Tired of turning down dessert to avoid extra calories? Frozen yogurt is a guilt-free, delicious alternative and can be found all over the District.
By Kaitlin Crowe
Frozen Yogurt from Yogato
Move over, ice cream! Fro-yo shops have invaded D.C. and offer creamy frozen delights that will both delight your taste buds and benefit your body. These modern yogurt establishments in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia serve non-fat, low or no-sugar, probiotic yogurt varieties that contain live active cultures. Fresh fruit toppings add to the nutritional value offered by fro-yo treats. Check out any of these unique yogurt shops for a dessert that both tastes good and makes you feel good.
Mr. Yogato 
The Swirl: Serves 18 yogurt flavors total, but only four at any one time. In addition to the always-available original flavor (served “soft” or “tangy”), the store rotates two more flavors that are named after their “30 day champions” (see “Why You’ll Dig It” below). If there are a lot of recent champions, flavors are rotated maybe once every 2-3 weeks and if not, every one or two months. Customers can top their desserts with 40 different fruit and dry toppings, including craisins, toasted mini-eggos, and li hing mui (a salty dried plum topping). Several toppings can be added for no cost — normal things such as honey, sprinkles, and Hershey’s syrup as well as non-traditional things such as olive oil, basil, and balsamic vinaigrette.
Why You’ll Dig It: “The Rules of Yogato” and “Mega Challenges”
The store’s owner, the self-defined Mr. Yogato, came up with a set of ten wacky “rules” for customers that offer discounts if followed. For example rule #3 states, “If you wear a Yogato stamp on your head, you get 10% off.” Rule #5 states, “Order a yogurt for 30 consecutive days, and we’ll name a flavor after you.” Rule #10 states, “Dress up like 80’s tennis legend Bjorn Borg and receive 25% off; sing “I’m Too Sexy” by RSF in his Swedish accent and bump it up to 50%.”
Mr. Yogato is also a ‘Seinfeld’ superfan. He created “Mega-Challenges” for those who share his love of the comedy and want crazy discounts. Mega-Challenge #1 states that if you bring any Seinfeld minor character into the store for a picture with the Yogato tie, you will receive 10 free yogurts or all-you-can-eat for a week and Challenge #2 states that if you create an edible Yogato pasta-structure, you will receive a discount in percentage points equal to the height (in centimeters) of the figure.
More to Love: Delicious Drinks
The store also offers Ghirardelli hot chocolate in milk, classic white and creamy caramel flavors, tea and other beverages. Customers can add yummy flavors like strawberry, pumpkin, gingerbread and almond mocha to their hot chocolate for just 50 cents and free toppings like marshmallows, pumpkin spice and even chili powder!
Cool Costs: Serves three sizes, “Little” ($3.00 without toppings), “Middle” ($4.00 without toppings) and “Huge” ($5.00 without toppings).
Toppings are extra — one is $1, two is $1.75, and three is $2.00; any more than three are 50 cents apiece.
Location(s): 1515 17th Street NW
New location in Baltimore at 723-A South Broadway in the heart of Fells Point.
Happy Customers at Yogato
Sweetgreen
Sweetgreen's Dupont Circle Location
The Swirl: Sweetgreen serves just one original flavor of yogurt and has various fruit and dry toppings to choose from.
Why You’ll Dig It: Home-grown taste
Sweetgreen owners purchase produce items —including yogurt fruit toppings — in their peak seasons directly from DC-area farmers. As the seasons change, so do their salads and yogurt, ensuring the freshest and most delicious products.
More to Love: Sweetflow mobile
Sweetgreen has taken their healthy treats on the road with their modern-day ice cream truck that sells frozen yogurt, salads and oatmeal for in-store prices. The truck hits different spots around the district every weekday and can be booked for events as well. You can check out their daily schedule at www.sweetgreen.com.
Cool Costs: Serves two sizes, small ($5 without toppings) and big ($7 without toppings).
Customers can also get their yogurt in a cone for $2 (without toppings). Toppings are extra — each is 50 cents.
Location(s): 221 Pennsylvania Avenue SE (Capitol Hill)
3333 M Street NW (Georgetown)
1512 Connecticut Avenue NW (DuPont)
1471 P Street NW (Logan Circle)
4831 Bethesda Avenue (Bethesda, Maryland)
Location in Reston, Virginia coming soon
Tangysweet
Inside of Tangy Sweet
The Swirl: Serves three flavors of frozen yogurt, original, pomegranate and green tea, as well as one featured flavor. Customers can add fresh fruit toppings, such as strawberries, blueberries and raspberries and crunchy cereal toppings.
