I Am Bismark

so i guess frozen yogurt became the hip thing to eat in california, etc awhile ago and it hit here in provo sometime towards the middle of 2008. when i got back from my internship in august, there were at least 3 new stores opened up within about a mile of each other. usually i pay no attention to such things as pudding on the rice is really all i need to be happy, but mariam wanted to try something new. of course i wasn’t going to just let us go eat some crappy frozen yogurt, i wanted the best in town. with a serious lacking of yelpers in provo, i decided i would find out which was the best. thus was born the provo frozen yogurt smackdown of 2009.

i present to you the contenders.

so here is how it worked: at first we were going to just do the dedicated frozen yogurt shops: provo fro-yo, yoasis, yozone, and spoon me. but then we decided for a better sampling that we would try some stores that focus more on ice cream but also have frozen yogurt: byu creamery, sub zero, baskin robbins, and hogi yogi. for this to have been a really scientific experiment, we should have gotten the same flavor at every store, but who really wants to eat 8 different plain frozen yogurts? so we just got what sounded good at each store. we brought them all back to mariam’s apartment and the competition began.

mariam had difficulty remaining objective.

i will present the results as a short paragraph about each frozen yogurt, and at the end i will present our final rankings.

non-frozen yogurt stores:

baskin robbins:

obviously known for its ice cream. when i ordered a singe scoop sundae with frozen yogurt, the girl looked at me all confused and i had to show her the frozen yogurt way off in the far corner. i got it with hot fudge, cherries, and whipped cream. this frozen yogurt was probably the most ice cream-like of the bunch and had quite a smooth texture. both of us liked it.

byu creamery:

also definitely known for its ice cream. the line was freaking long here, apparently its the cool place to go for dates? we ordered the key lime frozen yogurt with pineapple, but for some reason the girl gave us coconut. it was definitely a unique flavor, and it reminded me of sherbet.

hogi yogi:

they make decent sandwiches, and apparently the do frozen yogurt as well. mariam went here so i can’t give any details on the in store experience. she got chocolate with oreos mixed in. it wasn’t as ice cream like as the baskin robbins, and i thought the chocolate tasted kind of funky.

sub zero ice cream:

this is the place with the gimmicky making the ice cream with liquid nitrogen thing. i guess mariam lived here last summer. she had a full punchcard that got us a free ice cream of any size. so not wanting to pass up the opportunity, we got the large. which apparently is enough to feed a polygamous family. we got malt fudge chocolate with brownie mixed in. it was definitely a better chocolate than hogi yogi’s, but i recommend sticking to their custard.

me contemplating on the virtues of a smooth frozen yogurt.

frozen yogurt stores:

provo fro-yo:

this is the only frozen yogurt store that was around before last year. they claim on the outside of their store to have the best frozen yogurt in provo, which made me quite surprised to find out that they blatantly use dreyer’s frozen yogurt. we go blueberry tart with granola, and honestly it tasted like crap.

spoon me:

this place is definitely the most “hip” of all the frozen yogurt stores. it was full of pretty people and hipsters, with funky looking chairs and pulsing music. and the price was definitely built in: $4.50 for a small. we got the açaí with kiwi, strawberries, and nilla cookies. the yogurt tasted quite excellent, though it was definitely one of the least creamy of the bunch.

yoasis:

it took over where a donut shop used to be, which is quite a shame if you ask me. once again mariam went here so i can’t comment on the store itself. we got plain yogurt with mango and blueberry. it was a little creamier than spoon me, and the fruit was nice and fresh. overall a pretty good frozen yogurt.

yozone:

this is one of the sell by weight frozen yogurt shops kind of like a place called big spoon i used to go to a lot in sacramento. i liked the atmosphere, not as pretentious feeling as spoon me. we got new york cheesecake with strawberries and cheesecake hunks. it was excellent tasting.

overall results (lower is better):

so, yes, if you are looking for good frozen yogurt, i recommend yozone. lots of choices, a cool atmosphere, good prices, and good yogurt. but its still not the best dessert in provo.

mariam in heaven.