This year’s NRA Show featured frozen yogurt mix from the following exhibiting vendors: Antico Eremo, Dairy Enterprises, Forever Yogurt, Instantwhip Foods, Itaberco, Montebianco, Palazzolo’s Artisan Dairy, PreGel America, Sugar Creek/Honey Hill Farms, and TCBY/Mrs. Fields Cookies. Other mixes were available at various equipment vendor booths (e.g., Nanci’s Frozen Yogurt, Dannon, Rainbow’s End).
Stonyfield had a booth but didn’t have any frozen yogurt pearls on hand. The frozen yogurt pearls are still being tested in select locations of Whole Foods in Massachusetts, and they hope to expand distribution soon.
Trends in Frozen Yogurt Mix
- Increased emphasis on soft serve and dessert products that weren’t frozen yogurt. Most of the exhibitors offered more than just frozen yogurt. Many also offered gelato, frozen custard, sorbet, etc.
- Indulgent, nostalgic new frozen yogurt flavors
A Look at NRA 2014 Exhibitors: Frozen Yogurt Mix and Franchises
Antico Eremo
Antico Eremo, an Italian company, carries gelato (including soft serve and traditional style), sorbets, milkshakes, desserts and frozen yogurt. YogoCream can be served from a slush machine, vending machine or soft serve machine.
Dairy Enterprises/Pacific Valley Dairy
Pacific Valley Dairy’s frozen yogurt product, YoMazing! comes in seven liquid base mixes (tart, vanilla, chocolate, Greek, NSA vanilla, NSA chocolate, sorbet) with more than 50 flavors that can be created with their flavoring system. YoMazing! is Kosher certified and gluten free. They also had samples of almond milk, custard, sorbet and ice cream at the booth. The product is manufactured in Missouri with local milk.
http://pvdairy.com/
Forever Yogurt
Forever Yogurt was in the Franchising section with information on how to become a franchisee of Forever Yogurt and two of their other restaurant concepts: Falafill (Mediterranean bowls & wraps) and Bee & Tea (boba tea & bao shop). They had one froyo machine with their newest flavor, Taro, plus sample cups, coupons for $5 off and the Froid & Frida robot spoons.
Instantwhip Foods
Instantwhip Foods offers a wide array of dairy products including Mrs. Smith’s Frozen Custard and a line of liquid frozen yogurt mix that’s extra creamy.
Itaberco
Itaberco had an impressive booth with many flavors of froyo that attendees could sample. The frozen yogurt mixes are available in powder form. Interesting flavors include corn and basil. They also offer gelato, sorbet, and ice cream. Their tagline is fine European desserts made in America.
Montebianco
Montebianco , an Italian company, won the Swirl of Excellence winner for Best Frozen Yogurt at the NRA Show, as determined by a panel of frozen yogurt experts. At the NRA Show they offered frozen yogurt and gelato. The company has a long history of innovation. It started in Italy and has expanded its international presence with cutting edge products like the first dairy free soy gelato, warm gelato, etc.
Montebianco’s products are available in the US and they are also planning to offer a line frozen yogurt machines called Gel Matic. Training is available through Accademia Montebianco.
montebianco-usa.com
Palazzolo’s
Palazzolo’s had an eye-catching food truck parked on the NRA showroom floor, selling gelato and sorbet. They also offer a line of artisan frozen yogurt sold in 1 gallon jugs with a wide variety of flavors.
PreGel America
PreGel had an impressive huge booth with various dessert stations and dessert demonstrations from chefs (e.g., making macarons and frozen pops). They had the nicest brochures which feature various dessert recipes. Attendees could sample and learn about pastries, gelato, soft serve, dessert drinks, and frozen yogurt. I could have sampled the new Panini gelato but since it didn’t have frozen yogurt in the middle, I didn’t try it. They had soft serve sorbet, gelato and frozen yogurt and fancy Italian dessert sauces like peanut, lemon cookie, etc. Their frozen yogurt mix is available in powder form.
Sugar Creek Foods/Honey Hill Farms
Sugar Creek recently launched an expanded product line that includes soft serve gelato, soft serve sorbets, soft Italian ice, indulgent new frozen yogurt flavors and soft serve frozen custards. These new products can be served out of the same machines that serve frozen yogurt without changing any machine settings. Their Chillology webinars are wildly popular and Chillology 2.0 is about to begin.
http://www.sugarcreekfoodsinc.com/
TCBY/Mrs. Fields
TCBY/Mrs. Fields was in the franchise corner and they had samples of cookies and froyo, including vanilla almond made with Silk. They’re focusing on their new co-branded stores; most of the new locations in the works will be co-branded. Franchisees get two franchises for the price of one. They signed a deal to open 5 locations in Northern California and are expecting a larger presence in California in the near future.
