While frozen yogurt seems ubiquitous today, it is only some 50+ years old. The first brand, Frogurt, was invented as soft-serve in the early 1970s (often cited as 1970) by the H. P. Hood Company of Lynnfield, Massachusetts.
It was developed to meet a request from Bloomingdale’s department stores for a healthier, low-fat alternative to ice cream, to serve at their in-store Forty Carrots cafés. It established the foundation for the modern frozen yogurt industry.
Although some stories cite an “accident” that created frozen yogurt, it is not true. It was calculated product development to create a health-conscious dessert. It esssentially created the frozen yogurt category (today worth $6.49 billion and growing a 6.02% annually).
The name is a portmanteau of “frozen yogurt” that became so catchy that it’s still used today as a nickname for the frozen yogurt (although the trademark is held by H. P. Hood).
No doubt inspired by Frogurt, Brigham’s, a Boston-based ice cream and sandwich shop chain, introduced the first packaged frozen yogurt around 1978. It was called Humphreez (both the beloved chain and the yogurt brand are long gone).
Dannon Creates The Frozen Yogurt Pop
In 1979s, Dannon Yogurt introduced a packaged frozen yogurt on a stick, Danny. The first Danny product was dark chocolate-dipped raspberry yogurt. Other flavors and a soft-serve product followed. Danny became the first perishable frozen product to be distributed nationwide.
These early products were marketed as a healthy alternative to ice cream, but too many people didn’t care for the tartness, which deliberately emulated the then-standard flavor profile of cups of packaged yogurts. This led manufacturers to further sweeten the product and make it ice cream-like, such that few people could tell if they had been handed a dish of ice cream or frozen yogurt.
The 1970s and 1980s saw the establishment of national yogurt chains like Everything Yogurt (1976, New York), I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt (1977, Dallas), and TCBY (The Country’s Best Yogurt, Little Rock).
Supermarket sales took off in the 1980s thanks to these reformulations and the growth of the soft-serve chains, which made consumers want the convenience of frozen yogurt at home.
However, by this time the original tart frozen yogurt had evolved to suit America’s taste for sweetness, and much of the frozen yogurt could be mistaken for ice cream.
Ice cream has a base, of cream, while frozen yogurt uses cultured milk (yogurt) that’s fermented with lactic acid bacteria like Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, which gives yogurt its tangy or tart flavor.
Ice cream must contain at least 10% milk fat according to FDA regulations, and some can contain up to 25% milk! Full-fat frozen yogurt typically contains 3%-6% milk fat, while low-fat frozen yogurt contains 2%-4%.
While it may not taste sweeter, frozen yogurt often contains more sugar to balance out its naturally tangier taste from the cultured milk and its lower fat content. Read the label.
Frozen yogurt may contain live cultures (probiotics) that could offer digestive health benefits, which are not found in ice cream. But not all brands have live cultures. See the *footnote.
It’s important to note that ice cream is regulated by the FDA and must meet specific standards, while frozen yogurt has no federal regulations or minimum fat percentage requirements
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[6] You can use your nice bowls, but we find it easier to pre-scoop the yogurt into paper cups and take them from the freezer as needed (photo © Whiskware).
The Renaissance Of Tart Frozen Yogurt
As everything old is new again, Pinkberry established in California in 2005, and Red Mango, which followed in 2007, revived the tart soft-serve. A new generation of yogurt eaters has embraced the tartness.
The 2000’s also saw the founding of Menchie’s, Orange Leaf, sweetFrog, and Yogurtland.
16 Handles, founded in 2008, is a self-serve yogurt shop that offers 16 different flavors at a time—regular, reduced fat, no sugar added, and vegan free. All are delicious, but 15 of the 16 are in the softserve ice cream style of sweetness.
We prefer the 16th: original tart frozen yogurt.
What About The Frozen Yogurt Holidays?
In 1993, TCBY established National Frozen Yogurt Month, June; National Frozen Yogurt Week, the first week of June; and National Frozen Yogurt Day, the first Sunday in June.
So why did National Frozen Yogurt Day move to February 6th?
At some point an alternative National Frozen Yogurt Day appeared on February 6th—not exactly balmy weather to walk down the street with a cone or dish of frozen treat.
While it’s unclear exactly who established this February version, it became quite popular (so we’re speculating it was some venue in a warm part of the country).
The International Frozen Yogurt Association (established in 2013) chose the February 6th date as the more popular of the two to be National Frozen Yogurt Day (or perhaps they figured out that June had enough with National Yogurt Month and Week).
They also suggested renaming it International Frozen Yogurt Day. But in practice, most people and businesses in the U.S. still call National Frozen Yogurt Day.
[7] Or, make a frozen yogurt pie. This version is a hot fudge sundae in pie form. Here’s the recipe (photo © Taste Of Home).
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*Some frozen yogurt brands have live and active cultures, but there’s no regulation around how much bacteria must be present in frozen yogurt. There may not be enough in the final product to offer any health benefits if the product was heat-treated after fermentation (which can kill cultures), contains very low or non-viable counts by the time you eat it (storage time/freezing can reduce viability a.k.a. active bacteria), or is made with yogurt flavoring or yogurt powder rather than a truly cultured base.
Look for phrases like “live and active cultures,” “contains live cultures,” or a list of the strains such as L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium, and other bacteria. However, as noted, even if they are live in the final product, cold storage over time can kill them. Some products use a “Live & Active Cultures” type seal or statement, created in 1993 by The National Yogurt Association (NYA) and now managed by the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). It requires frozen yogurt to contain at least 10 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture, but again, that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be alive unless at the end of the “best buy” date.
If purchasing at a soft-serve frozen yogurt shop, ask if the frozen yogurt is made from cultured yogurt with live cultures, and if it heat-treated/pasteurized after culturing. You can also ask if they have an ingredient sheet or allergen/nutrition sheet that mentions live cultures, or look on the brand’s website.
Don’t rely on the designation “probiotic.”. It is not a regulated term and is used loosely. The more reliable indicator is a live cultures statement and/or listing the strains.
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