Benefits of Joining the International Frozen Yogurt Association

Fro-yo girl here. Frozen yogurt fans, shop operators, and frozen yogurt suppliers I know there are millions of you out there. Come join the International Frozen Yogurt Association and let’s build a true frozen yogurt community together. With your free registration, you can meet other frozen yogurt fans and trade members, chat about frozen yogurt, keep up with frozen yogurt news and trends, and post free frozen yogurt classified ads. You can buy/sell/trade anything frozen yogurt related.

We’ve assembled an impressive team of frozen yogurt industry experts who are on hand to provide their advice and answer your questions.

IFYA's Swirl of Honor, the first quality seal program specifically for frozen yogurt shops, recognizes shops for their commitment to quality. The IFYA believes in quality frozen yogurt, superior customer service, store cleanliness and environmentally friendly business practices. Frozen yogurt shops are rated on a scale of one to three Swirls.

Benefits for frozen yogurt fans:

• Chat with other frozen yogurt fans
• Buy/sell/trade items with other frozen yogurt fans
• Learn more about frozen yogurt information (e.g., FAQs, glossary of terms)
• Find quality frozen yogurt shops (Swirl of Honor members)

Benefits for frozen yogurt trade members:

• Chat with others in the frozen yogurt industry
• Receive recognition for your shop’s commitment to excellence with the Swirl of Honor program
• Keep up with frozen yogurt industry news and trends
• Find frozen yogurt information (e.g., training programs, helpful links) or ask our IFYA expert
• Buy/sell/trade frozen yogurt items to frozen yogurt shops

The IFYA is working on adding new features and running some exciting frozen yogurt promotions. The association is for you frozen yogurt fans and trade members, so we want to hear from you often. For additional information, visit the IFYA website.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Last Day for Harmony Frozen Yogurt

Fro-yo girl here. Today is the final day of business for Harmony Frozen Yogurt. All items will be 50% off on the last day, while supplies last and the doors will close at 9 PM. 

I was happy that they still had natural tart. They didn't have as many toppings as usual. 

Fro-yo flavors of the day:
* Natural
* Raspberry
* Banana
* Mango

Here are some pictures from the last day, including my last cup of Harmony Frozen Yogurt, which I shared with Teddy and his dad.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* HARMONY FROZEN YOGURT: 852 Laurel St., San Carlos, CA 94070

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Harmony Frozen Yogurt, Thanks for the Memories and Froyo

Fro-yo girl here. I have some sad news, frozen yogurt fans. Harmony Frozen Yogurt is closing for good on Wednesday, 8/28. All items will be 50% off on the last day, while supplies last and the doors will close at 9 PM. 

Harmony was one of the earliest tart frozen yogurt shops in the Bay Area and the first to offer organic frozen yogurt. The first location opened in downtown San Carlos in mid 2007. I have many fond memories of that original location. I loved dropping by on the way home from work for a medium cup of their natural flavor with fresh fruit. Their frozen yogurt was (and still is for a few days) organic. The natural flavor, made with Straus organic yogurt, had an exceptionally clean, natural taste. Their toppings were healthier than most places and they were an eco-friendly green business.

They moved to a larger spot in downtown San Carlos, taking over the old Red Mango location, and they offered more flavors of frozen yogurt, plus they added Straus organic ice cream, soft serve ice cream, smoothies and yogurt parfaits.

Harmony, you will be missed.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* HARMONY FROZEN YOGURT: 852 Laurel St., San Carlos, CA 94070

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Road Runner Spoons Up Close

Fro-yo girl here. My frozen yogurt spoon collection keeps getting bigger. Thanks Yogurtland! Road Runner looks so happy on his spoon. 

Remember the Looney Tunes character spoons are available for a limited time only, while supplies last, at Yogurtland. Try Road Runner’s favorite frozen yogurt, Cactus Berry Tart, while you’re there.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

New Road Runner Froyo Flavor, Topping, Cup & Spoon

Fro-yo girl here. Road Runner, the fastest bird on Earth, has arrived at Yogurtland. Starting today and for a limited time only, you can enjoy his favorite frozen yogurt, Cactus Berry Tart in a Road Runner cup with a blue Road Runner spoon. Plus Yogurtland has introduced a new Road Runner inspired topping, chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

Cactus Berry Tart "combines real cactus pear with Northwest Marion blackberries, blueberries, and red raspberries for a light tart taste guaranteed to cool down even the hottest day in the desert. Beep! Beep!” It’s a berry frozen yogurt flavor with the distinctive flavor of cactus pear (which tastes similar to watermelon). 

The chocolate covered sunflower seeds were very good, adding crunch and flavor. I was expecting the rainbow colored sunflower seeds but was pleased to see that the seeds were blue and light grey, like Road Runner.

I’m sure Wile E. Coyote is off licking his wounds somewhere. Poor guy. He can’t catch a break or even inspire a frozen yogurt flavor. Which frozen yogurt flavor do you think would be his favorite?

Next up: Tazmanian Devil’s Devil’s Food Cake on September 2. It’s the last of the “Flavors with Character” new flavors. Remember to keep scanning those QR codes to earn free frozen yogurt.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Epoca Cool Probiotic Ice Bars Review

Fro-yo girl here. During a recent trip to the Korean market, I spotted Epoca Cool Probiotic Ice Bars. Each box has 6 ice bars. Cool ice bars are available in three flavors: Peach, Original and Strawberry.

Epoca was founded by a Korean, Jun Lee, and manufactures flavored milk, probiotic beverages, cultured dairy drinks and smoothies in California. 

