft-serve again. Although the “slushy” aspect of the alcohol made the final product feel this way as well. Thus making us less inclined to add the alcohol to any of the future recipes, but rather finding a wine-chocolate sauce that we could drizzle over the top instead.
You could enjoy it as soon as it comes out of the Yonanas, but if you're looking for better presentation, then I recommend doing what we did and refreeze it before serving. This allows it to be balled with an ice-cream scoop and it becomes much more presentable.
We also found that, in general the banana flavor seemed to overpower all of the other fruits we tried. Not that it was bad, but we found that if we wanted, for example, the strawberry one we mentioned before, it tasted much better using double the amount of strawberries and only half of the amount of banana or no banana at all.
We also felt that the loading shoot was too narrow. We feel that if it were larger and you could get more of the fruit combinations in at one time, then the blend would be more even and it would last longer in the bowl before serving, especially if you want to ball it with an ice-cream scoop and serve.
Our Deluxe version came with a booklet of 75 recipes that are perfect for those with dietary restrictions. It could also be considered vegan and free from dairy, gluten, nuts, soy, and egg since you use only fruit.
Overall, the idea is great but the machine could have been designed better for more efficient pureeing and mixing of the fruit.
There are 3 Yonanas makers available:
Yonanas Deluxe comes with an upgraded design in multiple colors and chrome accents. It comes with a Healthy Dessert Book of recipes for 75 different frozen treats, pies, and even chocolate creations.
Yonanas Classic works the same as the Deluxe but is designed without the chrome accents. It, too, has a recipe book but is limited to only 36 recipes.
Yonanas Personal Blender is perfect for those who would rather enjoy a smoothie, shakes, or drink mixes instead of the soft-serve.
Yonanas Deluxe: $79.99**
Yonanas Classic: $49.99**
Yonanas Personal Blender: $39.99**
*Product information was taken directly from the Yonanas website at the time of publication. The Gentleman's Choice is not responsible for any mistake in any of the product descriptions listed on www.gents-choice.com.
**Rates and availability are based on the time of publication and are subject to change without notice from The Gentleman’s Choice. For the most update product availability and pricing, please visit www.yonanas.com