Why You’ll Dig It: Super modern, unique shop design
The store was designed by award-winning Kube Architecture firm and utilizes sustainable products and energy-efficient LED lighting. Tables glow and change color to highlight the fresh flavors and colors of the yogurt and fruit toppings. A “yogurt lounge” offers customers a more laid-back experience where they can enjoy quiet conversation.
More to Love: Simple, fresh smoothie varieties
All include the customer’s choice of frozen yogurt and berries and some also include granola.
Cool Costs: Serves three sizes, small ($3.00 without toppings), medium ($4.00 without toppings) and large ($5.50 without toppings). It is $1.50 for unlimited toppings for each size.
Location(s): 2029 P Street NW (DuPont Circle)
675 E Street NW (Penn Quarter)
Yogen Fruz
The Swirl: Yogen Fruz makes custom yogurt mixes for each individual customer. Each creation starts off with a “base” flavor of either low-fat vanilla, low-fat chocolate, non-fat vanilla, or non-fat, non-sugar vanilla. Each base is then pressure-blended with fresh fruit, various syrups, tea or espresso powders, or dry toppings. Additional fruit or dry toppings can be added on top for additional cost. The store also offers two flavors of tangy “soft-serve” yogurt — original and blueberry acai (a small, blueberry-like “superfruit” that originates in South America and is harvested for its healthy juices)— that are also non-fat and probiotic. Fresh fruit and dry toppings can also be added to the soft serve for additional cost.
Why You’ll Dig It: Ucard
A fully-reloadable gift card that never expires, the Ucard is treated like cash and can be purchased at participating Yogen Fruz stores or online. Cards ordered online are delivered directly to your door and customers can also login to Yogen Fruz’s website at any time to check their balance.
More to Love: Smoothies, fruit cups and fruit & yogurt parfaits
Creations include fresh fruit, yogurt and granola.
Cool Costs: Serves three sizes of both the mix-its and the soft-serve, small ($2.95 with one blend-in for the mix-it, $2.50 for the soft-serve without toppings), medium ($4.45 with two blend-ins for the mix-it, $3.50 for the soft serve without toppings), and large ($6.45 with three blend-ins for the mix-it and $5.50 for the soft serve without toppings). Extra toppings or additional blend-ins for the mix-it are 50 cents each and customers pay $1.45 for unlimited toppings on their soft serve.
Location(s): 825 14th Street NW (14th & I)
The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, 1100 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA
Location at 1775 K. Street NW coming soon
Location at 40 Massachusetts Avenue coming soon
FroZenYo
The Swirl: Serves 16 unique flavors of yogurt, including eggnog, cheesecake, rootbeer float, and snickerdoodle (all non-fat) and several 98% fat-free flavors, such as red velvet, cake batter, peanut butter, and dulce de leche. The store also serves non-fat tart and lactose-free, non-fat flavors. Customers can choose from over 30 toppings, including waffle cone pieces, fruit, malt balls, and Kit Kat bars.
Why You’ll Dig It: Pile it on
FroZenYo offers yogurt self-serve, à la carte style. There are no surcharges, so customers can add as many toppings as they wish, take their creation to the scale and pay for whatever amount of yogurt they want.
More to Love: FroZenYo fun on http://frozenyo.com
FroZenYo challenges customers to take a picture of their unique creations, give them a clever name, and offer a description of the ingredients. Email it to pics@frozenyo.com along with your name and city and FroZenYo will feature your creation on their website.
Cool Costs: Customers pay by the ounce, rather than a certain price for each size. The price for all yogurts is 39 cents per ounce.
Location(s): 5252 Wisconsin Avenue NW (Friendship Heights)
1006 F Street NW (Metro Center)
3237 14th Street NW (Columbia Heights)
Locations in Downtown DC, Georgetown and DuPont Circle coming soon
Locations in Bethesda, Rockville, Silver Spring, Germantown, Annapolis, Gaithersburg, and Frederick, Maryland coming soon
Locations in Arlington and Fairfax, Virginia coming soon
Yogiberry
The Swirl: Offer many frozen yogurt flavors, that always includes original, green tea, berry and chocolate flavors as well as 20+ fruit and dry toppings.
Why You’ll Dig It: More than your typical sno-cone
The store also serves a unique shaved ice treats, which consists of the customer’s choice of frozen yogurt over a syrup-covered serving of shaved ice with mochi (bits of a Japanese jelly-like rice cake) and up to any three toppings.