Cool ice bars were inspired by Korean kids who “liked to freeze a probiotic beverage in their home freezers and lick out the product.” The bars are made with the same formula as Epoca’s probiotic beverages and include live and active cultures. One bar is 90 calories and the main ingredients are: filtered water, high fructose corn syrup, cream, and nonfat dry milk.

I tried the Original flavor. The popsicle was firm and icy but not very hard/solid. The flavor is similar to Yakult but not as sweet as Yakult. I did like that it was refreshing and tangy but it was more sweet than tangy and somewhat bland. I found a box of Cool for $3.99 at Kukje.

3 out of 5 stars

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* KUKJE MARKET: 2350 Junipero Serra Blvd., Daly City, CA 94105

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Goodbye Jamba Juice Whirl’ns

Fro-yo girl here. I realized I hadn’t had a mix-in style frozen yogurt recently so I dropped by Jamba Juice to see what was new with their frozen yogurt line, Whirl’ns, powered by Yogen Fruz. Whirl’ns were made to order with fresh fruit and other ingredients including your choice of frozen yogurt base. My Jamba Juice location no longer offered Whirl’ns. I called a few other Jamba locations and learned that they’ve made the decision to quietly phase out Whirl’ns.

Whirl’ns was introduced Whirl’ns in Northern California in December 2010 and expanded to additional locations in 2011. They had a few seasonal flavors like Great Pumpkin and Wildly Watermelon.

Whirl’ns is still available at some locations but probably not for that much longer.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Yogurtland Tweety Spoons Up Close

Fro-yo girl here. You can never have too many pictures of cute frozen yogurt spoons and here are my new Tweety spoons up close. Remember the Looney Tunes character spoons are available for a limited time only, while supplies last, at Yogurtland. Don’t wait to get yours because they might run out and you’ll regret missing out. Many locations have already run out of Daffy Duck spoons.

Plus Tweety’s Lemon Cream Cookie is delicious. It matches the Tweety spoon perfectly.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Traders Point Creamery Whole Milk Yogurt Review

Fro-yo girl here. I've been wanting to try Traders Point Creamery yogurt for quite some time but it only came in a large size. I was interested in it because it's European style, organic and the milk comes from grassfed cows. Traders Point Creamery is located in Indiana.

I spotted the new single serve size glass bottles of whole milk yogurt at Whole Foods. A jar was $2.19. The glass jar was so cute that I had to try it. The single serve jar holds 5 ounces of whole milk yogurt that's minimally processed and has no stabilizers. They claim that their yogurt is higher in Omega-3s, cancer-fighting CLAs and probiotics than other snack size yogurts. 

* Plain yogurt: It's European style and much thinner than Greek yogurt. The thinness reminded me of a yogurt drink only clumpier. The ingredients are very simple: milk and live and active cultures. The flavor was quite sour, tart and slightly cheesy. It's strong stuff. I like a thicker consistency. One serving has 90 calories and 5 grams of fat.

The single serve yogurt comes in five flavors: Plain, Vanilla, Raspberry, Wildberry and Banana Mango.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* WHOLE FOODS: 331 N Glendale Blvd., Glendale, CA

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Tweety Flies into Yogurtland

Fro-yo girl here. The new “Flavors with Character” frozen yogurt flavor that I was most excited about arrived at Yogurtland stores today: Lemon Cream Cookie. It’s made with real cookies and lemon. Yogurtland is tops when it comes to cookie flavored frozen yogurt. 

Tweety Bird is the inspiration for the newest Yogurtland frozen yogurt flavor, topping, cup and spoon. Here’s the Tweety cup, lemon cream cookie frozen yogurt, Tweety spoon, and crushed lemon cream cookies. I thought that crushed lemon cream cookies would be offered as a topping but I didn’t see any in the toppings bar. The Yogurtland employee was nice enough to bring some cookies from the back.

The Lemon Cream Cookie frozen yogurt tastes pretty much as you’d expect - that is, like the lemon cream cookies that they add to the frozen yogurt. The flavor is not tangy but very sweet, like lemon cream cookie filling, not lemon juice. The texture is smooth and creamy. If you like lemon cream cookies, you will love lemon cream cookie frozen yogurt.

Remember to scan the QSR code. Collect 4 codes and get 4 free ounces of fro-yo, 6 codes gets you 6 ounces of free fro-yo. As Lemon Cream Cookie was the fourth new flavor of the Flavors with Character promotion, I just earned 4 free ounces of fro-yo. Yay!

Next up: Road Runner’s Cactus Berry Tart on August 19

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

New Fro-yo Toppings: Pop Rocks, Jubes nata de coco

Fro-yo girl. I’m constantly trying new fro-yo toppings at home. I remember Yogurt Haven was the first place I knew that offered strawberry pop rocks as a topping. Yogurtland just started selling packets of Green Apple Pop Rocks to go with Marvin the Martian’s Kosmic Fruit Kaboom Sorbet.

What happens with Pop Rocks meet frozen yogurt? I gave it a try. It’s definitely an interesting experience. The Pop Rocks start popping and fizzing the moment they come in contact with the fro-yo and the action continues for a long time.

I’ve tried nata de coco on fro-yo at a few fro-yo shops (not many carry nata de coco) and liked it, so when I saw Jubes flavored nata de coco at Pacific Supermarket, I wanted to try it. I tried the mango flavor which I really liked though the mango flavor is very, very faint. A pouch (360g) was 99 cents. Nata de coco is a refreshing, firm, chewy jelly (in small cubes) produced by fermenting coconut water.

Ingredients: nata de coco, water, sugar, mango, citric acid, honey

Jubes nata de coco is available in the following flavors: lychee, mango, strawberry, pandan, original, grape and can be purchased online from Asian Grocer.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

* PACIFIC SUPERMARKET: 1015 El Camino Real, South San Francisco, CA

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.