Fro-yo girl here. Loving Cup closed the original location in Russian Hill earlier this summer. No announcement was made, so I’m not sure exactly when it closed. The last reviews were written in June 2023. I hadn’t visited that location for many years since the other ones were more convenient.
Loving Cup opened 2356 Polk St. in late 2008, back when the tart froyo craze had taken over San Francisco. Loving Cup offered something different from other froyo shops because the froyo was mix-in style. Customers selected a size, a base (chocolate, vanilla or non-dairy), and mix-ins. The associate would hand churn everything together using a machine. They also sold rice pudding.
In late 2018, the owners of La Boulangerie acquired Loving Cup. As fans of Loving Cup, Pascal Rigo and Nicolas Bernadi hoped to open 100 locations in a few years. They also talked about adding Loving Cup to a few La Boulangerie locations.
As of September 2023, there are three Loving Cup locations, two in San Francisco (608 Divisadero St, 2201 Union St.) and one in Marin County. Apizza in San Francisco also serves Loving Cup. I haven’t heard anything about Loving Cup in La Boulangerie since 2018. Loving Cup has gone quiet as well. Their last Facebook post was in April 2020 and the last Instagram post in May 2021.
La Boulangerie has five remaining locations. The location in San Francisco's FiDi district that served Loving Cup has closed in 2020 or 2021.
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.
Fro-yo girl here. I finally made it to apizza, the new concept from the founder of La Boulangerie and new owner of Loving Cup. The idea is to make high quality pizza and froyo that’s fast, eco-friendly, and affordable. It’s not a new concept but apizza puts its own spin on it and offers Loving Cup froyo too. The toppings are more chef-driven and creative than say Blaze Pizza, Pieology and the build your own individual pizza competitors. There are fewer options though. You don’t build your own pizza but they have options that you can customize with an egg, potato stix, fried onions and coming soon, CBD oil. They use organic dough and organic tomato sauce.
I was surprised by how cheap the froyo was. It’s smaller than the serving you’d get at a full-fledged Loving Cup. There are fewer choices as well. Choose your base (nonfat vanilla, nonfat chocolate, non-dairy vanilla made with coconut milk) and pick a swirl (achocolate, my favorite, thinner mint, guilty-ish pleasure, all good). You can add a chocolate chip cookie, sprinkles or additional mix ins or toppings. The froyo is mixed to order.
* My favorite (vanilla froyo base mixed with Heath and peanut butter), $3.75. It was a good size portion for a snack or dessert – not too large and not too small. The froyo was very creamy but most of the flavor came from the mix-ins.
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* APIZZA: 2043 Fillmore St., San Francisco (Pacific Heights), CA 94115
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.
Fro-yo girl here. On November 28, the news broke that La Boulangerie’s owners had invested in San Francisco based Loving Cup, with the goal of franchising and opening 100 locations in the next few years. Loving Cup has opened a pop-up inside the Financial District’s La Boulangerie (222 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA) with more locations expected inside other La Boulangerie locations.
According to Loving Cup’s Facebook post,
“Loving Cup ❤️ La Boulangerie. So much so that we've decided to partner with them to bring you all the deliciousness of Loving Cup and the scrumptiousness of La Boulangerie under one roof! We're moving into a few of their existing locations and growing with them as we open new locations together. First up: FiDi!”
The November 28 announcement says,
“The La Boulangerie team is helping Loving Cup with menu items like a brownie option and a chocolate sea salt cookie that will be incorporated into the menu, as well as sold retail. Some of the sauces the shop makes will also be sold retail, (co-owner Liz) Fielder said.”
I’ve been going to Loving Cup since the days when they had just one location on Polk St. It’s different from other froyo shops because the froyo is mix in style and it’s not self-serve. You choose size, a base (chocolate, vanilla or non-dairy) and your mix-ins and they hand churn everything together using a machine. With mix-in style custom blended yogurt, you design your own flavor.
While a custom blended frozen yogurt can be tasty as it distributes the toppings so that there are toppings in every bite, it does change the flavor of the frozen yogurt (which can be good or bad). Sauces and candy are good mix ins. If you want a tangy yogurt, add berries. Some toppings don’t taste as good when they’re blended – for example, graham cracker crumbs become gritty when blended into the frozen yogurt, and mochi isn’t transformed, it just becomes smaller.
I visited the Loving Cup pop-up at Sutter St. La Boulangerie to see how it compared to the other four Loving Cup locations (it’s the first “mini” Loving Cup location). I’ve been to all the SF locations now but not the one in Marin. The Sutter St. pop-up is not that different from the other Loving Cup locations. You can get their rice puddings there and the yogurt offering is essentially the same (same prices, same mix ins, same bases as the Union St. location).
However, I did notice that the Sutter location had housemade brownies, green tea matcha latte froyo and pumpkin 5 spice froyo. I’m not sure if the other Loving Cup locations offer these new additions. The new flavors sound more sophisticated and complex, so I see them as a good sign of things to come.
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.
Fro-yo girl here. The old Pacific Puffs location on Union Street is the home of the fourth location of Loving Cup, the SF based rice pudding and hand churned froyo specialist. They opened on July 29, 2017. The new location is directly across the street from Michaelis Wine & Spirit, which also sells frozen yogurt. It’s interesting that years ago, Union Street Coffee Roastery had froyo too, so three of the four shops on the corner of Union and Fillmore had froyo at one point in time.
Each cup of froyo is hand churned to order with the customer’s choice of mix ins to create a truly custom flavor. First you choose the base (vanilla, chocolate or vegan) and pick your mix ins (fruit, candy, sauces, almond butter, peanut butter, cookies, Nutella, sprinkles, nuts, cookie dough) or opt for one of their preselected favorite combinations (e.g., Brian Boitano, Dirty Hipster, The Dude Abides). The frozen yogurt is all natural, probiotic and nonfat. It’s made with grassfed milk. The vegan base is made with bananas. The machine combines your frozen yogurt with your mix ins.
