When Claudia, the Director of Operations at The Lite Choice, contacted me about taking a “taste the difference” tour of their store, I jumped at the chance. As you probably know, I’m a huge fan of The Lite Choice, and have gone there on many, many occasions in the past six months! On one of the coldest days this winter, my dad even trekked out into the cold to pick up a cup for me.
As soon as I arrived. I was greeted by Claudia who handed me a cup of hot chocolate to warm up. Their hot chocolate is only 130 calories, low fat, and made without preservatives, additives or corn syrup. The best part? It only costs 99 cents!
Guess who I spotted on the wall? Looks like Missy has been here!
Once Dori (whom I met a couple weeks ago after the NYRR 4M GridIron race) arrived, Claudia began the tour by explaining a little about the company. Many of The Lite Choice stores in New York are former Tasti D Lites. The president and CEO, Ron Greenstein, wanted to create a healthier alternative to other soft-serve companies that rely on artificial ingredients to keep their calories down. There are currently 30 locations, 16 of which in New York. They’re even opening a shop in Montreal!
They frequently participate in auctions and benefits, donating coupons and soft serve to raise money for the community. All of the corporate-owned stores use green cleaning products, and they’re hoping to incorporate biodegradable spoons and plastic bags into their business soon. Their goal? To become the “Greenest and Cleanest” company in New York.
It is also certified Kosher.
Each TLC store has 4-6 flavors readily available.
Most of the flavors have a Chocolate or French Vanilla base; see the nutritional information.
You can also have any flavor you want, any time! There are 70 readily available flavors, 51 of which are USDA-certified organic. 64 flavors are gluten-free, and they’re working on improving those last 6 flavors. The soft serve is sweetened with beet and cane sugars; no extra sugar is added. (You can find the nutritional information for each flavor online.)
First, you start with a soft-serve base.
Add your all-natural flavoring, which has pre-calibrated portions so you don’t get more than you bargained for.
Then it gets mixed up…
… and voila! Your flavor of choice, right at your finger tips. One of the flavors Dori and I tried was Chocolate-Covered Strawberry, created for Valentine’s Day. Hazelnut Fudge was also a big hit… almost like Nutella!
And unlike some “other” soft serve companies, The Lite Choice’s flavors actually taste like what you ordered, because it’s made up of those ingredients. Almond butter soft serve? Made from real almond butter! Chocolate-hazelnut fudge? Made from real (fat free!) fudge!
(The almond and peanut butters are for sale; the chocolate sauce is so addicting that there are customers who come in and order containers of it straight!)
You can order protein shakes made with whey protein powder.
I sampled a strawberry banana shake (my favorite flavor of smoothie)… so good! I wish I knew about these earlier.
Dori tried Cookies ‘n Cream, and couldn’t stop raving about it.
They also make B Vitamin shakes and Coffee Freezes. Claudia was pretty excited about the Coffee Freeze- she was sipping one when I arrived- and made one for us to try. It’s made with Kosher Colombian coffee, and tasted much better than a Frappuccino.
We also tried a hot fudge sundae with roasted peanuts and almonds. Yes, it was as good as it looks. Move over, Dairy Queen!
There are all kinds of toppings you can add to your treat, including Cinnamon Puffins! (This is delicious with the Almond Butter flavor.)
The Lite Choice sells a variety of snacks to go, including 10 flavors of soft serve bars.
They also make single-serving slices of cake (which I may have just eaten for dessert!), soft serve sandwiches, and gorgeous full-size cakes. I want to get one of these for my next birthday!
Become a fan on Facebook and follow The Lite Choice on Twitter for daily promo codes (free toppings, free bottles of water, upgrade a size, buy-one-get-one-free, etc.) and giveaways.
Thanks to Claudia and Ron for their generosity! I can’t wait to get back to The Lite Choice for another hit 
Have you been to The Lite Choice? What is your favorite flavor? Mine is Almond Butter!
Great recap!! Almond butter is such a great flavor, and so are cookies and cream shakes obviously
The cake was great, love those cookie crumbles. Wonder what they used for the icing? So good!
Glad you had a good tour! I need to try that shake and sundae! Thanks for showing my sign yay! The coffee freezes are heaven!
That looks like such fun!!
One of the first things I do when I go to Israel is track down a shop where I can get frozen yogurt / soft-serve, so this would be a dream come true for me… 
<3 <3
Ok seriously, Vancouver is way better than Montreal, we should have one of these!
I don’t even know what to commen on first because everything looks SO delicious. Hazelnut Fudge sounds like a winner in my book. I wish we had something like this in LA!
It’s so cool to get a tour like that- looks great! I’d be all over the almond butter with hot fudge… I thought The Lite Choice was the same as Tast-e Delite- were they taken over or is it a completely different company? I love that they create things exactly as you want and have so many options!
I was at that The Lite Choice as well yesterday adn really enjoyed the chocolate mint flavor. Claudia is so nice and the tour was super interesting:)
When I first read this I thought you were talking about Tastdilite (sp?) and I thought to myself, hmmm I wasn’t much of a fan when I tried it last time I went to New York, it was ok. Then when I read more I thought uhh I don’t remember the store being that cool, and then I realized it was entirely different! I’ll have to try TLC next time I’m in the city, especially the almond butter flavor. I’m impressed by how all natural it is!
jealous you guys have lite choice where you are!!! i want one down here in miami!!!
oh my gosh!! How awesome you got to take a tour there and try all that goodness!!! I have never been there, they dont have any where I live, maybe one day they will!! I would love to try their almond butter flavor with the fudge!! Oh my and the toppings, cinnamon puffins!!! That rocks!! Thanks for sharing your adventure there, and you are just to darn pretty girl!
Love ya! xoxo
I love butterfinger! oh my god, I am so beyond jealous. that looks like the funnest day ever! all hail TLC!
[...] also want to draw attention to Miss Katie’s amazing post on her phenomenal The Lite Choice tour. Not only was I drooling, but I had no idea that TLC [...]
AWESOME AWESOME! this looks like so much fun, and i am pretty sure i want one of everything on this page. this looks like a perfect weekend outing
This looks like so much fun! I love taking tours. I still remember taking a tour of the local Dunkin’ Donuts in preschool. The best part is definitely the free samples that you absolutely have to take advantage of!
Yumm–and nice sweater
lucky duck! i crave froyo, but there are no great places (that i’ve found thus far) in dc. lurve me some mochi.
Almond Butter is an option?! I want to go!!!
Holy wow! You are quite lucky! This seems like a worlds away from the tasti-delite days I remember! I’m so impressed!
[...] Lite Choice (to take Katie’s well written explanation), has 70 readily available flavors, 51 of which are USDA-certified [...]
[...] dinner, we walked next door for dessert at The Lite Choice. I used my punchcard from the tour to get us free cups! We each had almond butter; my dad and I [...]
I literally speed walked to TLC yesterday after I got out of work. It is SO good.
[...] stopped at The Lite Choice on the way home, which made my tum feel a lot better. I got a cup with half peanut butter, half [...]
[...] my walk home, I stopped by The Lite Choice for dessert. I remembered that they offer daily promotion codes on Twitter (I always forget), so while I stood [...]
[...] also went to The Lite Choice twice. I should really mix it up a bit, but I always end up getting the same thing! Almond butter [...]
Howdy there,Superb blog post dude! i am Tired of using RSS feeds and do you use twitter?so i can follow you there:D.
PS:Have you thought putting video to the blog to keep the visitors more enjoyed?I think it works.Kind regards, Tommy Henneberry
[...] and I wandered over to The Lite Choice for some dessert. I got a small cup of almond butter with Heath [...]