Loving Cup at La Boulangerie

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.