JOIN USA new addition to the sweet-treats family has become the talk of the food town lately. The member named frozen yoghurt, which can safely be termed the black sheep of the lot, has given consumers a shot at experiencing the best of both worlds when it comes to dessert-binging: low calorie content and yummy goodness.
Fro-yo is a delight to devour, and one could either adorn it with fruity toppings, chocolate shavings, jujubes, dry fruits, or have it plain. However, for a city as food-friendly as Bangalore, stores offering this sin-free relish are either shutting down or are too few in number. Metrolife finds out why.
Most Bangaloreans seem to prefer good old ice-cream or gelato over this frozen treat. “Fro-yo is not bad but I like ice-cream because it’s more tasty in my opinion,” says Akanksha, who works at Mother Earth.
“I would definitely say ice-cream’s better because it’s so much more creamy,” adds Madhushree, a grade 10 student of Sophia High School.
“The flavour and texture of gelatos is better than the sour, gooey feel of frozen yoghurt,” notes Sumanth Krishna, an architecture student in BMS College.
Some, however, have taken to the fro-yo craze. “I love fro-yo; it’s so much healthier and yummy,” says Nisha, an advocate. “I like fro-yo because I love yoghurt itself. So there’s no competition when it comes to a choice between that and ice-cream or even gelato,” says Joann, a law student of CMR Law School.
Ask them where they get their fro-yo from and most faces twist in confusion, either because most stores have shut down or don’t sell it anymore.
Farhanya, Farnoosh and Nasrin, Iranians who are studying in Jain University, simply had to curb their cravings. “We are not from here and we didn’t even find any frozen yoghurt places. There’s lots of yoghurt but not fro-yo. So we just didn’t have any since we got here,” they say.
“I just have to stick to the supermarket yoghurt because no places here sell any,” adds Rishika, a student of Christ University.
Several theories have been charted out by Bangaloreans as to why there’s such a dearth of fro-yo in Bangalore. “I think that people are not aware of the concept of fro-yo itself, so they just don’t have any.
Because they don’t have any, no stores survive here,” says Aziz, a psychology student at Christ University.
True to this statement, Amorette, a student of Mount Carmel College muses, “You don’t get chocolate fro-yo, do you? And chocolate’s my favourite flavour so I just go for ice-cream instead.”
Akanksha has a different insight. “Fro-yo is just not as popular in Bangalore. Besides, there are such amazing ice-cream places. Why would anyone go for fro-yo?” she asks. Sumanth adds, “It’s just not as commercialised as most ice-cream places. So Bangaloreans aren’t aware of fro-yo as much.”
Some believe that it’s the weather that does not let the franchise survive here.
“Bangalore’s not as hot as most other places in India. I think that’s possibly why it’s not as popular here. Ice-creams are common and don’t rely on weather itself in comparison.”
Outrageous and rather quirky opinions and assumptions pour out as well. “Gosh, Indians have so much yoghurt already, why kill yourself with even more of it in a different form?” jokes Aryan, a student of BMS College.
Sumanth adds, “I’m a South Indian and I like my yoghurt plain, not frozen.” With the number of yoghurt places shutting down being inversely proportional to the number of food places and eateries being set up in Bangalore, youngsters certainly don’t seem to miss the dessert’s presence in the city too much.
“There’s also the good old internet to help you make your own at home,” chirps Ilana, a student of Jain University.