Seattle Froyo Update

 

Fro-yo girl here. About 12 years ago, I used to visit Seattle regularly, and I visited most of the froyo shops there. When I first started visiting, there were a few local shops like Crazy Cherry (inspired by Pinkberry), Utopia, Café Koi, and old-school Shy Giant at Pike Place Market. Boba shops in the U District like Citra started offering froyo. Cafes like Jewel Box Café and Sprout also started offering froyo.

I witnessed the rise of the self-serve froyo shops in Seattle, with the opening of multiple branches of Menchie’s and Yogurtland. Menchie’s was the first to open a self-serve shop in Seattle back in 2010. Yogurtland had six locations in Washington and they’ve all closed. Menchie’s has 21 locations in Washington, with two of these in Seattle proper.

Quite a few froyo shops have opened and closed since that time, including Zoeyogurt, Cool Whirled, Yeti Yogurt, Refresh, Red Mango, TCBY, Chill, Froyo Fresh, etc. Some froyo shops that closed were replaced by other froyo shops (e.g., Yogurtland became Refresh, Menchie’s University Village became Chill).

YoYo and CoCo opened in Wallingford in 2022. It was the first shop in the US that offered froyo cubes, a trend that started in China. It was open for a year. Interestingly, another yogurt cube shop opened in Bellevue in 2023. It’s called Lucky Cube.

Current Froyo Shops

• Menchie’s Queen Anne, 2101 Queen Anne Ave North
• Menchie’s Admiral, 2620 California Ave SW, Ste 400
• Shy Giant, 1500 Pike Pl #16, Seattle, WA 98101

Hellenika Cultured Creamery, 1920a Pike Pl, Seattle, WA 98101, offers gelato style scoopable cultured gelato, from the family that founded Ellenos. But they do not call their product froyo.

For a city with a population of 757,992 in 2024, that’s not many froyo shops. 

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.

Innovative Froyo (Cultured Gelato) Shop Spotlight: Hellenika Cultured Creamery in Seattle

Fro-yo girl here. I recently visited Seattle to check out Hellenika Cultured Creamery, which opened in Pike Place Market in July 2023. Hellenika Cultured Creamery was founded by three siblings, including one of the co-founders of Ellenos Yogurt.

Hellenika calls the cultured scoopable frozen dessert that they serve “cultured gelato”; it’s made with milk, cream, sugar, and cultures. The cultures that are used result in a product that is less tangy than traditional yogurt. The cultured gelato is made in gelato machines and served straight from the machine. There are twelve flavors offered at a time. Some flavors are made with products from other vendors at Pike Place Market.

The shop has a minimalist/laboratory look. It’s very white. Instead of a case of gelato, the counter has churning gelato. Each flavor is covered by a clear dome. The kitchen is visible from the retail area.

Flavors: London Fog, Matcha, Dutch Chocolate, Plain Greek, Bananas Foster, Yuzu, Ube Coconut, Honey Lavender, Miso Caramel, Mango, Lemon Curd, Marionberry. No vegan options. 

Ube coconut had bits of coconut. Plain Greek was mild with little tang. Lemon curd wasn’t sour but it had a bit more tang. Marionberry had some tang from the berries. The gelato is rich (it’s made with whole milk), so even a small size seems satisfying. I did miss the tang of yogurt. The gelato tasted more like cream than yogurt. The texture was sticky and softer than ice cream. I prefer the firmer texture of ice cream over gelato and the flavor of tangy froyo over both ice cream and gelato.

Prices: Walkaround ($6.50, add $0.75 for a split flavor), Medium ($8.50), Large ($12.50), Mezze ($16.50). They do not have any toppings or sauces.

Both Yogurtland and Menchie’s have offered cultured gelato in the past. Their cultured gelato didn’t taste like yogurt either.

Hellenika is located at Pike Place Market, near Piroshky Piroshky and the first Starbucks.

* HELLENIKA CULTURED CREAMERY: 1920a Pike Pl, Seattle, WA 98101

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.