Frozen yoghurt is steadily taking over Melbourne, with yoghurt bars popping up in practically every suburb to satisfy the health conscious with a sweet tooth. However, the undisputed fro-yo king of our fair city is the self-service dynasty Yo-Chi, which opened its second store just last weekend, on Friday 13 December.
After 12 months of overwhelming success on Carlisle Street in Balaclava, Yo-Chi is getting the inner Melbourne treatment at its new home in Carlton with a bigger store, more options and, very soon, a smoothie bar.
For those unfamiliar with the sweet sensation, Yo-Chi is a self-service bar where customers first select a soft serve style yoghurt – with flavours including mixed berry, banana soybean, hazelnut, salted caramel and, my favourite, signature tart – and then the toppings. This is where the heart of the store is, as there is a seemingly endless amount of options to drizzle over or stir through your yoghurt base. Be healthy and choose from a selection of fresh fruits cut daily, seeds and a homemade crumble, embrace your sweet tooth with oreos, chocolates and Reese’s pieces, or just go nuts and have them all, topped off with any number of syrups, sauces and compotes. When you’re finished, just head to the register, where the extremely friendly and efficient staff will weigh your bounty, and charge you accordingly at $2.90 per 100g. Myki could learn a lot here.
While we’re all wise enough now to hold the frozen yoghurt motto of being the healthy option with a touch of scepticism (what do you think all that missing fat is replaced with? Air? It’s sugar, sweetheart), they are of course much better for your waist line then the in demand treats of days gone by, like the ice cream and the muffin. However, Yo-Chi goes one step further to be better for the environment too, by using biodegradable cutlery and napkins made from recycled paper. Everybody wins here.
So get down to Carlton now and sample the yoghurt revolution before the store gets as insanely busy as its Balaclava counterpart. And as of Wednesday night, the staff were still trawling the streets and the store with free samples in celebration, so the sooner you get down there, the better you’ll feel.
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