Frozen Yogurt Love

One of my favorite treats is frozen yogurt. My first memory of eating frozen yogurt was at Yogurt Park in Walnut Creek, CA which used to be across from a downtown WC movie theater, Festival Cinemas. There also used to be a small fro-yo shop in Lafayette, my hometown, but I don't remember the name. This is where I recall ordering two of my favorite things at the time, vanilla frozen yogurt and gummy bears. It took me ordering it a couple of times to realize those two things are good by themselves, but are not a good combo. Cold gummy bears are really hard to chew. While I was in college in San Luis Obispo, CA, I have fond memories of Froggie's Yogurt. It was really good, perfect on a Saturday afternoon or a break from studying.

For some reason, the business of frozen yogurt diminished for many years and it was hard to find other than a few options at the grocery store. When I first moved to San Francisco in 2003, only a market on the corner of Union and Fillmore Streets had frozen yogurt to offer. I'm happy to say Yogurt Park has hung on though and is still in Walnut Creek. They moved the title Yogurt "Park" to a second shop in Broadway Plaza shopping center and the original shop is now called Yogurt Castle.

In recent years Pinkberry, out of Los Angeles, has started the frozen yogurt craze all over again. We don't have a Pinkberry in SF, but there are a few knock offs called Tuttimelon and Red Mango popping up in the neighborhoods. In my heart of hearts, I still love Yogurt Park style fro-yo much more than the Pinkberry style, "tart" or "green tea" flavors you can add fruit or candy toppings to if you please. The real soft ice cream taste of a vanilla frozen yogurt at Yogurt Park with chocolate sprinkles is my favorite, with crushed Butterfingers running a close second. Sometimes I choose a fruit flavored yogurt like Peach or Raspberry with no toppings. So fresh and delicious.

Long story short, there is a new frozen yogurt place my friend Sarah suggested we try a week or two ago. It's called Fraiche and it's on Fillmore Street in SF, cross street California Street, I think. Fraiche touts themselves as serving "all-natural" frozen yogurt and when I walked in the door, I figured it would be another knock-off of Pinkberry, maybe with healthy toppings. As I was looking at the array of toppings available to us, my eyes landed on "Ollalieberry Puree" and my heart skipped a beat. Ollalieberries! Yay! Growing up, my parents had Ollalieberry bushes in our yard and annually made jam and wonderful pies. To this day, I believe there is no better jam than Ollalieberry. While my parents don't have the bushes in their yard anymore, my Dad makes an annual trip to Brentwood to pick Ollalieberries for jam and pies. The jars are like liquid gold. A few years ago my Dad brought me a jar at Thanksgiving and it accidentally slipped from his fingers when he was pulling to out of the car. I think we both almost cried when the jar crashed to the sidewalk and smashed open. Ohhh nooo! Good thing, there is always a new crop each year to be able to make some more. : ) My Dad even made mini jars of Ollalieberry jam as favors at my sister's wedding. So cute.

So, now you know how very excited I was to see Ollalieberry puree as an option for my beloved frozen yogurt. It was sooo good! Here's a photo I snapped on my iPhone. The photo doesn't look as good as it tasted though. It's the little things in life that brighten our days, right?