Fro-yo girl here. Once in a blue moon, I’ll encounter a froyo shop with an owner who really cares about providing the best froyo and the best froyo shop experience. And I found that in the small town of Snohomish, about 60 miles north of Seattle.
Top It Yogurt Shoppe opened in 2013. The current owner, Ken, took over Top It about 1.5 years ago and transformed it into a shop that reflects his commitment to serving the best froyo and toppings in a unique, friendly environment.
The froyo is made with a liquid mix served from the best soft serve machines (Electro Freeze & Carpigiani). The texture is superior, so the froyo tastes better too. It’s self-serve with 12 flavors a day. Each flavor label lists whether the flavor is gluten-free, sugar-free, lowfat, contains nuts, contains egg, etc. And each label also had a Titanic fact.
He switched to flat rate pricing, because he knows what it’s like when you take your kids to a self-serve froyo shop and they load up their cups.
Prices: Small ($5)/ Medium ($7.50)/ Large ($9). It’s self-serve but flat rate. There’s a smaller cup available, if you ask for it.
He wanted to serve products that he felt good about and when he looked at the ingredients in some common froyo toppings, he decided to make his own toppings. Over half the toppings and sauces, including the sprinkles, cookies, crumble, cookie dough, cheesecake, brownies, brownie batter, mochi, granola, etc. are made in-house. Almost everything is vegan. The only dairy product used is milk. Other toppings include fresh fruit, nuts, candies, chocolate-covered nuts, chocolate chips, pb chips, cereal, honey, etc. I haven’t seen so many homemade toppings at a froyo shop in many years.
Ken cares about the environment, so the shop is carbon neutral, composting and recycling most of the waste, and offering reusable bowls and spoons. Organic ingredients are used when available.
And Ken wants to make the shop a true experience, so he’s decorated it with various themes. The current theme is Titanic and the shop is currently a mini-Titanic museum (you have to see it to appreciate it). There are replicas of the stained glass windows of the Titanic and the side of the Titanic, photos of the Titanic, artifacts from the Titanic, books on the Titanic, and more. He even posted elaborate daily summaries of the final voyage of the Titanic. And he made toppings inspired by what was served on the Titanic.
Ken greeted everyone who entered the shop, and he was the one who dispensed the samples.
The shop has the charm of an older building (it’s in Historic Downtown Snohomish) and is a few steps from the Snohomish River. If you provide your phone number, you’ll get 5% off on subsequent visits. It’s a true gem of a froyo shop that you should visit if you’re in the area. It has to be the best froyo shop in the Seattle area right now.
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
* TOP IT YOGURT SHOPPE, 801 1st St, Unit 203, Snohomish, WA 98290
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. With froyo shops closing or switching to takeout or delivery only in light of the current global pandemic, it’s a good time to stock up on froyo. By next week, most if not all froyo shops may be closed.
Some shops offer pre-packed pints and quarts at a discount and those are great, but if you could pack your own pint, you may wonder whether you should add toppings or not.
The answer is it depends on the topping. Some toppings freeze well and I like adding them to my froyo because they break up the monotony of a big quart or pint of froyo.
Toppings that freeze well include nuts (they don’t really change when they are frozen), mochi, coconut, sprinkles, sauces, cookies, brownies, cake, cereal, chocolate chips, chocolate shell and chocolate candies. Cookies, granola, and cereal may soften when they’re frozen under a pile of froyo, but they still taste great.
Toppings that don’t freeze well include fruit (too much water, they become really hard), gummy candy, whipped cream, and malt balls. For some reason, the malt balls become quite hard. I haven’t tried freezing popping boba, but they’re filled with water, so I imagine they’d become pretty hard.
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. Froyo shops have good toppings but if you’re eating froyo at home, you can get even better toppings. Better yet, these toppings are widely available.
If I had to pick one store to buy toppings from, I’d choose Trader Joe’s. The toppings choices there are overwhelming, including biscotti, Joe Joe’s, gummy candies, peanut butter cups, peanut butter filled pretzels, chocolate chips, toffee chips, cinnamon graham crackers, meringues, macarons, cake, cheesecake, cupcakes, chia seeds, fruit, yogurt pretzels, dried fruit, honey, olive oil, etc.
My second choice would be Sprouts, because they have those bulk bins with many kinds of granola, candy (jelly beans, gummy candies, chocolate covered things, peanut butter cups, sesame sticks), yogurt pretzels, nuts, and seeds, not to mention a wide variety of fresh fruit, natural cereal, granola, honey, chocolate, dessert sauces, cones, etc.
If I had to pick my favorite toppings for home consumption, I’d choose the following:
- Marcona almonds: These Spanish almonds are better than the California almond and rarely spotted at froyo shops. Almonds go with every flavor of frozen yogurt, soft serve, or sorbet. Love the crunch and flavor that they add.
- Nature’s Path Organic Love Crunch Dark Chocolate & Peanut Butter Granola: I’ve tried many brands of granola and many of them are too sweet. Nature’s Path Love Crunch dark chocolate and peanut butter granola is addictive, with big crunchy clusters, dark chocolate pieces, roasted peanuts and peanut butter granola. And it has less sugar than most granola on the market. I’ve seen it at Sprouts and Target.
- Chocolate shell: I tried Hershey’s Shell and Smucker’s Magic Shell and Hershey’s chocolate shell was better! It was thinner, crispier, less sweet, and had more chocolate flavor. I like the crunch of the shell because it doesn’t mask the yogurt flavor as much as a sauce.
- Peanut butter chips: I haven’t met a brand of peanut butter chips that I don’t like.
- Nutter Butter cookies: Sensing a theme? Love peanut butter and Nutter Butter is crispy and creamy.
- Belgian butter waffle cookies from Trader Joe’s: They look like mini waffles but they’re thin, crisp, and buttery. So good!
- Speculoos cookies from Trader Joe’s: These crispy cookies have a wonderful blend of warm spices.
- SMASHMALLOW: These flavored, non-GMO marshmallows are so much better than typical marshmallows. They’re firm and chewy and come in flavors like Cinnamon Churro, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Coconut Pineapple. I’ve seen SMASHMALLOW at Target and Whole Foods.
- Peanut M&M's: I just like peanut butter. Peanut M&Ms have bits of peanut and chocolate in a crunchy shell.
- Chocolate covered honeycomb and malt balls: Find both in the bulk bins at Sprouts. Both combine crunch with chocolate.
I left a few toppings off the list because they’re not as easy to get. But if you can find mochi, get the Korean kind. You’d probably have to go to an Asian market to find some. Turkish delight is similar and also lovely as a froyo topping. It’s also not that easy to find though, unless you live by a Middle Eastern market. And if you’re at the Middle Eastern market, be sure to pick up some baklava for your plain tart 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.
