History of Froyo in Norway
Softis, aka soft serve ice cream, was popular in Norway long before the rise of frozen yogurt. You could find softis at convenience stores like 7-Eleven and gas stations, along with toppings like candy, nuts, and sprinkles. Softis evoked memories of the carefree summer days of childhood.
Frozen yogurt, aka yoghurtis, became popular more recently with the increasing health consciousness of Norwegians. The self-serve format is dominant.
Many of the frozen yogurt flavors in Norway are familiar to Americans. These include chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, caramel, mango, and plain/original. A more Scandinavian flavor is the licorice frozen yogurt to which one can add licorice sprinkles. Popping boba is a popular new topping.
Froyo Shops in Norway
Self-serve frozen yogurt made its way to Norway in 2009, with the founding of pioneer of self-serve frozen yogurt concept in Scandinavia, Yogurt Heaven. Yogurt Heaven sources their frozen yogurt from the US. They currently have 13 locations listed on their website.
Yogurt Heaven’s main rival, Funky Frozen Yogurt, has 20 locations in Norway. Their yogurt is organic with live and active cultures. It’s self-serve as well. They emphasize that their yogurt tastes like ice cream but is better for you. The first location opened in 2013.
While there are independent frozen yogurt shops in Norway like Yoberry Herkules (Yoberry, which is self-serve, has 8 or 9 locations) and Gottis, Yogurt Heaven and Funky are the current leaders of the market.
Froyo Outside the Froyo Shops
Frozen yogurt’s popularity led 7-Eleven to introduce “Frozen Yogurt” as a sub-brand in 2014. 7-Eleven offers self-serve froyo with many toppings (mostly candy) to choose from; it even has a froyo truck that looks like an old fashioned milk truck.
At IKEA, shoppers can enjoy both softis and frozen yogurt.
Norwegians can also find frozen yogurt in the frozen section of their supermarkets with brands like Dream Yoghurt and DUGG. DUGG was introduced by Hennig-Olsen, one of the leading ice cream manufacturers. DUGG has an attractive kiosk at the Oslo train station.
Pictures of Norwegian Froyo
We’ve compiled pictures of Norwegian frozen yogurt shops and supermarket frozen yogurt on our Pinterest board, Frozen Yogurt in Norway. A special thanks to our friends who recently visited Norway and shared their frozen yogurt pictures with us.
