2013 Year End Bay Area Fro-yo Wrap Up

Fro-yo girl here. Goodbye 2013...it’s that time to look back at the year that was in the Bay Area.

Bay Area closings: Yogorino (both locations in SF), YoCup (both SF locations), Yogurt Circle, Yoppi Yogurt Palo Alto, Yogen Fruz Novato, U Love Yogurt, Tuttimelon Burlingame, Tutti Frutti Berkeley, Tutti Frutti Oakland Chinatown, Sweet Sundays, Harmony Frozen Yogurt, Blush SF

Yogorino is no longer available in the Bay Area...or on the West Coast. Very sad. Harmony Frozen Yogurt was one of the first tart froyo shops in the Bay Area. YoCup was also an early Bay Area tart froyo shop but the quality was significantly worse after it was sold to new owners. Fortunately, Blush still has other locations. 

Tutti Frutti Berkeley and Yoppi Yogurt Palo Alto's locations weren't open long. Tutti Frutti was replaced by Honeyberry which has the worst froyo. 

Bay Area openings: Yogurtland Fremont, Yogurtland Pinole, Yumi Yogurt Hillsdale Mall, Tutti Frutti Montclair Village, Swifty Sweets, Red Mango Palo Alto, Pizza Bello, Pinkberry Walnut Creek, Menchie’s Berkeley, Menchie’s Fremont, Mega Walgreens SF, La Luna Cupcakes, Coffee Cultures, Almaden Yogurt Factory  

Scoop Microcreamery in Palo Alto opened this year and offered froyo made with liquid nitrogen for about a month but they stopped offering froyo. Back in October, Tuttimelon Burlingame changed from selling froyo to selling liquid nitrogen ice cream as Cryo Cream (the ownership is the same...Tuttimelon has been selling liquid nitrogen ice cream in Hong Kong for months), Honeyberry keeps opening new locations - some have froyo and some don’t. Swifty Sweets launched in April and is the Bay Area’s only froyo truck.

I had some memorable cups of froyo outside the Bay Area in 2013. If you're in NYC, be sure to check out Culture: An American Yogurt Company which has locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. They make their fresh and frozen yogurt in house. Go Greek Yogurt in Beverly Hills flies in super thick authentic Greek yogurt from Greece. They offer fresh and frozen yogurt. I had my first froyo taco at A Tea Yogurt in downtown Alhambra, CA.

Check out IFYA's post on key events in the froyo industry in 2013. 

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.

2011 the Fro-yo Year in Review

Fro-yo girl here. As 2011 draws to a close, it’s time to look back at fro-yo events and trends and check out which of my fro-yo wishes came true.

Salty, sweet fro-yo flavors gain favor. This was the year when fro-yo flavors ventured into the land of salty and sweet, with peanut butter and jelly, salted caramel and maple bacon donut.

Fro-yo on the move. The rise of mobile fro-yo trucks was a major trend in 2011, with NYC and Chicago leading the way.

Fro-yo prices rise. The fro-yo price wars of 2009-2010 have ended and even Yogurtland raised its prices to 33 cents and up from 30 cents an ounce. Prices have gone up at many fro-yo shops.

Fro-yo bubble bursts in the Bay Area. Fewer fro-yo shops are opening as the number of closures rises. It’s always sad to see a fro-yo shop close but the ones that I will truly miss are Jubili (the first place I tried tart fro-yo) in SF, Yogurt Harmony in Berkeley, Tartini in Cupertino, and Fro-ggie in Fremont, CA.

Notable fro-yo openings in the Bay Area. Two locations of the Italian fro-yo chain, Yogorino, brought a richer style of fro-yo to SF. Jamba Juice’s Whirln’s fro-yo reached the Bay Area.

My fro-yo wishes mostly came true. I did get more signature fro-yo spoons. Yogurtland came out with Sanrio yogurt spoons. We did get a mobile fro-yo truck in the Bay Area though it was non-dairy. I did have a Greek fro-yo. However, I didn’t have any macarons with fro-yo.

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