Fro-yo girl here. I was recently in the Toronto area looking for froyo. Unfortunately, I just missed the Pinkberry Toronto opening; the first Pinkberry Toronto location opened at Sherway Gardens on September 22, 2015. Driving around I noticed quite a few Menchie’s locations, including one across the street from my hotel. These Menchie’s locations offered more than self-serve froyo; one sold hot dogs, another smoothies, and several had froyo cakes.
I was expecting to see more Yogurty’s, Yogen Fruz and Tutti Frutti locations – but they’re in the Downtown Core area that I didn’t visit.
I wanted to try deKEFIR, Ci Gusta! and the Red Bench. Unfortunately, deKEFIR, a kefir shop, isn’t open on weekends or evenings.
Ci Gusta! ,a chain from Italy, opened its first location in Canada in March 2013 (it recently closed). Their location in Toronto is closed. Ci Gusta does not have any locations in the US and I looked forward to having Italian style frozen yogurt. The Italian style café offers gelato (scoopable and soft serve), frozen yogurt, crepes, flat bread (piadina), Italian desserts, and coffee. I visited the Markham location (60 N Main St., Markham) which had self-serve froyo a year ago but stopped carrying it a year ago. The soft serve machines are now filled with soft serve gelato. Very disappointing!
Fortunately, the Red Bench (611 Yonge St., Toronto) was open late on a weekend. The shop is eco-friendly, cozy and inviting ; it smells like cookies because they also make customizable cookies. Customers can pick their dough and mix-ins and the cookies are baked on the spot. Their homemade organic frozen yogurt is sold by weight, 63 cents an ounce. There are six rotating flavors. During my visit none were tart flavors. The taro flavor was weak (not strong enough) and the vanilla had an unpleasant slightly bitter aftertaste. The texture was too loose and icy.
Even the Mapleton’s Organic frozen yogurt that I purchased from the Whole Foods in Markham was disappointing. Oh Toronto…why did you disappoint me so?
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.
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