Blame Pinkberry, blame TCBY, but frozen yogurt is back in a big way.
I’m not sure what it is, but there are frozen yogurt shops popping up like bad winter hats around here. Freeziac has three locations (Mall of America, Eden Prairie and Plymouth) and Tutti Frutti has one (Maple Grove).
They’re self-serve operations, where you fill up a (ridiculously large) cup with yogurt, and then you get to top it with fruit, candy, cookies, fudge, etc. Both charge 45 cents an ounce, which sounds cheap, but if you overdo it on either the yogurt or the toppings, it’s easy to get that cup of fro-yo to cost $5 or $6.
Kids love choosing their own toppings, but on our visits to both of these places, we controlled the amount of yogurt, and the amount of toppings, and kept the price to around $2 a serving.
The flavors are pretty interesting, and if you love Frozen Yogurt, you’re going to find a lot to be impressed with. At Tutti Frutti this week, I really enjoyed the pomegranate frozen yogurt—bold and fruity. The red velvet tasted much better than the overrated cake flavor, and the pistachio was subtle and nutty.
Freeziac also has pomegranate, which is nice, but I also really like their peanut butter frozen yogurt.
Freeziac is a locally-owned and founded chain, while Tutti Frutti is owned by a 28-year-old, Kelly Gaspar. It’s a franchise of the national Tutti Frutti company, which has its roots in supplying frozen yogurt flavors. They make their frozen yogurt in-house every day, so they are able to control the intensity and brightness of the flavor.
Tutti Frutti has all sorts of signage talking about probiotics and the health benefits of frozen yogurt, which I’m certain are negated when you coat them with hot fudge and Butterfinger crumbles, so I’m not sure I’d consider this a healthy choice.
But it’s a fun one. And a delicious one! In California and Florida there are frozen yogurt shops all over the place, so we’ll see if it’s a trend that catches on in Minnesota.
Tutti Frutti
7781 Main St. N., Maple Grove
Freeziac
375 North Mall of America, Bloomington
16532 West 78th St., Eden Prairie
4105 Vinewood Lane North, Plymouth