More to Love: Smoothies
Yogiberry offers endless options for smoothie varieties. Customers can choose a flavor of yogurt and up to any two toppings to blend into a delicious drink.
Cool Costs: Serves three sizes, small ($3.25 without toppings), medium ($4.35 without toppings) and large ($7.10). Toppings are extra — each topping is 95 cents.
Location(s): 3515 Connecticut Avenue NW (Sam’s Park & Shop)
18107 Town Center Drive (Olney, Maryland; Olney Town Center)
12274-E Rockville Pike (Rockville, Maryland; Federal Plaza)
10300 Little Patuxent Parkway (Columbia, Maryland; Columbia Mall)
7402 Baltimore Avenue (College Park, Maryland)
4924 Elm Street (Bethesda, Maryland)
Shirlington Village Location, Shirlington, Maryland
Red Mango
The Swirl: Serves four flavors of frozen yogurt, original, pomegranate, Madagascar vanilla and “today’s flavor” (offered for a limited time), in addition to fruit and “fun and crunchy” toppings. Red Mango’s current featured flavor is key lime pie.
Why You’ll Dig It: Club Mango
Red Mango offers an exclusive loyalty program whereby customers register their club card and receive Mango Points with every purchase. For every 500 points you earn, you receive a $5 gift card; customers gain 50 points for just signing up, 10 for every dollar spent at Red Mango and 500 on your birthday.
More to Love: Parfaits and more
Made of fresh fruit, organic flax seed granola and yogurt, as well as smoothies (fruit and yogurt, power, and fruit and tea infused) and probiotic iced teas and iced tea chillers.
Cool Costs: For the original flavor, a small is $2.75, a regular is $3.75 and a large is $4.75 (all without toppings). For any of the flavored yogurts, a small is $3.25, a regular is $4.25 and a large is $5.25 (all without toppings). Toppings are extra — one topping is 75 cents and two or more is $1.25.
Location(s): 2831 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, VA (The Clarendon Market Commons)
Location in Vienna, Virginia coming soon
DuPont Frozen Yogurt
The Swirl: Serves four flavors, original tart, chocolate, mango tart and strawberry along with many fruit and dry toppings.
Why You’ll Dig It: New look
The store just reopened after being closed for a week to make upgrades and renovations to the shop.
More to Love: Bubble Tea
Offer 16 flavors of regular and slush bubble tea, including cookies n’ cream, green tea, chocolate mint and papaya.
Cool Costs: Serves three sizes, small ($3.25 without toppings), medium ($4.35 without toppings) and large ($5.45 without toppings). Toppings are extra — one is 85 cents, two is $1.50 and three is $1.85
Location(s): 1709 Connecticut Avenue NW (DuPont Circle)
Caliyogurt
Caliyogurt's Gaithersburg Location
The Swirl: Serves more than ten flavors of yogurt, that always includes original, green tea and raspberry flavors; the remaining flavors are rotated on a weekly basis.
Why You’ll Dig It: Caliyogurt worldwide
A new store in Hong Kong, China is opening soon, so customers can enjoy yummy yogurt even far away from home.
More to Love: Tavalon Teas
Offer many varieties of black, green, white, oolong, and herbal organic loose leaf teas. Bulk teas and accessories are also available.
Cool Costs: For the original flavor, a small is $2.95, a medium is $3.95 and a large is $5.75. For the other flavors, a small is $3.50, a medium is $4.50 and a large is $6.35. Toppings are extra — one topping is 95 cents, two is $1.45 and three is $1.75.
Location(s): 2473 18th Street NW (Adams Morgan)
12158 Darnestown Road (Gaithersburg, Maryland)
Location in Virginia Coming Soon
IceBerry
The Swirl: Serves four flavors, original, green tea, honeydew and chocolate and a wide variety of fresh fruit and dry toppings.
Why You’ll Dig It: Many East Coast locations
The Iceberry headquarters is the store in Georgetown; three stores are located Virginia, and there is one more in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Heading down the coast? There’s one in sunny Florida as well.
More to Love: Hot and cold
Fresh brewed organic coffee is served along with made-to-order refreshing selections of seasonal fruit-blend juices.
Cool Costs: Serve three sizes, small ($3.50 without toppings), medium ($4.65 without toppings) and large ($7.25 without toppings). Toppings are extra — it is 95 cents per topping on the small, $1.50 for three toppings on a medium or large; any extra toppings on a medium or large are 95 cents apiece.
Location(s): 3001 M Street NW (Georgetown)