Prices: Small $4/ Medium $5/ Large $6/ Pint $8, add a cone or waffle bowl for $1.25. The first mix-in is free, extras are 75 cents each. The cones and bowls looked housemade.
The shop is cute and small with white tiles and benches by the window. It’s a to go/takeaway kind of place. They no longer have the paper loyalty cards but they still do have a loyalty program. Most people seem to go there for froyo, but they also have their rice puddings.
If you’re a flavorista, submit your favorite froyo flavor creation on Instagram, @lovingcupsf #MyLovingCup. A new winner will be chosen every month and every time someone orders your flavor from the Union Street location, you’ll get 50 cents.
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* LOVING CUP: 2201 Union St., San Francisco, CA 94123
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.
Fro-yo girl here. The old Pacific Puffs location on Union Street is the home of the fourth location of Loving Cup, the SF based rice pudding and hand churned froyo specialist. Each cup of froyo is hand churned to order with the customer’s choice of mix ins to create a truly custom flavor. The froyo comes out thick, rich and indulgent – though it’s still lowfat. They have non-dairy options too.
The doors open at noon on Saturday, July 29 and swirls are just $1 between 2 – 3 PM.
* LOVING CUP: 2201 Union St., San Francisco, CA 94123
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.
Fro-yo girl here. I recently noticed that Yogurtland Chino Hills, CA and West Covina, CA now offer Yogurtland Zoom. Zoom is a blended froyo product. You select the frozen yogurt flavor and the toppings and Yogurtland blends it together for you (similar to Dairy Queen’s Blizzard or McDonald’s McFlurry) using a machine.
I visited Yogurtland West Covina (1000 W Covina Pkwy). Zoom is priced by weight at the same price: 45 cents an ounce. There are taller Zoom cups, longer spoons, and signs with instructions and recipes.
I decided to mix Lucky Mint Crème froyo, Double Cookies & Cream froyo, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and Oreo cookies. I put everything in the cup (you don’t have to fill the cup) and handed it to the Yogurtland associate. The cup is placed into a blending machine and everything is mixed together. It doesn’t take long.
I liked what I blended together – the flavors were complementary. However, I noticed the add ins weren’t blended in well. The chocolate chips still seemed to be intact and there were big cookie chunks too. Other places do a better job blending the yogurt and toppings. The frozen yogurt comes out softer too. I like unblended frozen yogurt and toppings better.
Yogen Fruz is the leader in the mixed/blended froyo category. In Southern California, you can get custom blended frozen yogurt at Yogen Fruz in Tarzana, Humphrey Yogart in Sherman Oaks, 21 Choices in Pasadena and Claremont, and CDM Yogurt in Newport Beach (Orange County). You can also find custom blended frozen yogurt at Blush in Burlingame, CA, Tucker’s in Alameda, CA, Sweet Retreat in San Jose, CA, Oregon Frozen Yogurt in Oregon, WI, Angora Café in Boston and Loving Cup in San Francisco. Frozen Peaks, with locations in New Jersey and New York, offers FP Swirl, their custom blended frozen yogurt.
While a custom blended frozen yogurt can be tasty as it more evenly distributes the toppings so that there are toppings in every bite, it does change the flavor of the frozen yogurt (which can be good or bad). Some toppings don’t taste as good when they’re blended – for example, graham cracker crumbs become gritty when blended into the frozen yogurt, and mochi isn’t transformed, it just becomes smaller. The seeds get separated from the berry flesh. Cookies, candy and sauces make the best add ins. I’ve also noticed that on more than one occasion when a machine is used to blend the yogurt and toppings, sometimes the previous mix contaminates the next mix. The water flushing doesn’t remove all of the previous mix. The texture is also less smooth after toppings are blended in. Getting the right mix of frozen yogurt and toppings including the correct proportions can be tricky.
Here are some of my recipes:
- Fresh strawberry froyo + frosted animal cookies + sprinkles + white chocolate chips
- Sumatra coffee froyo + crushed Butterfingers + Oreos
- Peanut butter froyo + Nutter Butter bites + peanuts + chocolate chips
- Matcha green tea froyo + Plain tart froyo + Fruity Pebbles
- Coconut froyo + mango froyo + pineapple sorbet + coconut + fresh pineapple
Do you like custom blended frozen yogurt? Have you tried it? Would you be willing to try it?
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.
Fro-yo girl here. Loving Cup’s second location replaces the serene Asian tea room, Taste. Back in March the expected opening date was April 15. The interior is far from finished and the Loving Cup sign has yet to appear. Loving Cup 2 will offer rice pudding and hand churned frozen yogurt like the original location on Polk. The new location will also offer housemade ice cream and cookies.
Loving Cup is one of the few places you can get hand-churned mix in style frozen yogurt. You choose the base (vanilla or chocolate) and pick your mix ins (fruit, candy, almond butter, peanut butter, cookies, Nutella, sprinkles, nuts, cookie dough). The frozen yogurt is all natural, probiotic and nonfat. It’s churned to order. The machine combines your frozen yogurt with your mix ins.
* Vanilla frozen yogurt mixed with almond butter and crunchy granola: The froyo was extra thick, dense and creamy (thicker and denser than average). A small size was quite generous. The texture was the best part of the froyo. It felt satisfying and filling. The flavor was pleasant but the vanilla flavor was very mild and there wasn’t much almond butter flavor either.
I wonder if the new location will offer froyo pies?
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* LOVING CUP: 535 Octavia St., San Francisco, CA 94102
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.
