There’s a new reason to stay on the mountain this summer, and it involves froyo
By Rachel Braeuer
Photos by Vaikunthe Banerjee
If the only reason you can stand to be in Metrotown is for the soft serve frozen yogurt, be prepared to spend more time on the hill this summer. Yeti Yogurt just opened its premier Canadian location at Cornerstone, and it blows its competitors out of the water.
The Washington-based and family-owned yogurt chain, opened its doors on campus in mid-May and is set to open a second location in North Vancouver shortly. The choice to open on Burnaby Mountain first came down to luck, according to Shafiq Jiwani, the location’s manager and an SFU alum. He hadn’t liked what his realtor had shown him but had heard there was some development happening on the mountain, saw the space, and the rest is history.
Becoming part of the community is a focus for Yeti Yogurt and Jiwani, whose staff of 14 consists entirely of SFU students. Jiwani wants Yeti to be a place where people can come, relax, and just hang out.
Yeti Yogurt boasts a range of flavours that rotate seasonally. That’s where the comparison ends. The dairy products used are all local to Vancouver, something important to Jiwani. Rather than pay a 250 per cent tariff on American sourced dairy products like other purveyors of frozen treats, Yeti yogurt found a local company whose product matched their standards and is growth hormone-free.
Yeti has at least 16 flavours available at all times, which include low-fat, non-fat, lactose free, and vegan (soft serve sorbet, which I didn’t even know was a thing) options, with any potential allergens conveniently listed beside the flavour’s pull-handle. While an emphasis is placed on incorporating local raw materials, real and fresh ingredients are equally paramount. Flavours are made from actual fruit extract, and options like red velvet cake have actual elements of their namesake in them, besides the colour red.
Did I mention it was self-serve? Don’t get too excited, though: you have to pay by weight. They also have mochi in different flavours and those weird “berry” pearl things everyone seems to like so much, as well as all of the toppings you’d expect and then some. Cinnamon toast crunch? Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? Sweetened condensed milk? Yes, please.
When I went, I loaded up with as many flavours as I could, which were still good even after they all melted together into brown soup. I thought my favourite was going to be the Greek plain and strawberry because it was the smoothest in texture (probably because of the fat content, but whatever), but the Washington Green Apple flavour was the dark horse that won this race.
It’s vegan (it’s actually sorbet, not frozen yogurt), and it’s amazing: just the right balance of tangy and sweet without any of the crystallization you might expect from a fruit flavour. It was so creamy I thought for sure it was yogurt until I checked the website to make sure I had gotten the name correct.
The banana flavour — which too often tastes like the Penicillin we had crammed down our throats after getting another public swimming pool-induced ear infection as children — is a subtle and grown-up flavour which pairs ridiculously well with the Himalayan Chocolate flavour you have the option of twisting it with.
If you’re on campus and you’re starving and want something cool, I can’t recommend this place enough. While I was there, a machine tech confided in me that of all the companies whose equipment he repaired, Yeti’s Yogurt was by far the best. I have to agree — you can’t really go wrong with cold sweet things, but even I was surprised by how right this was.
