On unlocking the fro yo secret

I think I have unlocked the theoretical secret of frozen yoghurt.

I have stumbled across the secret to Melbourne’s FroYo Proliferation and particularly why gen y’s love it so much.

Of course there are a couple of markets for fro yo, perhaps primarily kids but the strength of the secondary group of gen ys, particularly chicks is pretty astounding. It is not uncommon for myself and a girlfriend to feel confronted by a group of rowdy prep kids and their mum, who have without warning parked themselves on the same table as us at Carlisle St’s Yo Chi on a crowded friday afternoon. Before we can glance at each other in bemusement, the fleeting thought that we in fact are the intruders here crosses our minds as we see the amount of tots here at a 7 year old birthday party.

For us, Fro Yo is an appointment eat. It is an activity to do with your friends that involves the majestic collision of icecream and DIY ingenuity. There are a number of chains that have sprung up, surpassing the classic Cacao Green and going up up and away until ‘to Yo-Chi’ becomes a verb.

‘Story in a Cup’, located in South Yarra, does a lot to help me explain why gen ys are so attracted to froyo. Its name taps into our incessant need for embedding the products we buy with our own stories- public tools we use to engage with things. Gen Ys have this fickle need for power in creating the products they consume and FroYo allows for an unprecedented amount of input. Thus, each product they eventually buy is tailored for them, by them and their own stories.

GENIUS. Now I want fro yo.