HOW hot it is! Today I felt like my brain was becoming sisig while I'm still alive. I literally had a visual of slicing the top part of my head (think Kill Bill) and someone eating off it.

Anyway, this weather makes you crave something cold fast and it is just so timely that yogurt shops have popped up everywhere!

Where's the best yogurt? Only your own tongue can tell. But here's a bit of a guide:

Lulu Belle at the Powerplant Mall in Rockwell and Serendra:

Lulu Belle easily catches the eye because of the shop?s visual appeal. How can you resist cows against a pink background? Such a flirty cow they have, too. In the same way that Sonja's Cupcakes made us fall in love with cupcakes because of that quaint Martha's Vineyard feel of a store in terms of being eye candy, Lulu Belle had us at hello. The price range for their yogurt is from P80 for "natural" yogurt to P100 for the flavored kind.

While the cutesy cow print makes you moo for yogurt, the selection is, however, as yet quite limited. Flavors available are strawberry, mango and green tea, and the toppings are your usual selection of cereal, nuts and chocolate. For those who are keen to pair their yogurt with chocolate liquid, you will have to make do with chopped chocolate bars. However, Chocnut lovers are in for a treat! Now you can have that "hiyang" flavor of Chocnut in your yogurt too, thanks to Lulu Belle!

Golden Spoon at Paseo de Magallanes and Shangri-la Plaza.

This yogurt place seeks to make its mark by positioning itself as "The Ice Cream Lovers' Yogurt." I guess they are trying to target the millions who kid themselves into thinking that they?d lose weight just as fast if they skip ice cream but not frozen yogurt. However, to their credit, all blends at this yogurt shop are indeed very creamy and just like ice cream! You can almost mistake it for the real thing. Meaning there is no hint of sourness that is typical of yogurt. The downside of this though is that somehow the sweetness of the yogurt drowns the flavors. Take the Cookies and Cream, which lacked the taste of cookies that you find in regular ice cream. The same thing can be said of the Peanut Butter and Cheesecake flavors. You will note the difference if you are quite ice cream-obsessed. I guess when you pretend to be something you're not, others who know you would sense that something is amiss!

Prices start at P85. Like Lulu Belle, this place also offers the usual toppings: cereal, nuts and chocolate. However, they also have candy sprinkles plus a selection of syrups and a bottle of raspberry dessert sauce on each table to add on if you please. They have a good selection of flavors too: ten flavors available at any given time, subject to change every once in a while.

Tutti Frutti at Glorietta 4.

This yogurt place stands out because of the interactive process that comes with celebrating their product: a self-service policy! You pour your own yogurt and put your own toppings. This is great fun because then you can mix and match all the flavors you want and prepare your cup to your own liking. It's clever on the part of those who created this brand because we non-suspecting customers end up paying more than we normally would for a cup of yogurt ? you just keep pouring out yogurt and piling on the toppings, creating a hefty cup without noticing it! For the yogurt lover, though, it would be worth it.

Prices here are measured by the ounce: P20/oz. Like at Dairy Queen, once you are done with your signature mix, the yogurt and topping/s will be weighed together. While they have the usual selection of dry toppings and syrups, Tutti Frutti boasts of a good selection of flavors. They have eight flavors available at any given time, mostly fruit flavors, which change every two weeks. Highly recommended is the lychee flavor, which is very defined! There are no fruit bits to add texture but you will be able to really appreciate the flavor of the fruit. The blueberry and green apple flavors are very tasty too.

YOH-GURT FROZ aka FroYo at Greenbelt 5.

FroYo was one of the first yogurt brands to open in Manila. The great thing about this brand (for me anyway) is that it's quite the purist. (I was never a fan of flavored yogurt.) It does not offer flavored yogurt, just your regular wonderful, ever so slightly sour natural yogurt. Here, there are the usual dry toppings but in addition, they offer mochi toppings too (Japanese sticky rice cake). They have all kinds of mochi: black mochi, pandan mochi, yellow mochi, ube mochi. However, our resident Samurai said that the mochi balls were subpar. (He raves over the mochi yogurt at Greenbelt's Red Mango). There are also questionable mixes, like the leche flan yogurt, which probably would appeal only to a (very small) niche market. The price here is at the P80 range.

White Hat in Greenbelt 5.

Like FroYo, White Hat offers just natural yogurt. This is the best brand if you want just plain yogurt. It is very elegantly made, with that hint of sourness that you look for in yogurt only coming out in the end. What can you expect, it's Italian! With such quality natural yogurt, it is best enjoyed without any toppings. This one's for the purists. Prices start at P85.

Red Mango at Greenbelt 3.

Red Mango is a hit among the Greenbelt-living, movie-going population. It's a distinct yogurt in that it is not too sweet nor too sour and quite creamy. They are also unique in that they offer a green tea flavor. They also offer a unique topping called dezato mochi balls. Our resident Samurai swears that the red mongo with dezato mochi balls is the best combination and I must say he got my family hooked on it too. I guess Red Mango has mastered the art of mixing mongo with mochi balls because this is a Korean brand and you know how amazing the Koreans are at mixing Asian ingredients. Prices here start at P85.

Ready for yogurt yet? ?